Public Commons

Part of Capital Budget Playground equipment replacement Playground reference documents

Playground Correspondence

Nov.14 2008, Jutta Mason to Daniel McLaughlin, Project Manager, Construction OperationsConstruction Management/Capital Project SectionParks Development & Infrastructure Management,

I have a spreadsheet about playground equipment replacement called "Master CSA Programme Sept.21 2003." Would it be possible for you to send me the electronic sequel from 2003 to the present? I can ask for this record through Freedom of Information, but it would be nice not to increase the workload of the Corporate Access Office. This is unlikely to be a confidential document, and therefore would not need to be vetted by them.

You may be aware that I am just finishing up a history of the CSA playground standard and its effects on playgrounds citywide. The city's 2003 document tells quite a bit of the story, but it doesn't go up to the present.

I would much appreciate your assistance in this matter, which hopefully will not take more than a few keystrokes and therefore not interfere with your other responsibilities.

Nov.21 2008, Jutta Mason to Daniel McLaughlin,

I have not heard back from you to my e-mail sent a week ago, so I'm guessing that I'll need to apply to Corporate Access for this information. Please let me know in the next few days if that was not your intention.

Nov.21 2008

My apologies. I thought the matter had been dealt with. I reviewed the other information you are requesting comment on and I have circulated it to confirm the details. Regarding your request for an update to the "Master CSA Programme Sept.21 2003" I am following-up and will get back to you early next week with a response.

Jan.13 2009

from Jutta Mason to Chris Gallop, assistant to Councillor Giambrone

Mr.McLaughlin sent me word on Nov.21 that he would have the Master CSA programme for me plus a response or commentary for this Dufferin Grove playground bulletin. He said it would be a couple of days but now it's nudging up to two months -- can you do me a favour and ask him if he can send it this week (should be a keystroke)?

No follow-up.

October 6 2009

From Jutta Mason to Andy Koropeski, Acting Director of Parks.

Hello Andy, this is the spreadsheet I need. His comment (at the bottom) that he'd get right back to me was last November. I've asked once or twice since then but now there's just silence.

The point of this and others of my requests -- sooner or later, there HAS to be a less expensive, more common-sense way to keep playgrounds in good order.

I was going to do my FOI request on Friday -- do you want to try first?

October 9 2009

From Andy Koropeski to Jutta Mason:

Further to your request, I have communicated with a number of staff in PF&R. Gord Andrews, Manager in the Parks Development and Infrastructure Management Section, and Jamie Warren, Supervisor Maintenance and Construction are in the best position to respond. Gord will be contacting you to address your data request.

October 21, 2009

From Jutta Mason to Andy Koropeski:

I just learned that a paper copy of what may be the document I seek was recently sent to Amy Sutherland (she is part of a community whose playground was removed and not replaced, in North Toronto). I haven't seen the document Amy received so I can't be sure. But I do know that it's almost two weeks since your e-mail below, and I have heard nothing from Gord. Amy says she asked for an electronic copy but got a paper copy, so she can't e-mail it to me to confirm it's the document I'm seeking. I assume that I should just go ahead and apply to Corporate Access (for an electronic copy). Tell me if I'm wrong.

October 22 2009

From Gord Andrews to Jutta Mason and Andy Koropeski, CC: Jamie Warren

Sorry Jutta,

I will give you a call later this morning.

October 22, 2009

From Jutta Mason to Gord Andrews, Manager in the Parks Development and Infrastructure Management Section.

Thanks for calling me today.

Here is what we need from you:

1. your current spreadsheet of capital budget playground projects, similar in layout to this wading pool master list: http://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CityParks/ParksForestryRecreationCapitalBudget2007.pdf This wading pool document seems to include most WP capital projects, not only new pools but also lesser repairs. I'm guessing that you would have the same format for your playground spreadsheets.

2. your past spreadsheets of 2004 and 2005 playground projects. They would have similar information as this 2003 document: http://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CityParks/CSA-ProgramByName.pdf . In 2004 the City spent $1,029,468.37 on the playgrounds and in 2005, $845,946.87. We have the long list of purchase orders etc. from those years, but we need the master list to see at what locations work was done.

3. The city summary and the ward summaries of playground work scheduled (and specifying if completed) for subsequent years, i.e. 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 (if available). I mean summaries like this one: http://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CityParks/ward18-summary.pdf and this one: http://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CityParks/Ward18-Current-Projects.pdf , plus a summary spreadsheet of the whole city. Again, we note that these ward summaries all seem to show repairs as well as replacements, on the same list.

If you have no more master playground lists after the 2003 list, we can try to make one from the ward summaries going back to 2004, and send it to you. It would be nice for you to have, as well.

It wold be best for us if you could send these documents electronically, in machine-readable form, which is how I assume you have them. Then we can figure out the gaps and discuss them with you face to face on one of the dates you suggested in early November.

October 26 2009,

From Gord Andrews, Manager in the Parks Development and Infrastructure Management Section, to Jutta Mason: Confirming that I received your e-mail, and I will try to send the requested information.

October 27, 2009

From Jutta Mason to Gord Andrews, Manager in the Parks Development and Infrastructure Management Section.

Here is one new spreadsheet (attached), which was just passed on to us yesterday, via the Thorncliffe Park Women's Committee. Jamie sent it to Satinder Sahota on October 9. It's an update from the 2003 CSA spreadsheet we already have.

So this new record is the #2 document I asked for in the list I sent you last week.

You won't have to track this one down, since we got it by another route. But in preparation for our meeting I'm sending you a few of our questions about it now, rather than waiting until our meeting, so you can have a look beforehand.

In this more recent CSA spreadsheet, 2 parks have a new amount of money for the year 2001, highlighted red by our analyst Aseel Al Najim. 23 parks have an extra amount of money in 2003, or 04, or 05 (highlighted yellow ).

Aseel writes "By extra or new amount I mean either it was $0 on our older excel sheet, and now there is a different amount, or there was some money in the 2003 version and it increased." I hope that you'll be able to help us understand what caused the changes.

We note that at the top, the new table says: Category: Replace = A Repair = B Complete=C

We didn't find any reference to A, B or C. Is there a column missing?

At the bottom of the page there are some unlabeled groupings of totals that we don't understand. Can you explain them to us?