Volume 9, Issue 1 • February 13, 2009
IPS to blame as MPAC grinds to a halt
Failed computer system has staff
"frustrated and exasperated"
The Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation can no longer perform the work it is mandated to do.
What should have been a simple
change to the way assessment changes affect property owners – included in
the 2008 provincial budget – has effectively paralyzed the organization.
Many MPAC staff worry that they are witnessing the total meltdown of a
once-proud property assessment system.
And a large part of it is
because of IPS.
"The Integrated Property System
that went live three years ago has never worked properly," says Ivan
Herrington, OPSEU chair of the Union-Management Committee (UMC) at MPAC.
"But now, because IPS cannot calculate the phase-in of assessment value
changes, many staff fear that the organization itself is on the brink of
final, fatal, failure.
"Our members are frustrated and
exasperated," he said. "We have invested our careers into this organization.
We care about the job we’re doing and we simply can’t do our job."
The computer system at MPAC has
essentially been "read-only" for the last while. Staff cannot change data
for any property. They cannot resolve any Requests for Reconsideration, even
though they are legally required to do so by Sept. 2009.
In other words, staff cannot
revise the value of a property in the IPS system. MPAC is not able to
complete any RFRs that require adjustments to a property’s value through IPS.
"What are we supposed to tell
ratepayers?" asks David Lynch, chair of the OPSEU Property Assessment
Division. "Our members are left holding the bag in talking with the public."
Some assessment work continues
to be done on paper, but none of it is making its way into the system.
Municipal tax collectors have
begun complaining about how long it is taking to bring new properties onto
the tax rolls and update existing values. But the bad news can only be kept
under wraps for so long.
"With the 2009 provincial
budget just weeks away, it is clear that MPAC is unable to deliver on
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s promise in the 2008 budget," said
Herrington. "This crisis has big implications, and we need to address it
now."
The OPSEU leadership team at
MPAC is calling on the Board of Directors to take immediate steps to resolve
the crisis.
"The day before announcing that
IPS was on the rocks, MPAC management decided to hold a province-wide pizza
party to celebrate the 10-year anniversary," said Herrington. "CEO Carl
Isenburg did a webcast to tell us how great things are.
"What world is he living in? We
are on the rocks, and it is all because of a serious failure of leadership.
"It’s time to clean out top
management and put people in place who are up to the challenge of leading a
major organization in the 21st century.
"This company needs a fixer at
the top, and we need it now."
"A fish rots from the head"
This proverb first appeared in
English in 1674 in John Josselyn’s An Account of Two Voyages to New England.
Just one of many things you can
learn by reading OPSEU Impact.
For the record: What MPAC told the Ontario
Ombudsman about IPS
MPAC has made a number of
strategic investments to improve data quality. The Integrated Property
System (IPS) is a multi-million dollar and multi-year project representing
the largest single capital investment to date by MPAC. The primary purpose
of IPS, an enterprise-wide Oracle database platform, is to improve MPAC’s
handling of data. The Ontario Assessment System (OASYS), which is currently
used by MPAC, is 25-year-old legacy system incapable of meeting MPAC’s
business needs from service, data capture, processing, and reporting
perspectives. With the new system in place, MPAC will be able to store and
retrieve data efficiently as well as run new automated audits that will
identify data anomalies. This system has just come out of development and is
being rolled out in a phased implementation this year. As a result of this
initiative, MPAC will no longer be hampered in our ability to systematically
and efficiently review our data.
- MPAC’s March
2006 response to
Getting it Right, the Ombudsman’s report
on property assessment in Ontario
Pay equity deal nets $3.3 million in back pay
OPSEU and the Municipal
Property Assessment Corporation have signed a Pay Equity Plan that will give
union members retroactive pay of close to $3.3 million.
The plan, signed last Thursday,
will pay an average of $12,000 to 228 current and former members in 17 job
classifications for the period from Jan. 1, 2002 to June 25, 2009. In
addition, eligible members who worked for the former Ontario Property
Assessment Corporation will receive a lump sum payment for the period from
1998 to 2001.
The plan raises current pay
rates for all workers in the 17 classifications. Typical hourly increases
are in the $0-$2 range.
One exception is the
Intermediate Accountant position, which was underpaid by more than $8 an
hour from 2002 to 2007 and by more than $4 an hour in 2008-09. The
individual in that position will receive retroactive pay of more than
$112,500.
The plan is fully retroactive.
Both male and female incumbents, past and present, are entitled to
retroactive payouts if they worked in any previously underpaid
female-dominated jobs.
MPAC will provide each current
or former employee who is entitled to retroactive pay with a letter spelling
out the period of time their retro covers and hours worked.
At the end of 1998, the Ontario
government divested property assessment from the Ontario Public Service and
into a stand-alone agency known as the Ontario Property Assessment
Corporation (later the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation). In 2002,
a major restructuring of MPAC (known as "Futures") changed most job
descriptions and pay, and a number of pay equity issues arose. Negotiations
began in 2003 using a gender-neutral job evaluation process.
"I want to thank each and every
OPSEU member and each and every OPSEU staff person who hung in there through
a long and tedious negotiation to make MPAC recognize its responsibilities
under the Pay Equity Act," said OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas in
reaction to the deal. "This shows yet again the power of negotiation, the
power of persistence, and the power of being a union member.
