2017 Citizens Report

CORPORATE & FINANCIAL SERVICES

This division consists of five departments: Clerk’s, Finance, Information Technology, Fire and the civilian side of the RCMP. You will find information on the Maple Ridge Fire Department on page 15 and a summary of the RCMP’s work on page 16.

Your City holds over 100 public meetings annually where Council members debate and vote on over 500 motions after reviewing close to 10,000 pages of reports. The Clerk’s Department makes sure that the community has access to public meeting agendas, reports and minutes in a timely manner. The Finance Department is responsible for accounting, financial planning and revenue & collections. The centre portion of this document, pages 17 to 28, provides summary financial information, population & demographics and property tax information. In 2017, as part of the Open Government Portal new tools were created to engage citizens and to increase accessibility, transparency and accountability. A chart titled ‘Property Tax Levied

(Collected) by Type’ allows citizens to see where the City’s revenue comes from. The ‘Capital Planning Budget Summary’ table provides a breakdown by department and by year to provide citizens with more detailed information on work that is budgeted in the current financial plan. “The Open Government Portal allows us to present information for citizens in a manner that suits them. The City has always been a leader in exceeding the standards laid out by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), so this information was amongst the first data we prepared for the launch of the portal,” said Christina Crabtree, Chief Information Officer. The City’s computer, data and digital communications are managed by the Information Technology department.

They maintain the tech infrastructure of five sites, an internal fibre optic network, close to two million emails a year, including the filtering of over 100 million spam emails. This team was kept very busy in 2017. These computer systems track all customer interactions, allow for the monitoring and operation of the City’s water and sewer systems and ensure that staff has computer access to carry out their daily work. The Corporate & Financial Services team is at the forefront of delivering on Council’s vision and values around transparency and accountability. The addition of the Open Government Portal in 2017 demonstrates the City’s commitment to ensuring our citizens have the information they require to understand their City’s operation and financial health.

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