In this episode, Olivia meets with Monica Ciriello, the Director of Law and Licensing at the City of Hamilton, to discuss how the city is fostering innovation in its legal and licensing teams.
The legal division is often assumed to be slow and archaic, even a barrier to innovation. In the City of Hamilton's case, this couldn't be further from the truth. The division has created model policies around some big disruptors, such as the sharing economy, that are now being replicated around the world.
Featured government: City of Hamilton, Canada
Episode Guests:
Monica Ciriello – Director Municipal Law and Licensing
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Lindsay (00:05):
Welcome to the Govlaunch podcast. Govlaunch is the Wiki for local government innovation, and on this podcast, we're sharing the stories of local government innovators and their efforts to build smarter governments. I'm Lindsay Pica-Alfano, co-founder of Govlaunch and your host.
(00:20)
Today, Olivia from our team is joined by the director of law and licensing at the city of Hamilton. Now, the legal division is often assumed to be slow and archaic, even a barrier to innovation. In the city of Hamilton's case, this couldn't be further from the truth. The division has created model policies around some big disruptors, such as the sharing economy that are now being replicated around the world. I'll turn now to Olivia to learn more about how the city of Hamilton is fostering innovation in its legal and licensing teams.
Olivia (01:00):
Hi, I'm Olivia from Govlaunch and I'm here today with Monica Ciriello from Hamilton in Canada. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Monica (01:08):
Hi, Olivia. Thanks so much for having me here today and, having the opportunity to highlight the good work we're doing here in Hamilton. I am the director of municipal law and licensing compliance at the city in Hamilton. And for, for those that don't know Hamilton, it's, it's about an hour away from Toronto, and we have a population just shy of about 600,000. And we continue to grow.
The residents that choose to call Hamilton home, they, they expect a lot from their public servants and, and that's certainly what we provide. And, and that's what I look to bring every day that I am representing them. I started at the city in 2015, and I have been in this position, the director position for the last year and a half.
And right now I oversee the development of regulatory policy and bylaws in the city as well as the, the enforcement of the city's bylaws and administrative tribunal. And then just a little bit about me, prior to my director position, I actually left the city. So I was with the city of Hamilton, and then I left to go practice, municipal and planning law in the private sector. And then I was drawn back to the city because of the work that is being done here and the public sector leaders that we have here. So I'm really excited. I'm pleased to be here and excited to talk about the great things that we're doing here.
Olivia (2:26):
That's really exciting. And as someone who's partially from Toronto, I know I've got tons of friends who have left Toronto and have decided to go to Hamilton. I know there's lots of young people really keen to make Hamilton their home. So lots of exciting stuff there.
Monica (2:48):
Absolutely, absolutely. We're certainly seeing them come this way.
Olivia (2:44):
Monica (2:52):
Such a great question and, I guess I'll start at, at a high level and then we can kind of, um, unpack it together. So my team is involved in the entire process from the creation of a new local bylaw or ordinance if we have American listeners. Um, right from the time it's merely an idea. So this might be an idea from the province. They've downloaded regulatory requirements, um, that municipalities must absorb. It could be a community need or an industry need. We're seeing a lot of the private sector businesses being regulated at the local level now, or it could be from a council motion. So what my team does is we draft and create the bylaw, determining what our legal confines are. So, what can we regulate? What can't we regulate? And then we implement the operation of it.
So are there fees that are associated with operating in the city? What does that communication with the community and stakeholders look like? How will they be impacted? We develop operational plans behind the scenes. We set data and KPIs to monitor the regulation, and then we see it right through enforcement to prosecution, and that could be through the court process, or we also have an administrative monetary penalty system, which is, it's civil. So rather than being quasi-criminal, uh, it's, it's a civil mechanism for enforcing compliance of municipal bylaws. And you can imagine with, with the size of Hamilton, the portfolio, it's quite broad. We, we have approximately 50 different bylaws in counting, and, and they range from things as unique as fireworks in off-road vehicles to things as broad as noise, bylaws and, and snow and ice requirements. Um, on the ground. This means that my team is proactively and reactively responding to complaints in, in working towards compliance.
And then on the flip side, I also oversee the licensing of businesses in the city. So this is a range of industries from your taxi cabs to your hotels, to your restaurants. And most recently we've started to regulate the shared economy. And these are businesses like Uber and Lyft and Airbnb that wanna be able to operate in the city. We create the bylaws that permit them to operate. We establish that framework that must be followed. So for example, Uber, what driver information has to be submitted? How old can the vehicles be, the logos on the cars, the decks on the car, where would they be placed? We set that licensing fee structure. **Um, for those that ride Uber, you'll notice in each one of the cities you ride in, they have a different, uh, fee structure. So your Uber receipt will always be slightly different, and it's because it's structured by the municipality. And then we also go so far as we establish that enforcement and inspections, uh, strategy to ensure that there is compliance within the municipality. So I always say, next time you feel safe getting into a rideshare or staying at an Airbnb, you should thank your local municipality.
