Placing more focus on economic development, tourism and community life is the key motivation behind a restructuring of Sackville’s town departments.
Town council approved a set of 18 recommendations proposed by Sackville’s chief administrative officer Monday night, which will see several departments being reshuffled in order to direct greater efforts towards the community’s top priorities.
“The town has to change in orientation to meet the needs of the residents,” said CAO Eric Mourant.
The list of recommendations was the first phase of a management review of the town’s operations being conducted by the CAO.
Mourant said in the past month he has reviewed the town’s strategic plan and the recreation master plan, both completed within the last year.
He said he put a great deal of confidence in the suggestions that were made in the strategic plan, because those ideas came from local residents.
“From the over 200 stakeholders interviewed during the consultation process, it appears evident to me that a lot more needs to be done in the areas of community development and economic development to meet the needs and expectations of the population of Sackville,” he said.
So one of the key recommendations made in his report is to split the operations of the community economic development and tourism portfolios into three distinct departments.
The department of community economic development and tourism will be re-named the department of economic development.
“We need to put more efforts into economic development and we will have a director in place to focus solely on economic development,” he said.
A renewed department of tourism will be created, with a director put in place to head the portfolio. Rebekah Cant, currently acting director of CED&T, will move into that position.
A new community development and programming department will also be developed, with a focus on enhancing active living in the community and helping to deliver programs and special events.
The programming component of this department will be shifted over from the parks and recreation department, which will also see some changes.
Mourant said within the parks and recreation department, he believes the programming mandate of the department needed to be removed and included as an integral part of a distinct department.
He pointed out that within the town’s recreation master plan, it was recommended the town move from away from program delivery to a program support role, and that can be done within the community development and programming department. That will also eliminate the need for an additional manager in that department; the position of manager of programming and special events will be terminated when the current contract expires in September, he said.
So now without a programming component, the parks and recreation department will be re-named the department of parks and recreation facilities and will be headed up by one director position, which will be filled by current manager of parks and recreational facilities Todd Cole. The focus of the department will remain on maintenance and operation of the community’s parks, the ball fields and the civic centre.
“Change is always difficult . . . but this is about accountability, transparency and clear responsibility." - John Higham
Coun. Merrill Fullerton insisted that these changes “align very well with the strategic core values that have been set out” by the community over the past year.
He said he’s pleased to see a greater emphasis being placed on tourism, an economic development agenda and a higher quality of life.
Mourant said management staff will also take on greater roles within their departments, undertaking more responsibility for the operations of their respective departments.
“The need for authority and accountability from all departments is imperative from an operational perspective,” said Mourant.
Although Coun. Bruce Phinney voiced concerns over the potential for “overburdening” staff members that are already over-worked, Mourant pointed out that the new changes will allow the directors to focus on their key priorities with greater ease because the larger departments are being divided into several divisions.
“I think it will be a better separation of duties, so they’ll be spread less thin.”
Coun. John Higham agreed and believes these changes will improve the operations of each department.
“Change is always difficult . . . but this is about accountability, transparency and clear responsibility. I really like how we’re professionalizing our staff and how we’re expecting them to work together in this,” said Higham.
“We have a great opportunity here to change the way this town is governed and the way it’s operating,” he added. “And I’m looking forward to how this falls out over the next few months.”
The only change planned for the department of public works is in the way the on-call duties will be performed. Instead of the department heads being on call for routine work, those duties will now be taken on by unionized staff. This will help reduce the amount of unpaid overtime hours being paid to management staff.
Margaret Tusz-King, liaison councillor for the personnel committee, said the CAO’s review has resulted in a “clear workplan” for management staff. This workplan will ensure clarity between what the community and council want to see happening and how staff organize and prioritize their work to these ends.
Mourant said the recommendations approved Monday night are expected to “better address the needs of the residents in the areas of economic development, community development, special events, programming, arts and culture, and tourism.”
The changes will also “better reach and engage the citizens and the organizations of our community for our community; provide the environment for senior staff to have more authority, duties and responsibilities so they can reach their full potential; offer compensation for senior staff that is equitable and competitive both internally and externally . . . and we will do all this with one less senior staff than the previous year,” he said.
