A new city audit of the 22 maintenance and storage yards spread throughout Edmonton shows that problems with these facilities began to emerge during a 2017 reorganization of municipal departments. At that time, management of the city’s roads and parks were brought under one umbrella.
Edmonton’s yards are used for servicing equipment, parking vehicles, storing equipment and hosting workshops.
According to the audit, it’s not clear who’s supposed to be in charge of Edmonton maintenance and storage yards. It found the 2017 merger of municipal road and park management did not result in an agreed-upon system for overseeing such facilities.
“This lack of systematic planning in the past is one of the root causes for some of the issues with the current yards, including the variation in yard condition, space use in yards and location decisions,” the audit report reads.
“In turn, these issues impact the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of yards.”
The report cites an incident last October in which workers at one road maintenance yard trucked all kinds of equipment to Calgary to help with the city’s snow and ice storms.
Workers purchased tie-down straps to transport the equipment, according to the report.
However, there was another yard in Edmonton that already had those tie-down straps, resulting in wasted taxpayer money, the report says.
“There is currently no inventory system that the branch could have accessed.”
“We’re supposed to have a plan,” Councillor Mike Nickel said after reviewing the report, “but there appears to be no plan.
“What always bugs me is it costs us time and, eventually, costs us money.”
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Nickel said it makes him wonder if the re-organization done by the city in 2017 is working or not on a corporate level.
“You’ve got to ask this question of administration. We’re going through this re-organization again and is it actually working?
“Are you actually putting plans into place? Is this actually saving us money?”
A lack of planning is also hindering decisions on whether yards should be decommissioned or receive investments to upgrade their facilities, according to the audit report. The document notes that one temporary yard, constructed more than a decade ago, still hasn’t been upgraded to become permanent.
“Callingwood Yard was built as a temporary yard in 2007 to address service complaints and efficiency issues around that location.
“It was built without proper approvals and process and it lacks basic amenities, such as running water,” the audit report reads.
The audit report also found that space in the yards is not properly managed and points out that security in the yards is very inconsistent, with passersby being able to access some maintenance and storage yard sites in some cases.
As a result of its findings, the audit report makes five recommendations, requesting clarity on who should be in charge of maintenance and storage yard management in the city and suggesting a management system be established so the city can “develop a standard and prioritize improvements.”
The report adds that the city should review and optimize existing yard space, which will help with security, storage and vehicle movement and make day-to-day operations more efficient.
City council’s audit committee will review the report on Friday, April 12. City management has agreed to have the improvements in place by January 2020.
City of Edmonton audit – maintenance and storage yards by Emily Mertz on Scribd
City of Edmonton maintenance and storage yards by Emily Mertz on Scribd
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