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Council confirms new structure

Tuesday 5 October 2010, 12:31PM

By Nelson City Council

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NELSON

The new shape of Nelson City Council has been confirmed with staff after a six week consultation period. Significant changes to jobs right across Council see the organisation being altered to improve customer services.

Nelson City Council Chief Executive Keith Marshall says “This new structure will help us increase organisational efficiency and effectiveness across the board and it will be done within existing budgets,”

Marshall adds “This change is really big for our organisation and is made with the future in mind. Only 40 jobs remain unchanged. Most positions have undergone changes to reporting lines, however a small number have been disestablished. We value our staff’s skills and knowledge so all affected staff have been offered positions in the new structure, but realistically a small number of redundancies may eventuate. We will have a clearer picture by next week as affected staff have until then to respond to the confirmed new structure.”

The highlights of the new structure include several new areas where functional needs will now be met including

“whole of organisation” strategy and planning function to encompass a Strategic Response Unit, a Policy and Planning Unit, as well as a Monitoring and Research Unit
A Programme Office to monitor and report on progress and achievement of top priority projects
A focus on community relations; listening to and engaging with the Community
A centralised contract management service to assist all of Council to tender and manage contracts appropriately
A management accounting and analysis service to assist organisation and Business Unit financial management
A Quality Management Team focussed on improving systems and processes across the organisation
An Administration Business Unit to provide faster and better assistance to the organisation.
Council staff were briefed last Friday and those unable to attend notified yesterday. The new structure is expected to become operational on Monday 1 November.