Hornsby Shire Council |
Attachment to Report
No. GM15/09 Page 0 |
General Manager's Report No. GM14/09
General Manager Division
Date of Meeting: 9/09/2009
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Section
332 of the Local Government Act, requires that a Council must determine an
organisation structure and Section 333 requires the Council within twelve
months of an ordinary election to re-determine its organisation structure.
Following
the introduction of the Local Government Act 1993, the Council has determined
and subsequently confirmed, an organisation structure consisting of six
Divisions.
Consideration
of principles of organisation design and the priority areas of the current
Management Plan shows that Council’s existing structure can be fundamentally
confirmed.
As a
consequence of a review of the organisation structure undertaken by the
previous Council following the 2004 Ordinary Election, cross divisional work
teams were instituted to address customer service, asset management, recreation
services, economic development and compliance issues. Following these reviews, one structural
variation is proposed being the amalgamation of the strategic oversight of
customer service functions under one Division.
Particular
attention is given to the Strategy Division where two significant resignations
have provided an opportunity to consider the future of this Division.
Following
this review the Strategy Division could be dissolved with the functions of
economic development and the development contribution plan being allocated to
the Planning Division and the General Manager assuming direct management
control of the Corporate Strategy and Human Resources Branches.
The
Council will continue to adapt the organisation structure to meet changing
circumstances and to ensure an improvement in the provision of services to the
residents of the Shire.
PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE
It is
proposed that Council in accordance with the Local Government Act 1993 review
and determine its organisation structure and affirm the organisation structure.
DISCUSSION
Introduction
Section
332 of the Local Government Act, requires that a Council must determine an
organisation structure and Section 333 requires the Council within twelve
months of an ordinary election to re-determine its organisation structure.
Following
the introduction of the Local Government Act 1993, the Council determined and
subsequently confirmed, an organisation structure consisting of six Divisions
being:
General
Manager;
Strategy;
Corporate
& Community;
Works;
Planning;
and
Environment.
No
definition is given within the Local Government Act of an organisation
structure. Council therefore, has
determined its structure based upon these Divisions and functional
responsibilities within each Division.
This has permitted the organisation to evolve and adapt to meet the
requirements of a changing shire community.
Current
Structure
The
structure previously adopted by Council has involved the following rationale:
Strategy
This
Division was established to focus on the management of the strategic and
forward planning aspects of Council in association with the other Divisions, in
particular, to fulfil the expanding statutory requirements for future planning
e.g., Management Plan. In addition to
providing a strategic focus, the other functions which have been incorporated
into this Division assist Council with implementation of human resource
planning and work place reforms.
Works
The
divisional focus for the Works Division has been the construction and
maintenance of the physical built public infrastructure and structures within
the Shire.
Such
structures include: roads, footpaths,
drainage, public offices and community buildings.
Traffic
management, road safety, strategic property issues and the operation of
Council’s Aquatic Centres and Indoor Sports Stadium are also within this
Division.
Planning
This
Division was established to shape the natural and built environments of the
Shire through the management of the approvals and strategic land use planning
functions under the EPA Act. This
Division undertakes strategic land use planning and processes development
applications and construction certificates enabling a work team approach to
application processing.
Corporate
& Community
The
Corporate & Community Division is a service provider, providing internal
services e.g., administration, finance and information and technology services
to the organisation and community services e.g., library, child care and aged
services, to the community.
Environment
This
Division when created was a new approach representing a key priority of the
Council and demonstrated a commitment to environmental issues. Its functional responsibilities predominantly
address the care, protection and maintenance of the natural environment and
include waste services.
Principles of Organisation Design
Mercer
(HR Consultants) and Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell from the Ashridge
Business School have discussed the 6 principles of good organisation design
which they consider will assist in addressing the most difficult challenges
faced in ensuring organisational effectiveness.
They
consider that having selected a basic organisation design, these six principles
help address the key limitations or difficulties arising from any design and
are useful to consider in a review:
· The specialisation principle- unit boundaries should be defined
to achieve the most important benefits available from specialisation (with a
particular focus on what autonomy needs to be afforded to an organisation unit
to allow it be effective against the predominant organisational culture)
· The coordination principle – units should be defined so that the
activities that most need to be coordinated fall within unit boundaries (with
an ensuing focus on identifying and managing difficult links that fall across
organisational boundaries)
· The knowledge & competence
principle –
responsibilities should be allocated to the person or team best placed to
assemble the relevant knowledge and competence at reasonable cost
· The control & competence
principle – units
should be formed to facilitate effective, low cost control and commitment to
appropriate goals
· The innovation and adaptation
principle –
organisations should be structured so they can innovate and adapt as uncertainties
become clarified and environments change
· The complexity principle – the organisational design needs
to sufficiently account for the complexities inherent to the business yet
remain simple enough to allow capable people to work effectively.
