Wagga Wagga City Council general manager Peter Thompson today (30 June) announced changes to Council's Commercial Operations directorate.
Mr Thompson said the restructure is required following news that Director Caroline Angel will leave the position in early July to pursue her options outside of Council.
He said that the vacancy created an opportunity to review the operations of the area.
Mr Thompson said the directorate will be divided into two, and two senior engineers will be appointed at a director level for a 12-month period to provide specialist engineering expertise to both Council's project delivery and engineering operations.
He said the community had high expectations of Council to deliver a significant capital works program to cater for the growth of the city.
Mr Thompson recognised Ms Angel's contribution to Council during her 4 years and wished her all the best for the future.
"Her leadership has been greatly appreciated, and we wish her the best for the future," Mr Thompson said.
"Whenever a senior staff member leaves a position there is an opportunity to reconsider how that area operates.
"Commercial Operations is an important portfolio and we need to ensure we keep progressing the momentum which has been building in recent years.
"This is the directorate responsible for delivering major infrastructure projects and the more efficient we are in this particular area, the more benefits there are for the community.
"We have committed to delivering around $55M worth of capital projects in 2020/21 and have another $100M allocated to our pending projects … that's an incredible amount of work before Council."
Over the next 12 months the two temporary directors will be focusing on:
- Identifying a suitable permanent structure for Council's Infrastructure area.
- Looking at Council's systems and data to ensure asset planning and strategy are working cohesively
- Implementing a cross directorate project steering committee to monitor and plan for Council's capital works programs.
- Overseeing our approach to procurement in relation to capital projects
- Reviewing Council's project delivery capacity, processes and methodologies
- Improving Council's approach to design
- Establishing a customer service focused and team-oriented culture
- Improving subdivision development services provided by Council
To assist with fast tracking these objectives and to allow a greater focus on addressing areas of priority, Mr Thompson has split the Commercial Operations directorate into a more strategically focused structure. The key changes are:
- Parks and Strategic Operations, Operations and Subdivisions will fall under an Operations directorate
- Technical and Strategy and Project Delivery will fall under a Strategy and Projects directorate
- Council Businesses will move to the Regional Activation directorate
"While 2020 has resulted in great uncertainty due to the bushfires and the Coronavirus pandemic, we're confident we will continue delivering the services that keep our city functioning, and supporting a strong local economy," Mr Thompson said.
