INC NEWS - City manager unveils Durham reorganization (N&O)

[Melissa Rooney]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

I hope the sustainability 'department' comprised of one Tobin Freid, is included in this interdepartmental working together.

Melissa

Melissa Rooney
mmr121570 at yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 11/20/08, John Schelp <bwatu at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: John Schelp <bwatu at yahoo.com>
Subject: INC NEWS - City manager unveils Durham reorganization (N&O)
To: inc-list at DurhamINC.org
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 3:12 PM

City manager unveils Durham reorganization
By Jim Wise, News & Observer, 20 Nov 2008
 
Just three months into the job, City Manager Tom Bonfield is putting his brand
on Durham.

On Thursday, Bonfield unveiled a reorganization of the city's
administration to "promote departments working together."

Bonfield's plan aligns the city's 23 departments into three
"teams" or "theme areas," each under a deputy city manager
charged with "facilitating" inter-department cooperation.

"It isn't about controlling anything," it's about
facilitating," he said.

Reorganization goes into effect Jan. 1. Current deputy manager Ted Voorhees
takes responsibility for Operations -- including police, fire, emergency
management and communications, public works and water among others.

Current deputy Wanda Page gets Administration & Support: finance, budget,
personnel and three others.

A third deputy position will be created for Community Building by shifting a
currently vacant position from elsewhere in the city bureaucracy. 

"For the time being, that's going to be me," Bonfield said. That
six-department "theme" includes economic development, planning,
inspections, community development, neighborhood services and human relations.

"I like it," said Mike Barros, community development director.
"It makes more sense than the old one."

Bonfield said reorganizing will probably lead to some jobs and divisions moving
to new departments, but not to a larger staff. Bonfield said the plan was
designed for the existing staff and "recognizing the budgetary challenges
that face the city over the next several years," according to a memo sent
to council members and department heads Thursday.

Earlier this fall, Bonfield had spoken of a need for "fiscal
discipline" in City Hall and for planning the city's work and spending
in terms of set priorities from year to year.

"We're not very good at that," council member Eugene Brown said
before Bonfield announced his plan. "And that's an
understatement." In the immediate future, Bonfield said top priorities
should be fiscal management "based on economic reality"; improving
completion of capital projects such as street resurfacing; and streamlining
procedures for development review so that the city does not impede economic
progress. 


_______________________________________________
INC-list mailing list
INC-list at rtpnet.org
http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/listinfo/inc-list



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/private/inc-list/attachments/20081120/8af01b76/attachment.htm>