Management
Plan
When
considering issues of organisational structure review, it is also important to
contemplate that structure follows strategy.
It is relevant therefore, for Council to contemplate how the existing
organisation structure can implement Council's adopted Management/Strategic
Plan.
The
Management Plan for 2009/10 – 2011/12 contains the following priority areas
identified by Councillors at their Strategic Planning Workshop in February
2009:
· Ensuring the financial sustainability of the organisation so it can
respond to future challenges
· Balancing the growing recreational and cultural needs with Council’s
ability to provide
· Maintaining infrastructure
· Managing the Hornsby Quarry site
· Increasing the commercial activity in Hornsby and the other town centres
Consideration
of these priority areas shows that Council can accommodate the elements of the
current and proposed Management Plans into the existing organisation and
indicates that the existing structure can be fundamentally confirmed, giving
each Division a chance to report difficulties, canvass issues to be resolved,
etc.
Management
Plan reviews provide the basis for reporting progress against targets for each
action. With the assessment of progress for each action, ExCo and the Council
can determine whether any further organisation structure review would be
beneficial.
2005 Review
As a
consequence of the review of the Organisation Structure undertaken by the
previous Council following the 2004 Ordinary election, the Council resolved
inter alia that cross divisional work teams be instituted to address on a
progressive basis the following:
- customer
service
- asset
management
- recreation
services
- economic
development
- compliance
A brief
summary is provided in respect to each review.
Customer
Service Review
The
Customer Service Review team was convened to evaluate the current customer
service functions provided by Council, with a particular emphasis on services
located in the
The
following broad recommendations were suggested by the review team, taking into
account constraints such as the limited ability to change the layout of the
1. Develop,
emphasise, reward and reinforce customer service culture
2. Improve
telephone protocol and demand adherence
3. Re-design
the website to be more user friendly and easier to navigate
4. Reconfigure
the layout and signage of current customer service points
5. Explore
management and reporting arrangements that will focus customer service issues
in the organisation and allow escalation of issues where necessary
6. Develop
a single customer service policy that includes complaints handling
7. Promote
the functions of Council both internally and externally
8. Review
the customer service interface for the Traffic section.
Each of
these recommendations has been addressed internally with recommendation 5 being
the recommendation with an organisation structure potential impact.
During
the review, the review team was of the opinion that customer service needed to
cut across the traditional professions within Council and customers are often
unaware of which customer service business location they need to contact.
It is
considered that there would be significant benefit in amalgamating the
strategic oversight of customer service functions under one Division. Customer services frontline staff would not
include library, waste or child care staff.
It would be proposed that the strategic oversight of customer service
come under the management authority of the Manager, Corporate Strategy within
the General Manager’s Division. It is
anticipated that this position would be responsible for establishing programs
that:
a. Facilitated
the sharing of information, personnel and practices between the various
decentralised customer service units; and
b. Established
a common set of performance requirements for customer service within Hornsby
Shire Council.
Recreation
Services
The
provision of recreation services in Council was reviewed by a Project Group,
drawn from each of the Divisions responsible for the provision of leisure
services. For the purposes of the
exercise, leisure was defined to include open space resources, aquatic and
indoor sport facilities and community and cultural facilities/services (Youth
and Senior Citizen Centres, Galleries and Libraries, Performing/Visual Art
facilities).
The
Project Group canvassed some structural variances to the one currently
operating within Council, including:
· Amalgamation of leisure activities in one area of responsibility
· Partial amalgamation – e.g. Aquatic/Indoor facilities and outdoor open
space
· Separation of strategic and operational matters.
The Project
Group identified that the current structure, where outdoor recreation resides
within the Environment Division; Aquatic, Indoor activities and cycleway
provision reside with the Works Division; and Community and Cultural Activities
reside with the Corporate and Community Services Division, functions because of
the good co-operation that exists between the various Divisions. It was considered that the current functional
structure provided the best support to the various types of leisure services
provided and encourages increased dialogue between Teams and Divisions which in
itself is a desirable benefit.
The
Project Group did however identify that there are certain shortcomings that
would be common with any structure. The
existence of the Leisure Strategic Plan (Adopted in 2002) which identifies
leisure needs across the Shire in all asset classes was seen as its
strength. The plan was formulated under
the guidance of a Steering Committee made up of Managers of the various
leisure/recreation classes within Councils.
It has directed the efforts of the various Division for the last few
years.
The
review has concluded that there are no pressing reasons to alter the current
structure. Notwithstanding, the Project
Group is of the opinion that the provision of leisure services across the
Shire, could be improved through an improved understanding of councillor and
community expectations and an agreed understanding of the priority for the
provision of leisure/recreation facilities.
