Deck Chairs Shuffled at City Hall
Prince George, B.C. – City Manager Beth James has reorganized the management positions at City Hall to, as the release says, “future-proof Prince George.”
The shake-up in the organizational structure is said to be in line with the City succession management plan..html)
While James has not released information about the actual people involved in the changes or how many employees have been moved around, and while we don’t know whether anyone has lost their job or decided to end their employment at the city, there is a description of what the affected departments look like under these changes:
The Corporate Management Department, that is James’ office and Communications, will now see James in charge of Fire and Rescue Services and liaison with the RCMP.
There is a new department called Legal and Regulatory Services, which will provide legislative, bylaw enforcement procurement and risk management services.
The Operations Department will, as it has done, provide transportation, fleet parks and solid waste, and utilities operations services.
Planning and Development will also provide previous functions but now also runs engineering and business licensing.
Corporate Services stays the same.
Community Services is now called the Recreation and Cultural Services Department. It will manage CN Centre and all the recreation facilities, events and Civic Centre, recreation and cultural services, and will manage police support and civic facilities services.
Again, there is no information from the City on the personnel involved in these changes. We do know that according to the new 2014 Organizational chart, two current employees, in the newly-named Recreation and Cultural Services and in Operations, have been named Associate Directors in their respective departments.
Comments
Maybe clean out city hall by hiring some new talent??
My key question is financially this reduces costs by how many $’s or %.
“Deck Chairs”?
Friday afternoon can be a time without fun,
Because Friday afternoon is when the dirty deed is done.
Managers office door closed for most of the day.
People looking around with nothing much to say.
Security called to be available shortly after one.
Because its after 1pm that the dirty deed is done.
People gazing around, is it her? is it him? is it me?
Who knows where the knife will enter or whose back it will be.
Clock ticking silently through out the afternoon sun.
Its Friday afternoon and of course, that’s when the dirty deed is done.
Cool prose Palopu.
Mayor is still there.. So it shows they weren’t cleaning the house of incompetence
Palopu, if you are a employee of the city, kind of interesting that you would have that much time to come up with such poetry.
He Spoke. Don’t work for the City. Never did, never will.
Friday afternoon terminations are standard through out industry, business, etc, and I am sure our new Manager is fully aware of the procedure.
A few points
1. Any and all my posts on this site are on my own time and my own dime.
2. Would the term **City Worker** be an oxymoron??
I have no problems with the 250 or so outside workers. I just can’t imagine the requirement of 450 inside workers, pushing paper. That is where the problem lies. until we have a city manager and mayor willing to address this problem, we will hear a million excuses why the taxes need to be raise.
I am ok with reduced services. I am ok if the pools and libraries being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I am ok to expect a bit less out of the city, if they are willing to reduce city hall by 30% over the next ten years. This needed to be dealt with 4-5 years ago. Start today.
Termination clause _ check out the City Managers clause. Its the best ever written. ;) if your the City Manager
They get these great termination clauses going in, so that they have nothing to lose if they screw up.
This is one of the biggest cons in business, industry, and Government. All these people have convinced themselves and others that they are worth every dollar they are paid, that they are irreplaceable, and if replaced they are entitled to huge severance packages.
Fact of the matter is, most high flying CEO’s have a difficult time making a grilled cheese sandwich. Usually have someone pick them up at the Airport so they don’t get lost. Run in packs as a defense mechanism, and last but not least live of the avails of the actual workers.
“Future Proof” heh…. Not much future for some folks handed there papers and file box. Too young to retire, too old to be hired elsewhere. Nice job Beth, lets see what city hires you on once you’re done your slash burning here…
The phrase arranging deck chairs is most often associated with the Titanic in such uses as “Administrators are running around straightening out deck chairs while the Titanic goes down.”
So, it sounds like the author is of the opinion that the City will go down no matter how much the deck chairs are re-arranged.
I do not share that opinion, if that is actually an opinion rather than an unintended reference to such a notion.
I will wait till I hear who is left and who has been put in charge of the new organizational functions.
Other than the last one, they all make sense to me. Police support is certainly a city service, but it is hardly a recreation or cultural service. I understand functions do not necessarily fall neatly under categories, but that one is a very strange one unless the police support supports the police choir. ;-)
Its just like a cabinet shuffle, just different names on the desk plates. No big deal, unless you work directly below these people.
the new city manager and mayor seem to enjoy flexing their power by kicking someone to the curb. Who was it this time?
The important question that needs to be answered is who got fired and how much did it cost taxpayers to underwrite this latest dismissal?
It is our money and the taxpayers have a right to know what kind of packages or settlements are being given to those who seem to be on the mayor’s hit list.
On the plus side, it is a good time to be in security, they seem to be getting quite a bit of work escorting people out of city hall. Too bad they don’t go to the top floor more often.
I agree gus.
The City cannot continue status quo indefintely. Companies in the private sector are reorganized as needs change all the time. Why not the public sector as well?
New ideas and approaches are needed. There is always some resistance to change, but it looks like the right steps are being taken at first glance.
According to the citizen Colleen Van Mook was shown the door and community services was disbanded and responsibilities moved. I think that these are good moves with the two departments with the biggest budgets reporting directly to the city manager.
As for the appointment of associate directors, could this be a not so subtle hint that it is time for those directors to consider retirement? They would be expensive to buy out and would be in essence a paid bridge to retirement. If they choose to leave on their own accord the city could promote the associates or even bring in some fresh blood. If this is the plan kudos to Ms. James.