Olivia (6:08):
Yeah, very fair point. Uh, so wide range of stuff that you're working on. But before we delve into more of that, do you have a favorite municipal bylaw that you've heard of, either because it's so random or fun?
Monica (6:21):
You know what's so funny? There was actually an article in the newspaper, I think about two weeks ago, and they interviewed me because we have so many different bylaws on the books, and they were, they were asking me all the different, uh, sections and did you know this? And did you know this? So the one I thought was the most interesting is apparently it's illegal in the city of Hamilton to pay a grave digger in cash to dig your grave. And I thought I had never heard of that before, but we enforced that.
Olivia (6:49:
There you go. We've got a great episode with Govlaunch where we actually talked about how to become a chief unplanner, because sometimes there's these legacy things that exist in local government that don't get looked up for a long time. So yeah, that's a great, great example of what, thanks for sharing.
So what drew you to local government in the first place? You mentioned that you had left the city and then came back, and specifically to the realm of municipal lotan standards, why do you love local government so much?
Monica (7:17):
Such, such a good question. I, I've always had, um, this passion for, for sort of government in, in public policy. I'm one of those public policy sort of wonks. I I love it. And I guess it all kinda stems from the way that government and its, its corresponding policies have the ability to, to shape the lives of people and the communities for the better. And I pursued this passion on, on sort of my educational train. I I have a master's in public policy, I layered it with a law degree, and it allowed me to add this legal perspective to public policy, which I, I've really found really interesting throughout my career, really knowing the, the limits of what we can and cannot do. And I found the applicability at the local level so fascinating because at times municipal or local government, it are often overlooked towards their counterparts.
People always look to the province or the state or the federal government as having an impact on, on your everyday life. But if you really dig down, the most impact on your day-to-day life as a resident is based on the municipality you live in. It, it's whether it, it determines whether how often your garbage is picked up or how tall a building can be downtown as, as you would know, as a, as a planner or, or how many pets you can have in your home. All of this is sort of specified at the local level. And this is kind of what drew me in being, being a public servant for a local government. It really allows you to, to have a truly, um, lasting impact and make a difference within your community. And I find it immensely rewarding. And I love it. I think that it's such a great way to be able to make a difference in the city that you reside.
Olivia (9:02):
Yeah. Thanks for sharing. That will certainly resonate with a lot of our listeners.
So, when we think of government innovation, one might naively assume that legal teams are at odds with innovating, but we both know that this isn't the case.
Monica (9:26):
You know, I, I chuckle because it's certainly not the first time I've heard, heard that Olivia, they, they sometimes are viewed as, uh, stopping one another or, or being at odds, but it's certainly, it's not, it's not the case. I think it's important to point out that, um, the role of municipal law and compliance is, is constantly changing. So at its core, we must be able to, to sort of pivot, improve and change the way that we're doing things. It, it starts in, in my opinion, with ensuring you have a team that is empowered to deliver the results in a new or different way, and that you give your team the authority and the accountability to get it done.
With my team over the last few years, the province has really passed down a number of regulations for us to oversee, typically either not governed or governed by the province and, and now sort of passed down to local government. So for example, off-road vehicles now can be regulated at a local level through a bylaw. Cannabis, which was nothing that a municipality was involved in before now at a local level. And, most recently, throughout the pandemic, the Covid 19 regulations, the province developed them, the province of Ontario developed them, but it was up to the municipality to interpret them and determine what was permitted and what wasn't. Develop those operating procedures and do the enforcement on the ground. So all of this additional responsibility that that comes our way requires us to change, the way that we, we've done things previously. So we're constantly, constantly evolving it, it requires us to ensure that our team is working efficiently. So what type of data are we collecting? Have we set KPIs and are we meeting them? And how can we use that information to forecast trends and, and sort of respond accordingly?
(11:11)
So ensuring that we have all of these different mechanisms in place is, is so important to ensure that we're we're enablers of improving and, and changing the way that we're delivering services. And we're doing it in an efficient, in efficient way.
Monica (11:24):
In addition to the province, I mentioned earlier there's this growing presence of the private sector that is looking to be regulated, which directly impacts my team. Years ago, I didn't, people never thought that sleeping in a stranger's home was, was something that we would do
(12:03)
I also think it's important, that we keep up with the progress in the private sector. They're constantly evolving, which, which has an impact on us. So keeping tabs on what's happening. And, and I must admit, this is why I love and I rely on Govlaunch. It's important to know what's going on in other municipalities. It's important to share and collaborate with our counterparts so that we know how to respond. We can take some lessons learned and we can apply it here at at home.
