In beginning an executive search to fill three new directorships, Kiama Council has made public significant changes to its organisational structure.

“This is about right sizing the organisation and getting ready to divest aged care [at Bonaira],” says CEO Jane Stroud.

“Right sizing means delivering an organisation that is the right shape and size for our community and focuses on the work that we need to do.

“We need to set ourselves up through the divestment process for the bigger question of what is Kiama Council if it is not Blue Haven? Who are we? What’s important to our customers? And how do we organise ourselves to give the best value to our ratepayers and community?”

Applications close 5 March for the new directorships (being recruited through McArthurs) - which need to advertised given the significant changes to the existing roles:

• Director Infrastructure and Liveability
• Director Planning, Environment and Communities
• Chief Operating Officer (created last year, currently filled by an interim appointment).

Ms Stroud says the new roles are great jobs, “It is a fantastic time to come and join our organisation. We know what our issues are and we know what we need to do to fix them.” 

Council's Jane Stroud

Beneath the directorships are consolidated management roles which give a greater breadth of responsibility, which Ms Stroud believes will lead to greater depth of knowledge.

For example, the Manager Library Services is to become Manager Library & Cultural Hubs, taking the cultural support role out of Community Services.

Another broadened role is that of Manager Planning and Economic Development. Although it will sit under the Director Planning, Environment and Communities, this role will pull together a team responsible for strategic planning, economic development and DAs.

“At the minute these are three separate roles,” says Ms Stroud.

“If you create a team out of that, you get a more seamless experience for the customer so that if you are a customer building a home or a business, you have the same person providing you customer service from the minute you walk in the door until you walk out.”

One of the job advertisements

There will be 38 role changes in the first wave of the restructure, with a second wave over the next 4-5 months bringing in changes at the team level.

Three important new full-time roles have been built into the new structure – a sports and recreation officer (previously an interim role), an arts and culture officer (previously two days) and a project management manager (fulfilling a need highlighted in the Performance Improvement Order).