City of Canning chief executive Arthur Kyron.
Camera IconCity of Canning chief executive Arthur Kyron. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Council restructure will save ratepayers $4m city chief

Pia van StraalenCanning Gazette

CITY of Canning chief executive Arthur Kyron projects the administration will save $3-4 million on staff costs after council passed an organisational restructure at a special council meeting on January 31.

Mr Kyron said the existing structure of middle management within the City – made up of 49 coordinators, 25 managers and five directors – was costing ratepayer $10.29 million a year and had the capacity to complicate the progress of the council.

Mr Kyron said he challenged the organisation to “have the courage to be amazing” by embracing modern and progressive ideas aimed at reinvigorating the reputation of Canning among ratepayers, regional neighbours and other tiers of government.

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Going forward, the organisation will have four directors after the City Futures role was made redundant.

A further 13 management positions are set to be reconsidered as well as coordinator roles.

“There needs to be a look at staffing numbers and we need to look at a plan,” he said.

“I have inherited a problem of organic growth without any plan, so we need a plan for this organisation to take into the future.”

Mr Kyron warned there would be redundancies and contracts would not be renewed, but stopped short of giving a final number of positions set to go.

He said he had engaged the relevant unions and the restructure began immediately after council passed the changes; with Mr Kyron undertaking a tour throughout City departments to explain the course ahead.

“In the restructure there will be redundancies, there will be redeployment and there will be contracts that won’t be renewed,” he said.

“But there will be an opportunity for new positions and business units to be created.”

Mr Kyron said there would be new positions created, and new programs established to streamline services and said there was no finite savings figure long term.

“The over all impact is estimated around an ongoing saving of $3-4 million a year (but) that could change depending on the next phase of the consultation, there will be ongoing savings and the intention is that all new ideas will be funded within the exiting or reduced staff budget,” he said.

“This is not a signal or softening up that we are going to increase the staffing, that is not going to be the case, we are going to mange the staffing to an appropriate level.”

Mr Kyron said he was driven towards making Canning’s staffing levels relative to the population.

“We have 1200 employees to 103,000 residents; the next largest employer is the City of Stirling who has something to the order of 1306 people employed with a population over 223,000,” he said.

“Wanneroo have 1158 staff to a population of 188,000, Joondalup have 997 employees and a population of 174,000 people.

“We need a plan to take Canning in to the future and that is what I am doing.”