Economic
Development
Following
the meeting of 9 March 2005, when the Organisational Structure Review was
previously considered, economic development became a strategic focus of the
Council. Subsequently, reports were
submitted to Council on 25 May 2005, 8 February 2006 and 8 November 2006, at
which the economic development framework and economic development strategy for
the Shire were considered and developed by Council. Although not specifically stated, it was
intended that during the period of the development of an economic strategy,
relevant staff would be retained within the Strategy Division. Following the establishment of the strategy,
the placement of operational aspects within the organisation structure was to
be reviewed.
Further
comment is provided under the heading “Strategy Division”.
Compliance
A
Compliance Review Team was established to explore whether approvals and
compliance functions should be separated to ensure compliance with Council’s
requirements. Areas included approvals
for development, food shops, waste management facilities, construction
certificates and related inspections. It
had been suggested that by separating the approvals function from the
compliance function, greater compliance could be achieved. Consequently, the purpose of the review is to
determine whether the separation of the approvals and compliance functions had
the potential benefits that would warrant structural reform.
The Team
appreciated that the expertise of staff is shared between approvals and
enforcement matters. To separate these
functions could necessitate a duplication of resources and may frustrate the
communication of changes in legislation and best practice between staff.
With
respect to the importance of communicating best practice and legislative
changes to staff managing enforcement, it was considered that rather than
separating approvals and compliance, there was a greater need for
multi-skilling.
It was
noted by the Review Team that assessment and inspection functions had been
split within Assessment Team 1 of the Planning Division, to reduce the
opportunities for corrupt behaviour. To
ensure that requirements are met and standards observed, in some circumstances
it is necessary to separate the inspection and approval roles.
The Team
also considered information published by the NSW Ombudsman and Planning NSW
Practice Note on exercising discretion which included advice on overcoming
problems associated with the exercise of discretion by:
· Being aware of the legal limitations of discretion
· Identify and avoiding conflicts of interest
· Using clear and unambiguous controls
· Carefully using performance based controls
· Separating assessment and decision making functions.
Reading
the enforcement guidelines for Councils published by NSW Ombudsman, it was
apparent that enforcement had many discretionary facets. Such discretion should be exercised in
consideration of the intent of the law, fairness, equity and environmental
outcomes.
Consideration
has also been given to the Department of Local Government’s ‘Reform Program –
Promoting Better Practice’. Upon recent
investigation of like sized councils, the Department has noted the merits of
creating a specialist compliance section that enables it to deal with a range
of compliance initiatives.
Applying
the above principles to the Hornsby context, it is considered that there would
be benefit in exploring a separation of compliance functions within
multi-skilled teams along the lines of ‘natural environment’ and ‘built
environment’. This aspect will be
pursued but is not anticipated to impact upon organisational design at the
macro level.
Asset
Management
Asset management consists of a series of actions that, taken together,
lead to the provision of infrastructure that is relevant to the community’s
needs, appropriately maintained, and for which replacement or renewal
arrangements have been made. Financial
decisions relating to assets form part of the asset management process, as does
consultation that leads to the determination of a level of service appropriate
to the community’s needs.
Asset management in Hornsby is based on plans prepared for the following
key asset classes: roads, stormwater
drainage, foreshore facilities, public buildings, open spaces and leisure
facilities. Effective financial
management underpins the actions taken in respect of the commissioning,
operation, maintenance, renewal and eventual disposal of an asset. These decisions are based on parameters that
experience has shown to be largely unique to each asset class. On this basis, the approach adopted by
Council is that those with the expertise undertake the various actions relating
to the management of an asset. Branch
Managers in the Corporate and Community Services (Administration Services,
Community Services), Environment (Bushland and Biodiversity, Parks and
Landscapes, Water Catchments) and Works Divisions (Aquatic and Recreation
Facilities, Assets, Design and Construction, Engineering Services, Property
Development) currently have the skills and/or the responsibility for such
tasks.
One option for organisation structure could involve the separation of
some of the various asset management tasks, currently undertaken within
individual Divisions, and their incorporation in a single “assets” Branch or
Division. Separation in such a manner
has the risk of loss of the synergy that comes from a detailed knowledge of the
asset and its management (especially in determining where in the asset
management cycle that any separation should occur), less effective supervision
and management as managers who are not familiar with or have the requisite
technical expertise to make decisions are required to do so, and increased
costs of doing business as resources are duplicated to cover the increased
skill acquisition, communication and consultation that may be required.
