Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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You are on the [FlaggingStaffProblemsFeb2025] page of folder [Research Library ]
For the cover page of this folder go to the Correspondence/notes about Dufferin rink staff problems
Jutta Mason
this page is still under construction
[ed.: my highlighting, in red]
August 2024:
I told Adam, the community rec programmer who’s in charge of the summer part-time rec staff, about H., a staff person who leaves the automatic building lights off after 8 instead of turning them back on, so he can sleep on the bench ledge in the dark, and who keeps most of the doors locked all evening for the same reason, if he feels like it, and who disappears for an hour or longer while he's assigned to help out at the market. The market manager has asked that H. no longer be assigned to help at the market.
Adam (their onsite supervisor) later says he spoke to him about it.
August-September 2024:
It’s obvious that the youth staff who are scheduled to do public bake oven events are poorly trained and barely supervised. This means that there are questionable public health practices, plus damage to or loss of oven tools, bad-tasting food, rude conduct toward me, and progressively more actual oven damage, particularly to the oven hearth.
No action from their onsite supervisor.
only room for two pizzas, fire too shallow
Sept.16, 2024:
Email to the on-site supervisor, Adam, cc to his boss Michelle, the day after a staff-run public pizza day:- the once-a-week pizza time has been converted to a very minimalist occasion by your PT staff:
- very small fire, so pizza relies on too-active, too close flames instead of good heat (pizzas usually black on top, not enough residual heat for open oven to preserve farmers' market produce); small hearth space means delay even with minimal community uptake of pizza tickets
- no bucket of water, so no mopping of ashes and no quick first aid remedy in case of a burn
-- no proper tools for fire management (the fire hoe was left out overnight and so was stolen, thermal oven mitts are not used or not there)
-- very messy storage sheds so poor organization and cleanliness
Could we talk about an occasion a.s.a.p. to review good oven practices with Shauna Kearns? I've her here to see if she might be available to take a one-occasion contract.
When I intervened on that occasion, H. mocked me in front of everybody “she thinks she can use the oven before paying customers.” I told him he was being a jerk.
Sept.18 2014
Email from West Toronto rec manager Cheryl Macdonald, cc to her boss, interim city Rec director Cathy Vincelli:
Staff have brought to my attention some concerns regarding a discussion/interaction with you during the program last Sunday September 15, 2024. I will be looking into this and will connect back with you at a later date. …..I kindly ask that all communication with part time and full time staff be respectful and professional.
Sept.18 2014, my response:
The oven needs better care and the food needs better practices than now.
Plus the onsite supervision of the PT pizza staff is insufficient (non-existent). I'm guessing that you didn't answer my question about staff re-training on pizza-making because you don't intend to make that happen.
The celos oven shed needs to be cleared of the mess and made to function as a good oven shed.
I welcome a chance to document more of the current staffing problems, let me know when you want to talk.
NO RESPONSE until Nov.25 (more than two months)
Nov. 25, 2024
Email from manager Cheryl MacDonald, also cc'd to acting director Cathy Vincelli:
As referenced below, I received a complaint from staff with regard to an inappropriate discussion/interaction with you during the Pizza Program held Sunday September 15, 2024.\\ As required, I have investigated the complaint and at this time would like to set up a meeting with you, myself and Cathy Vincelli to discuss the incident, review the Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s Code of Conduct Policy and expectations from you when dealing with City of Toronto part time and full time staff.
Nov.26, 2024
Email to manager Cheryl MacDonald, cc'd to Cathy Vincelli:I'm thinking this is a good moment for us to discuss the issue of your staff's work standards, and also the serious issue of staff continuing to be scheduled after they consistently do poor work. Sadly, Parks and Rec has the reputation, citywide, of not descheduling part-time staff even after they are shown to have very poor work standards. (And, conversely, not rewarding staff after they have shown themselves to be hardworking and with good judgment.)
Nov.27. 2024
Email from Cheryl MacDonald, cc to Cathy Vincelli:
I want to be clear that this will be a quick check in (no more than 15 minutes) to discuss the incident, review the Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s Code of Conduct Policy and expectations from you when dealing with City of Toronto part time and full time staff.
Nov.28 2024
Email to Cheryl, cc to Cathy Vincelli
This story is a flag that should signal to Rec that a 15-minute explanation of your policy, on screen, isn't what's needed here. A thorough exploration of what needs fixing in your approach to staffing is what's needed by management.
So I'd like it if you could put your comments to me in writing instead, so I have the record.
Nov.29, 2024
Email from Michelle:
I didn’t hear back from you regarding our tool that staff left out for you to use, when you were drying your vegetables. Any update?
