Tauranga City Council's building on Willow St. Photo / NZME
Nearly $300,000 has been spent on a staffing overhaul at Tauranga City Council.
And the restructuring costs may not be over yet.
Data released through a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request reveals two restructures this year have already cost ratepayers $288,000 and come as part of the council's response to increased pressure presented by the city's increasing growth.
During the first six months of this year, 18 positions were disestablished within the council - 17 from within the organisation's People and Engagement Group and one from the Strategy and Growth Group.
However, 21 new positions were created. These include 17 new positions within the People and Engagement department and four in the Strategy and Growth area. They include fixed-term roles.
As of January 1 this year, there were 718.8 full-time equivalent employees at the council. As of July 31, this grew to 756.2. But there could be more to come as a proposed restructure affecting the council's Spaces and Places team is also in the works.
A proposal is now out for staff consultation and feedback.
Democracy services manager Coral Hair said restructures helped the council evolve the way it did things "in line with community expectations and our work programmes".
The overhaul of the Strategy and Growth department (also known as Growth, Funding and Policy) allowed greater resourcing that would help identify infrastructure funding opportunities. It was hoped to also better address development contributions, Hair said.
"With the growth we are experiencing in Tauranga, there has been an increase in the number of more complex development contribution assessments."
The restructure also changed reporting lines for some roles to better address responsibility and accountability, she said.
The restructure of People and Engagement (also known as Communications and Engagement, or Community Relations) was part of a new community relations strategy.
"Underpinning the strategy is our desire for our council to put the community at the heart of everything we do... this means understanding our communities better and serving their preferences in our approach," Hair said.
Roles in this department were redesigned to enable some "to focus more on strategic communication planning". There was also a greater focus on digital communications, including videography and customer insights, Hair said.
The restructure of the Strategy and Growth department cost $222,000 and another $68,000 for the People and Engagement Group department. Both restructures were included in the Tauranga Long-term Plan this year.
PSA Union organiser Peter Robertshaw said its members were engaging with Tauranga City Council's current proposal and expected its views would be considered carefully.
"Restructures are never easy and have long-lasting repercussions. It is a time of uncertainty for staff and a challenge for people who need to make changes to the way they work," Robertshaw said.
"There are many councils undergoing restructures at the moment as they adapt and evolve to reflect community need and funding challenges. They also are often grappling with issues relating to the delivery of services, local democracy, climate change, infrastructure spending and the provision and use of water.
"PSA is hopeful Tauranga City Council listens to their workers, and gets it right."
Other council restructures in New Zealand within the past year include the overhaul of Hutt City Council, which disestablished 56 roles and created 11 redundancies.
Hutt Valley council chief executive Jo Miller said at the time there needed to be the appropriate resource to match the council's priorities.
A Tauranga Ratepayers' Alliance spokesman said restructuring should be about making the council more efficient and doing more with less.
Citizens' Advocacy Tauranga chairman Rob Paterson also questioned why the council now had more staff when, in his view, there should be fewer.
"Find the right people. If you have to pay them more, that's fine ... but you don't need more of the wrong people."
However, Paterson said he did not think the restructure itself was bad. "The bottom line is we want bang for our buck."
Local Government New Zealand principal policy advisor Dr Mike Reid said restructures in councils were essentially "good practice".
"To be effective, councils need to reassess if they have the structure in the right way to meet the community needs, such as 'do we have enough people to deal with these pressures?', 'have things changed?', etc."
Asked whether the money spent was likely to be good value for the city, Reid said: "You have to look at what are the costs if you don't restructure."
"These are judgments the CEO has to make, and they are not easy judgments."