Key recommendations/decisions relating to the acquisition or disposal of
an asset are seen to be the responsibility of the asset “owner” (within the
Works, Environment or Corporate and Community Services Divisions), who
commissions the subsequent maintenance or other actions from within the
organisation (usually the Works or Environment Divisions), or externally to the
organisation. This can occur within an
organisation structure that has been determined on principles other than purely
asset management.
Experience has shown that the existing co-operative arrangements where
decisions are made in consultation with the Branch Managers across Divisions,
who have that expertise, have been effective in ensuring that Council’s assets
are effectively managed. Intentional
consultation via inter-Divisional working parties and specific project
management teams has been effective in ensuring the successful delivery of
individual projects, and has also assisted in fostering communication generally
across the organisation.
Review Questionnaire
During
late 2008, an Organisation Review e-questionnaire was distributed to all staff that
had access to a computer. The
participation rate was approximately 73% of whom 86% fully completed the
Questionnaire.
A review
of the responses received, indicates that of the issues raised, the majority
are more related to the micro, rather than the macro level of organisation
design and these will be determined by ExCo.
They do not however suggest an alternative divisional structure for
Hornsby, but more imply a need to continue to review and consider the
allocation of functional responsibilities amongst divisions.
Similarly,
Councillors were invited to submit issues for consideration, in the
Organisation Structure Review. The
responses received have been considered and incorporated into this Review.
Strategy Division
Within
the Strategy Division, there have been two significant resignations, which have
provided the opportunity to give particular consideration to the future of this
Division.
The
Strategy Division coordinates change within council, including the development
of the three year Management Plan, the blueprint for council operations. Through quarterly reviews, the Division also
works to ensure council is meeting industry standards, community expectations
and its own objectives in providing services to Hornsby Shire.
The
Human Resources Branch facilitates and leads changes in workplace reform. The Branch also encourages staff to enhance
their individual and professional skills through training and development,
which works to promote leadership and teamwork skills in their contact with
council and the community.
Under
the Development Contribution Program (Section 94), the Division coordinates the
expenditure of funds collected to provide playing fields, playgrounds and
parks, bushland regeneration, community facilities and roadworks required as a
result of new development in the Shire.
Strategy
also assists council in economic development and tourism, with an emphasis on
revitalising and strengthening employment in the shire’s commercial and
industrial sectors.
The
substantive issues of the Development Contribution Plan and Economic
Development were initially under the umbrella of the Strategy Division to establish
the strategic framework for these two functions. Having now established the
strategic focus, both have become more operational and are able to be
transferred to the Planning Division.
The
Development Contribution Plan review has already been allocated to the
Strategic Planning Branch of the Planning Division and its responsibility
should now be formally transferred.
Operational issues in relation to the granting of approvals for
expenditure from the plan can be allocated to the Finance Branch of the
Corporate & Community Division.
Similarly
with respect to Economic Development, the Economic Development Strategy has
been approved by Council and the function is now more focussed upon liaising
with the business community, overseeing the operations of the Visitor
Information Centre and marketing and promoting the Shire generally.
The
Strategy Division could therefore be dissolved, but its functions remain as two
distinct Branches which are re-allocated to other Divisions.
It is
therefore necessary to consider to which Division or Divisions the two
remaining distinct Branches should be re-allocated. Both retain to a certain
extent, a strategic focus, but also have an impact upon the whole
organisation. There is also greater
importance being placed upon the role of Management Planning, with the
introduction into State Parliament of the Local Government Amendment (Planning
& Reporting) Bill 2009.
Under
these circumstances, it is proposed that both the Human Resources Branch and
the Corporate Strategy Branch come within the direct management control of the
General Manager. Additionally it is
proposed that the Corporate Strategy Branch Manager accept the strategic
oversight of customer service functions.
BUDGET
There
are no budget implications in this Report.
POLICY
There
are no direct policy implications in respect of the recommendations contained
within the Report.
CONSULTATION
This
Report has been prepared following consultation with Councillors and the
Executive Managers.
TRIPLE BOTTOM
As this Report substantially provides Council with information related
to investigations and surveys, and does not propose any significant actions, it
is considered that no Triple Bottom Line considerations apply which require a
sustainability assessment.
RESPONSIBLE OFFICER
The
General Manager, Mr Robert Ball.
RECOMMENDATION
Attachment to Report
No. GM15/09 Page 9 |
THAT 1. The Organisation Structure be determined to consist of five (5)
Divisions being: · General Manager · Corporate & Community · Works · Planning · Environment. 2. The General Manager’s Division include a Corporate Strategy
Branch and a Human Resources Branch. The Manager, Corporate Strategy within the General
Manager’s Division assume responsibility for the decentralised Customer
Service function in accordance with the requirements set out in this report. |
Robert Ball General Manager General Manager Division |
|
There are no attachments for this report.
File Reference: F2005/00087
Document Number: D01229745