A new update has been provided as to how the Executive and Senior Management Teams will be structured moving forwarded.
Following last months elimination of three executive positions, City Administration has now discontinued the title of General Manager.
“Our objective is to work within the model we have and make the adjustments that we need to make, so there will be some reductions,” says Interim City Manager Rick McDonald in reference to the elimination of the title as one of the adjustments.
He goes on to say, “what we’ve looked at is, what is your job, what is the function and we’ve looked at whether or not the classification you’re currently at is where you should be and so we’ve made a number of adjustments in that regard.”
Other changes include the reduction of executives, managers and supervisors. The number of executive positions will drop one, bringing it to five; instead of the 17 general managers there was on staff, there will be five directors and six senior managers; and the number of managers and supervisors will drop from 37 to 34.
McDonald says what they focused on was how they delivered programs and services and how efficient they were at doing so, adding that there was fear around making decisions previously and with this new model it will allow for people to step up into leadership roles and make decisions.
“If I hire someone to do a specific function, I expect them to do that function, that’s why I hired them. So, I don’t need to be telling them what to do. They need to be able to that themselves,” says McDonald.
He adds, that if they need help, support, resources or training, the City will be provided that.
Mayor Gerald Aalbers says, “we’ve heard that very clearly from tax payers that they would like to see a streamlined operation and I believe that’s what the City Administration is delivering to us.”
He goes on to say, “the tax payers will see the same great service we’ve been receiving and we believe there will be some cost savings at the end of the day and the restructuring will result in a slightly smaller management team in the top end.”
As for the future, McDonald says “I don’t think that the staff need to worry about their positions. I think changes now would maybe be some shuffling of chairs on the deck.”