"Great job, everybody, and
congratulations to all the OPSEU members who are finally going to get the
wages owed to them.""
The MPAC Pay Equity Plan was
negotiated by OPSEU members Jennifer Reid (Local 105), Craig Wright (Local
308), Tina Faibish (Local 552), and Alba Policicchio (Local 589). The team
was ably assisted by OPSEU Pay Equity Negotiator Ann Wallace.
A copy of the Pay Equity Plan,
with pay rate increases for the affected positions, can be found at
http://www.opseu.org/bps/opac/Feb9-2009-PayEquity.htm.
BRIEFLY
OPSEU response to pension report goes to
Minister Feb. 27
OPSEU’s Pension Liaison Committee is putting the finishing
touches on its response to the report of the Ontario Expert Commission on
Pensions.
"We are very aware of the concerns of all of our members who
have felt the negative impacts of divestment," comments Nancy Pridham, a
member of the Pension Liaison committee and an Executive Board member in
OPSEU Region 5. "At MPAC, the split pension issue is a particular concern,
and it is definitely something that needs to be fixed. We plan to tell the
minister so in the plainest possible language."
Pridham’s job was divested from the Ontario Public Service
(OPS) 10 years ago when the former Queen Street Mental Health Centre became
part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In that case, OPSEU
members stayed in the OPSEU Pension Trust, but many members In the mental
health sector face extra pension problems from so-called "Tier 3"
divestments. That’s what happens when workers who have already been divested
from the OPS are divested again and end up working for a third employer.
The union’s response to the Expert Commission’s report will
go to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan on Feb. 27. It will be available online
shortly after at www.opseu.org.
The Pension Liaison Committee consists of Nancy Pridham,
OPSEU Region 5 Vice-President David Rapaport, and OPSEU Senior Benefits
Counsellor Shirley McVittie
Pizza fails to deliver
Considering the hype around MPAC’s 10th anniversary party
held Jan. 29, you might have thought the food would be, well, edible. No
such luck! In Toronto there were 25 large pizzas left over, which were
raffled off by the local manager. Some of the winners declined to take their
prizes home.
More 18-month rollover violations?
Article 5 of the OPSEU collective agreement with MPAC says
that if a temporary worker works at MPAC for 18 months, and if there is an
ongoing need for the work to be done, he or she must be converted to a
permanent position, or a permanent position must be posted.
We are aware of cases where temporary workers have been let
go after 18 months while other temporary workers with fewer months of
service continue working in the same office doing the same job. This is a
contract violation! If this happens in your office, please contact a member
of your OPSEU leadership team.
Property assessment in China
There’s no denying that China is a world leader in a lot of
things these days. Who knew property assessment was one of them?
Larry Hummel, MPAC VP (Property Values) recently visited the
People’s Republic with fellow managers Terry Tomkins and Stephen Wang.
OPSEU Impact wonders, how does this help ratepayers and
municipalities? With things falling apart here, how does MPAC have the time
to seek business opportunities overseas?
Please don’t speed
MPAC has been very clear with OPSEU that the Global
Positionining System (GPS) installed in company vehicles is "not a
performance management [spying] mechanism." Nonetheless, some OPSEU members
have been called into managers’ offices to talk about alleged speeding. This
could potentially lead to disciplinary action.
Please be sure to stay within
the speed limit when you drive. It’s not like there’s any hurry to get back
to the office to input data into IPS....
Don’t miss the MPAC caucus
meeting at OPSEU Convention
If you are attending OPSEU
Convention this year, don’t miss the MPAC caucus meeting:
Date: Thursday, April
23
Time: 12:00 noon
Place: Region 3
Hospitality Suite
Special thanks to Bill Henry,
OPSEU retiree, for arranging the room location.
Keep in touch!
To ensure a speedy response to
your questions, your leadership team has divided up all MPAC offices in the
province. If you have a question or a comment, please contact the member
responsible for your office. Contact us by e-mail at work or at home, as
follows:
Ivan Herrington, Chair: Milner
(CCC, CPF, LPU), Peterborough, Pickering (Head Office).
E-mail:
iherrington@cogeco.ca ;
herriniv@mpac.ca
Jamie Stata, Vice-Chair:Brantford,
Chatham, Goderich, Kitchener, London, Owen Sound, Sarnia, or Windsor
offices.
E-mail:
ajstata@aol.com ;
stataja@mpac.ca
Gary Cooper: St. Catharines.
E-mail:
gcooper@iaw.com ;
cooperga@mpac.ca
Gerald Devlin: Bracebridge,
Barrie, Hamilton, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Toronto. E-mail: gdevlin59@rogers.com;
devlinge@mpac.ca
Everett Kelly: Oshawa.
E-mail: evkelly@rogers.com; kellyev@mpac.ca
David Lynch: Dryden, Fort
Frances, Kenora, Ottawa, Parry Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder
Bay, Timmins.
E-mail:
opseu409@yahoo.ca ;
lynchda@mpac.ca
Bill Robertson: Bancroft,
Brockville, Cornwall, Kingston, North Bay, Pembroke, Trenton. E-mail:
wrobertson2@cogeco.ca ;
robertbi@mpac.ca
OPSEU Impact is produced by
the Property Assessment Division of the Ontario Public Service Employees
Union and authorized for distribution by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president.
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