Item - 2009.AU14.7

City Council on January 26 and 27, 2010, adopted the following:

1.         City Council request the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to consider assigning responsibility for hydro and natural gas accounts management to the Energy and Waste Management Office.  At the same time the reallocation of resources should be evaluated.

2.         City Council request the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to develop a control framework to ensure the cost effective administration of hydro and natural gas invoice payments.  Such framework should include, but not be limited to the following:

             a.         clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of the Accounts Payable Unit, the Energy and Waste Management Office and City divisional managers.  The roles and responsibilities to include areas such as processing hydro and natural gas invoices, including following up on billing exceptions, dispute resolution and reporting protocols, as required

             b.        the establishment of protocols for effecting and reporting on energy metering changes, including new meter account set ups, de-activations, replacements, relocations and record keeping requirements

             c.        procedures for ensuring ongoing verification of hydro charges relating to street lighting by a staff person familiar with the operations

             d.        requirements for the Energy and Waste Management Office to communicate energy consumption fluctuations for divisional follow-up as required.

3.         City Council request the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to review and make appropriate revisions to Accounting Services’ Cost Centre Billing Procedure to include the revised utility payment control framework.

4.         City Council request the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate, to take appropriate steps to ensure the Energy and Waste Management Office maintains a complete and accurate database on all hydro and natural gas meters billable to City divisions.  The database be updated as required.

5.         City Council request the City Manager to assign one City unit responsibility for developing and implementing a process for updating and verifying street lighting related hydro costs.

6.         City Council request the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate, to take necessary steps to complete, on a sample basis, ongoing recalculations of major hydro and natural gas bills for accuracy and consider using the specific software currently used by the TTC.

7.         City Council request the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate, to ensure that identified energy billing anomalies are promptly analyzed and satisfactorily resolved with the provider on a timely basis.  Further, a system be developed to track outstanding refund requests.

8.         City Council request the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate, to take appropriate steps to expedite enrolment in the consolidated billing services plan all hydro invoices, and request from Toronto Hydro data in a format that facilitates input to the Energy and Waste Management Office’s energy meter database.

9.         City Council request the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate, to take appropriate steps to minimize duplication of energy consumption review efforts performed by City staff on behalf of City agencies such as the TTC and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

10.       City Council request the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to assign responsibility for the management of cable television services.  The specific responsibilities include:

              a.       the renegotiation of a corporate cable television service discount plan for all users

              b.       the maintenance of an inventory of cable television plans

              c.       rationalization of such cable television plans commensurate with requirements.

11.       City Council request the City Manager to forward this report to the City’s major agencies, boards and commissions in order to ensure that the issues raised in this report are addressed by them where appropriate.