Olivia (12:29):
That's great. So really setting a culture of being agile and innovative, and then making sure that there's tons of great partnerships and some forecasting involved, all really, helpful steers on how you've managed to have such a great and innovative team working with you, Monica.
In terms of some of the controversial projects that you've worked on, you mentioned some already just around things like Uber, Airbnb, these massively disruptive, but exciting things that have happened in our society over the course of the last decade or so.
What did you feel like your team did differently that allowed for these bold innovations to be so successful in the city of Hamilton specifically?
Monica (13:09):
That's, that is a great question. And I always point us back to Uber and Rideshare. And in Hamilton, we call it our personal transportation provider bylaw. That's what we ultimately developed, to ensure that this industry could operate here and operate in a safe manner, because we recognize that consumers want to have choice, but it's just as important to ensure that they're, they're getting access to it and it's, uh, it's safe to do so. So in my previous capacity, I, I had actually worked on the development of this PTP bylaw, and I think at the time, we're going back a couple of years now, but I think at the time we were the second or third city in Canada to bring forward a bylaw. So when this was happening, it was very controversial at the time, as I'm sure you recall. Two sides were not aligning
And what we did differently, I believe, is that throughout the entire process, we consulted with a variety of industry stakeholders in the leaders. So we built on those relationships. So when the bylaw was finally finalized, it incorporated the competing interests of both parties. But in my opinion, more importantly, neither side the ride share nor the taxi industry was surprised with what was put forward because they were involved in the process. And to sort of illustrate the point, our bylaw was the only ride share bylaw that was supported by both the ride share companies and the taxi industry when it was passed. And when it was passed by counsel, it was passed unanimously on its first reading. And I think that speaks volumes of the legwork and the work that is done behind the scenes before something like this, something so controversial comes forward.
And to this day, it's still widely regarded as, as a template for other municipalities across Canada.
So it's not only about creating something here, here in Hamilton that works. I think it's also so important that we're innovative not only in our own municipality, but we're sharing that knowledge with our municipal counterparts. What were our lessons learned? What worked, what didn't work? Because we're all struggling with the same disruptive industries. We're all going through these, these similar changes. So being able to lean on each other, I think is just so important as well. And then going back to, your question, what did we do differently? In Hamilton, we have this culture in Hamilton, it's called Open for Business. It's an approach that we use and, and I attribute the success of this bylaw being passed to that open for business approach that we used. It's about directly consulting with our leaders, with our industry stakeholders, and building relationships and maintaining those relationships with community partners.
Olivia (16:05):
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. In terms of your team and working with the industry, we've gotten lots of great insights on that front.
So for you and your team, looking ahead, what are some of the main opportunities you see for the law and licensing, local government space?
Monica (16:25):
This would be, uh, utilizing technology in our teams. And what we're really excited about right now, what a really hot topic is, is drones. And we are so excited to be a part of one of the few municipalities in the province of Ontario to be training our officers to be flying drones. In the public sector, I think everyone can relate that we're always asked and, and tasked with doing more with less. And drone technology specifically for our team is opening that window and we're investing in our officers, we're investing in our team to train them to be able to fly. And, and what this is really going to be able to do is expand the reach of our officers.
Like I said, we're always looking for ways to leverage technology to find efficiencies, and it's great to be able to say that some of my officers are pilots now, which I think is pretty awesome.
Olivia (17:26):
Fantastic.
Monica (17:33):
Yes, Yes.
Olivia (17:36):
Is there anything else that your team's working on right now that you'd like to share?
Monica (17:39):
You know what I, I, I guess it's sort of been something I've tied through this entire podcast already is, is that our roles keep evolving. We are constantly reviewing the role that we play within the municipality. And, and one really interesting area that I, I did not anticipate us to get involved in, but it, it's, here we are, um, over the last couple of years, cities across Ontario have seen this increase in large unsanctioned gatherings and parties. And here at Hamilton, we are no exception. And as an example, this could be something like a homecoming event as we are a university town, and it attracts a lot of people. And last year we had a party and about 5,000 people took over the road, which resulted in significant property damage, the blocking of roads, excessive consumption of alcohol, overcrowding, a whole variety of health and safety concerns for attendees at this party, the neighborhood that it was being held in, and really residents as a whole.
I think it's important that if something's happening in one aspect of this city, it has a whole impact because of the resources that then get dedicated. So it has this impact right across the entire municipality. So residents as a whole are impacted when things like this happen. And this prompted us to look into and really ask the question, what role can we play at the city level regarding these nuisance parties, these unsanctioned events? And I think it's an important distinction just in case there's any American, comparisons.