Dec.6, 2024
Email from West Toronto Rec manager Cheryl Macdonald, cc interim Rec director Cathy Vincelli and new permanent Rec director Stephany Hanson:
"I want to take this opportunity to remind you that Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation promotes a safe, welcoming, positive, inclusive environment where people are valued and respected. Staff, volunteers, participants, and parks and facility users are expected to be considerate, to respect people and their rights, and to show proper care and regard for City property and the property of others."
Dec.10, 2024
Email to Michelle, Adam, and Cheryl:
Aha, you're saying that I took the pizza hoe! Not the one that I brought to the park when the programs restarted, and that then got the handle burned, but the all-metal one that was bought by rec to replace mine.
Re your report of sending me earlier inquiries about that hoe, I can see no Nov.18 email from you, but on Nov.28 you sent me an encrypted email and on Nov.29 another unusual version, both of which I couldn't open. I asked you to send me a normal email which you then did, but without specifying which tool, until your email yesterday.
Re the hoe: in my email of Sept.16 and repeated again on Dec.6, you'll note that I reported the hoe had been stolen because it was clearly left out overnight by your staff (and the oven was left unlocked as well).
If your staff have told you that actually I must have taken the pizza tool, that means someone is lying.
Who do you think that is?
I think it's a good idea for you to dig into this a little deeper with your staff. It appears that some of them may need a much-increased level of supervision.
Many of the same staff got the winter rink assignments
Jan 15, 2025
Rink picnic with Carolyn and Avienna. The table was dirty but when I asked rink staff for wet paper towel so I could clean it, a new rink guard I had never seen before, sitting with others in the skate room, first said no, then said “what do you say?” -- as if he might give it to me if I said please. At that point a different rink guard got the paper towel and cleaned off the table himself.
In the evening I was talking to a security guard in the kitchen and the same rink guard came in and told me to leave the kitchen immediately, ostentatiously calling the supervisor on his phone to tell her I was in the kitchen. Then he berated the security guy “why are you letting her be in there?” Other staff also came to tell me that only staff are allowed in there.
Note from Carolyn: "What I couldn't quite understand was the looks we got as we set up our table. And after we sat down. In fact, throughout our lunch, I felt like we were being watched. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, though; people with nothing to do stare at other people a lot. That gives them something to do.”
Jan 16:
I asked Adam about the kitchen ban and he said they can’t let non-staff in there because there’s food
Jan 22:
Email to Adam, cc Michelle and Cheryl:
Here's a question about operations: When I passed by the rink soon after 12 noon today, you were not there, but your part time staff was sitting in the skate room. When I introduced myself, he didn't want to say his name. I suggested we ought to talk about what happened last Wednesday, but he made it clear that he had no intention of talking to me, that he had heard all about me from other staff, that I act like a child and should grow up, that I bring my friends and sit and talk, etc.
Will you be following up?
I wrote this to Adam and he said he had already talked to him. But he didn't tell me his name.
Jan 29, 2025
In the evening there’s a tableful of 5 staff plus friends, in front of the skate room door, having a big picnic of MacDonalds takeout. Very loud and rude.
Feb. 5, 2025
Picnic with Shauna Kearns. I asked Jordan (whose name I had now been able to find out) who ripped the reno posters down again? (4th time). He refused to answer, but called his supervisor, saying “she’s here again.”
Feb.7, 2025
To: Michelle Sirianni <Michelle.Sirianni@toronto.ca> Cc: Adam Tyzler <adam.tyzler@toronto.ca>, Cheryl MacDonald <Cheryl.MacDonald@toronto.ca>
....You never answered my "stolen hoe" question from Dec 10, and now there are some other staff issues that have become urgent. I mentioned a bit in my email to Adam, you and Cheryl from yesterday. Since then the deterioration in your rink staff behavior, and in some cases their friends who hang out with them during their shifts, has gotten worse again. People are noticing it a lot, especially in the evenings.....
February 9:
Ribbon cutting at rink building. City posters advertising this event were not put up until the morning of the event, so there were not a lot of people. The main room had the barrier up, with half for skate changing and the other half with catered food laid out on tables in the center and chairs lined up against the walls. There was a "for invited guests" vibe about it. I taped up the reno posters for the sixth time, this time in the catered room, and the staff wrote sarcastic comments on them (re the snack bar menu: “Lobster next? Caviar?” but didn’t tear them down in front of everybody.
During February, and again today, when I talked to Michelle and Adam about the posters being torn down again, they always used the same messaging “how do you know it was the staff?”
February 11, 2025
Meeting with Michelle. Adam was not there. The gist of the meeting was that Michelle said everything was fine -- the skate lending was fine, the snack bar was fine, the window shades were only down some of the time, the bulletin boards were up to date and available for community posts if approved, the work of the rink staff was fine, etc. She asked me to tell what was on my mind, and took notes. At the end, she said "what I'm wondering is, is there any way you can cooperate with us?" The tone was of a tired supervisor who had tried everything to work with such an uncooperative outsider.