Driving an efficient and productive Council

Council is always looking at improvement and efficiency measures and to better align the organisation to deliver to the community.

During 2021/22, a number of reviews were undertaken across the organisation. These were reported to the Consultative Committee and included position redesigns in the Mechanical Workshop and Parks Service Teams. There were also team restructures in the Land Surveying and Safety and Wellness Services teams.

Further restructures are pending formalisation in the Regulatory Services Branch, the Communications and Engagement Team and Administrative Support Services within the Asset Operations and Maintenance Branch.

At the local level, our teams are implementing new technology and refinements to business processes within an ongoing environment of staff and budget freezes, as well as providing a growing volume of services to the community.

The number of Customer Requests almost doubled from 2020/21 (18,775) to 2021/22 (36,411) – a 94 per cent increase. This huge increase in workload has meant delays in completing these Customer Requests, although, comparably, the completion rate (60.3% in 2021/22 compared to 84.8% in 2020/21) highlights the efficient staff response to this substantially increased demand.

Council has an action in its 2022-2026 Delivery Program including the Operational Plan 2022/23 to identify assets and areas of service to be reviewed and determine community service level expectations in 2022/23. It is expected that from 2023/24, a program of service reviews will commence implementation.

Further information on productivity savings and financial sustainability is included on pp151-153.