Here, the police who are a lead department in public order matters such as this, are independent from this city. So traditionally they would take the lead. So then the question became, is there a role for municipal law enforcement to play in this? And I think it's another example of empowering our team to think outside of the box.
It's important to ensure that our team has the tools that they need on the ground to act and the authority and the responsibility to deliver them. So it's really a, a sort of a ground up, um, engagement with the team as well. When they're out there, what do they need, what are they seeing? And then what are we legally permitted to do? Where are our confines? So having these types of conversations are, are always so interesting. And, and this is another example of one that we're having right now. So we're in the process of finalizing a party, nuisance bylaw, to bring to council, and it would provide additional options for municipal law enforcement to issue fines by placing a responsibility or a duty on those that are hosting a party to control the participants or the attendees of the party. And that's I guess another example of continuing to evolve
Olivia (20:40):
Lots of exciting things that your team is working on and different collaborations.
Shifting gears a little bit, do you know of another local authority doing some groundbreaking innovative work right now that you'd like to give a shout out to?
Monica (20:50):
Oh, I love this idea Olivia. I think this is such a great opportunity. I was just reading about the city of Miami Beach, Florida, and you know what I, I tried to put in to get down there to see it live, but they've declined it. I'd love to go to the beach, but no, in all seriousness, the city of, of Miami Beach, Florida, they are undergoing a pilot program, they're putting these noise cameras on utility pools to address the sound of loud vehicles. So this is things like your aftermarket modified mufflers that people install to their cars. They're not, they're not typically a part of the car that you drive off the lot with. And it generates a heck of a lot of noise where we're talking noise so loud, it can wake people up from sleep and you can hear it from a mile away.
And, and we have a similar issue here with these aftermarket mufflers. We, we get a lot of complaints about them, and at times, we try to be proactive about where we can go and how we can address it. But what I liked about the city of Miami Beach, is that they're installing these cameras on utility pools that read this, this, the sound levels of noise by cars. They're not charging or ticketing them or, or looking at their license plate or anything like that. But what they're doing is they're collecting the data if they find a violation, to determine the areas where city resources should be dedicated or set up to address the biggest problem areas in the municipality. So it allows you to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to enforcement. You're not just having people that are driving around and, and hope to come across a complaint. I think it's another really great example of leveraging technology and data to be more efficient. So my shout out to the city of Miami Beach.
Olivia (22:39):
Lastly, what's the thing that excites you the most, Monica, about the future of civic innovation in Hamilton?
Monica (22:45):
Such a great question. And you know what I'm gonna start by saying, local government is a lot more innovative than people think. A program that I'm super passionate about and that really excites me here in Hamilton is our accessible taxi incentive program. And I, I'll talk a little bit about the program. It's such a great idea in the sense that it empowers the taxi industry to provide on demand accessible service with this ultimate goal of reducing isolation for those with disabilities in the Hamilton community that need on demand service. So in a nutshell, it's a program that was created by our team, and what we're doing is we are using the in lieu of accessible ride share funds. So when I mentioned earlier, we license rideshare for every trip that is completed when they do not provide accessible service because they don't in Hamilton, 6 cents of that trip is dedicated paid to the city and dedicated to accessible transportation in the city.
And we use these funds to incentivize taxi drivers to provide more accessible trips because they have the vans that are retrofitted for this. And in ultimately we wanna close the gap of high demand and low supply of accessible transportation in the city.
Since the implementation of a, we've seen an increase of accessible taxi trips and a decrease in wait time for those that are using the service, which we were very excited about. And I'm proud to say that we are the first city to implement a program that really leverages on the private sector per trip funds and redirects these funds right back into the accessible community. And for me, Olivia, this is what gets me excited about the future in Hamilton. We're creating this innovative culture of really getting to yes and what else can we do?
Olivia (24:50):
That's so exciting and what a great program.I hope that some of our listeners tuning in can find some inspiration. Cause I think that's something that could easily be replicated across lots of different local authorities.
So your passion for municipal law and standards, and it's many, many intersections with innovation in local government delivery is super evident. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us today and for joining us. Monica,
Monica (25:11):
Thank you so much for having me, Olivia. I really enjoyed it.
Lindsay (25:20):
I'm Lindsay Pica-Alfano, and this podcast was produced by Govlaunch the Wiki for local government innovation. You can subscribe to hear more stories like this wherever you get your podcast. If you're a local government innovator, we hope you'll help us on our mission to build the largest free resource for local governments globally. You can join to search and contribute to the wiki at www.govlaunch.com. Thanks for tuning in. We hope to see you next time on the Govlaunch Podcast.