BALLARAT City Council is undergoing a shake-up of its staff structure.
Seven staff, including some managers, will either move to other positions or be made redundant.
The council’s chief executive officer Anthony Schinck said yesterday staff changes had been made progressively over the past four years to bring them into line with the three portfolio areas of growth and development, people and communities and the newly-named destinations and economy.
“The City of Ballarat has made some important changes to the organisation structure to more strongly align it with our future direction, meet the challenges of growth and increase efficiencies and synergies in the way we deliver services and infrastructure to the residents of Ballarat,” Mr Schinck said.
He said the planned changes would enable the council to deliver on its priorities, invest more into capital works because of the city’s current growth rate and cope with cost increases due to increased superannuation payouts, rising energy costs and waste compliance issues.
“These are changes to the way our teams are aligned and services are delivered to residents. These changes do not affect frontline delivery.”
Mr Schinck said recently retired arts and culture manager Ron Egeberg would not be replaced but Her Majesty’s Theatre manager Graeme Russell, Art Gallery of Ballarat director Gordon Morrison and the city’s arts manager Daniel Henderson would jointly share the role.
A new city strategy manager will also be appointed to head up a strategic land use planning team which will focus on strategic planning and sustainability.
Recreation will be moved into the people and communities portfolio, local laws will be transferred to growth and development and property management will move to finance.
“There are seven people whose roles will be affected,” Mr Schinck said.
“It will trigger some redundancies and we will work with those people to find re-employment opportunities.”
Mr Schinck said the changes would not provide much financial gain but would help the council run more efficiently.