Latrobe City Council’s departmental restructure is set to take full effect from 1 August, acting chief executive John Mitchell has confirmed.
Last Monday, The Express revealed council’s five overarching sectors would become four as part of changes which Mr Mitchell hopes will result in improved collaboration between departments and a faster approvals process.
Staff were notified on Monday morning.
Mr Mitchell said after meeting with the acting senior leadership team last week, it was decided the changes would be implemented on 1 August, however new, permanent general managers would most likely not be appointed by then.
Council’s senior management team is currently made up entirely of ‘acting’ staff, following a complete exodus of the leadership over the past six months, including chief executive Paul Buckley and five general managers.
The most recent departures came last Friday of general managers Grantley Switzer and Allison Jones, the circumstances of which Mr Mitchell would not discuss.
“Consultation with staff is taking place now and we’ve indicated that apart from the shift from five to four general managers, there’s no other redundancies,” Mr Mitchell said.
“They all understand there’s really going to be minimal impact.”
Under the restructure, council’s five overarching departments will become four: governance and organisational development; economic development and planning; community liveability; along with technical services, infrastructure and waste.
Mr Mitchell said he was still in the planning process for recruitment of general managers, but he would have a clearer timeline this week.
“We’ve got all the (general manager) positions filled in acting roles and we’ll be getting in and focus on searching our community,” he said.
“It’s very much business as usual.”