As for kicking people to the curb….some people on city payroll, both union and management, deserve such treatment.
Hey Pal I didnt know that you were also a poet. After all this site needs some humor.
Cheers
The whole thing about the 37% and 57% retiring is just too funny! Of course they will all be replaced, plus.
Give me a break, shuffling the chairs at city hall is nothing new.
Former City Manager George Paul must have done it three or four times. Derek Bates followed him and had at least two re-organizations. Now Ms. James done the same. Every time this has occurred in the past the city manager at the time says it is to be “more effective and set the stage for a positive future” or similar BS.
It is funny or sad depending on how you look at it that there is now a guy that doesn’t have a degree in recreation in charge of a department that is now named recreation and culture. Incidentally, that is what the department was called twenty years ago. This is just a case of bureaucratic spin saying the old is new again. Yawn.
And the cost of this shuffle???
considering that the population of PG has been relatively static or stable (depending on your noun of choice) since 1980, it would be nice to see the City staffing levels match the 1980 levels … I don’t have the actual numbers at hand but I am sure a few of the frequent posters may have access …
Different: “Give me a break, shuffling the chairs at city hall is nothing new. “
Did somebody say it was?
“And the cost of this shuffle???”
If anyone wants to track this, they can do it in part by looking at the compensation paid out to those making over $75,000 or $100,000 around June of 2015 for 2014. By that time people will no longer have any interest in this matter.
Just like I doubt that there is anyone who has an interest in keeping track of how many people were on the City payroll in previous years.
What is more easily found from annual reports is the total payroll amount over the years. However, without knowing staffing levels it does not provide very good information in my mind. One of the things which will not be tracked very well is the total amount of money spent on people resources to do City business. We have to remember that it is not only staff who do the work at City Hall, but also contractors who provide services.
If CVM is the only one who has left City Hall at this time, I sure hope that others will be following her shortly.
We now have a realtor in charge of not only planning but also engineering. Going from bad to worse, in my opinion. That is the one that stands out like a sore thumb to me. In fact, it is so bad that I think Ms. James’ weak spot may just have been exposed.
anotherside, you are talking about the city. When they have a big project like Boundry Rd or the silly downtown heating system, they create positions for supervisors of these projects.
Now when these projects are finished, the people are not cut from the payroll. They are now highly paid employees with nothing to do but drive around all day picking their noses and trying to get the kilometers up for their vehicle allowance claims.
For example, say a person is an asphalt quality control supervisor looking after contractors work. The person knows Jack about asphalt but makes a lot of money. What does he do for the other 7 months of the year. See paragraph 2.
How many people work in that engineering dept ? Do they need a person for each digit in L&M’s phone number ? Back to paragraph 2.
How many people work in the planning dept ? If there is a plan, we would love to hear it. Insert OCP jokes here.
etc, etc…….that rant was fun.
I see the new org chart is located on the City web site.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/cityadministration/organizationcharts/Pages/Default.aspx
I see they have a “sustainable projects” function under Planning and Development.
Are we to assume that the rest of the projects at City Hall that fall outside of that function unsustainable?
I see the Fire Rescue Services has its own Chief Communications Officer. Is this a $100,000 a year gig to book children’s tours of the fire hall’s ?
So, now that I can see how the structure is laid out, here are some things I find strange:
1. Why is Procurement under Legal and Regulatory Services rather than Corporate Services?
2. Why are Parks and Solid Waste combined as a function?
3. Why is Business Licensing under Planning and Development rather than Legal and Regulatory Services?
4. Why are Parks under Operations while Civic Facilities are under Recreation & Cultural Services?
5. Why are Police Support Services under Recreation and Culture rather than under Corporate Services.
It looks to me that the restructuring is based more on people who are employed at the City than around functional analysis.
Working relational friction has not been done away with is my initial take. Then again, I do not work there and perhaps this is a staged transition towards a more ideal organizational structure, if there is such a thing.
I would think that given the different meanings of “communications”, that the communications in relation to fire services would center around the dispatch function …..
I took it as a serious question, rather than a tongue-in-cheek comment …. ;-)
I could use a fire rescue service sometimes when I do not pay attention to my fireplace and I notice that the fire has started to smolder ….. I then have to get up to attempt to rescue the fire … :-)
I like the City of Kelowna’s org chart which shows the senior departments only and arranges them in a logical, sequential order:
Under “Community”
1. plan
2. build
3. operate
Under “Corporate”
1. corporate & protective services
2. communication & information services
3. Human resources & corporate performance
http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDFs//Departments/Human%20Resources/Org%20charts/orgchart_CityManager.pdf
Notice the Corporate Performance part. Does not even show up on ours. The function might be there somewhere, but it is hidden for now. Perhaps with the next shuffle it will show up somewhere.
In the meantime, everyone simply puts in hours and gets paid, the hell with performance …….
http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDFs//Departments/Human%20Resources/Org%20charts/orgchart_CityManager.pdf
Hmmmm, Kelowna doesn’t have personal names next to the positions.
Gus-“It looks to me that the restructuring is based more on people who are employed at the City than around functional analysis.” (Lets hope the best person falls into over seeing snow removal).
That is so insightful, the next time that I’m in chitty hall I am going to replace the city mission statement with your words. (With your blessing , of course).
You could also be right about the Fire-Rescue Communications position, I was just on a roll city bashing.
Again, cabinet shuffle.
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