News Release
Thursday 29 May 2014

New Direction Confirmed for Rotorua District Council

Rotorua District Council chief executive Geoff Williams is confident the organisation has been sharpened to support the community’s aspirational vision for the Rotorua district for 2030.

Elected officials and the community worked together last year to create Rotorua 2030 in which a direction was set for Rotorua’s future. This included a commitment to reshape RDC to be a more effective and responsive organisation.
Today, Mr Williams revealed to staff the completed realigned Council core organisation which will take effect from 1 July 2014.

“We believe we have come up with the required model to deliver on the community’s long term vision and the more immediate 2016 priorities,” he said.

“The goal was to create a more efficient, effective and responsive organisation that would enable and navigate in partnership with our various communities and stakeholders.
“This has been a huge body of work by staff and I congratulate them for the professional way they have contributed to the process,” Mr Williams said.

“The realignment has been carried out in support of the sustainable financial framework the organisation is now working to.”

Mayor Steve Chadwick endorses the reorganisation which was called for as part of a public groundswell for change communicated to many elected officials during last year’s election campaign.

“People told us they wanted council working differently and said the organisation was inefficient. The executive has now been able to respond to this.”

Mayor Chadwick said the changes would enable a better organisation and also contribute some $3.5 million towards annual savings – but acknowledged there would also be an impact for the district.

“Some people who are working for the district now will not have a job at RDC once the dust settles and that is unfortunate for us all as that pain will be shared across our community,” Mrs Chadwick said.

“However, I commend Geoff and the staff for taking on the challenge and producing the organisational model required to deliver on our community’s future needs and aspirations.”

Effective 1 July 2014 RDC core services staff numbers will reduce from 388 FTE to 322, a reduction of 66 FTE. Also 192 FTE staff will be transferred to new CCOs and RDC carried historical vacancies into the realignment process.
The projected $3.5million of savings equates to reducing the current personnel cost by 10%.

Some 217 staff have been confirmed or redeployed into roles in the core organisation while 119 have been displaced and will be able to apply for 100 contestable positions. These will be advertised internally and or externally depending on the skills, experience and expertise available within the organisation.

There is no confirmed number of physical staff reductions at this stage as this will vary due to the recruitment process. However, affected staff will continue to have RDC’s Employment Assistance Programme (EAP) support available to them during this process.
The required recruitment process will start across June with the internal positions filled that month and externals through July/August.

ENDS

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