Hamilton City Council has introduced a proposed revamped structure for the organisation, which aims to achieve the goals of the Hamilton Plan.
The new structure will see the reorganisation of council forming six key departments to replace the current eight; four will be new and will mean 16 positions would be disestablished and see 12 new jobs created.
Dubbed Hamilton's 'blueprint for the next decade', the Hamilton Plan highlights 10 priorities for the city: Balance the books, become the third largest city economy, provide outstanding infrastructure, connect with the river, remain best garden in the world, be an active and strong commercial city with distinctive suburban villages, be an urban garden, access affordable housing, capital of high performance sport, celebrate arts and culture.
Hamilton City Council CEO Richard Briggs said the restructure is an opportunity to streamline the organisation.
"I've been in the role since October and in that time I've been working to better understand council strategies and where we are going as an organisation," said Mr Briggs.
"Council has adopted the Hamilton Plan and I believe it is appropriate to build a structure that is capable of delivering that plan."
There are currently eight departments with general managers: finance, performance, organisational development, community, events and economic development, city environments, customer relationships, and city infrastructure.
Six of the eight departments will be disestablished, with four new ones created.
Community and infrastructure will remain. Corporate, strategy, H3 (which looks after council assets such as Claudelands) and growth will replace the six disestablished departments.
"Of my eight current general managers, six of those positions have been disestablished under this. That is a reflection of an alignment with structure. This is the best team I've worked with, they're very switched on bunch, so it's in no way a reflection of performance."
Mr Briggs said he began communications with staff and elected members on Thursday.
A two-week consultation period will take place followed by consideration from Mr Briggs on information gathered during that period.
"The impact of the restructure is to focus on some really key areas, community and infrastructure already have appropriate structure. I have introduced a new growth team.
"That new team is to focus on better understanding the needs of developers in Hamilton to ensure the building control and resource consents are designed to support that growth to enable better growth and involvement with council.
"At the moment we do a very good job in terms of meeting the needs of developers, but we have a lot of growth on the horizon.
"This is just making sure we have a team geared up to meet the challenges of that increased growth.
"As growth and development happens there is more pressure placed on council.
"I want to make sure the structure in that area is ready to handle that challenge."
The corporate team will focus on the in-house areas of council such as finance. Strategy will focus on what is coming for the city.
"One of the areas I've been focusing on is building a strong strategic focus within the senior leadership team - that means to ensure that the organisation is aware of what is on the horizon, so they're aware of the growth challenges, they're aware of some of the other challenges fronting council.
"That is an extra push to ensure the organisation is ready for growth, the challenges which come with growth, that is ensuring we meet the needs of the community. An example is within the 10 year plan, it is making sure we keep focused on what the community wants and feed that back to the elected members so they can have the right discussions when considering by-laws etc."
Councillor Martin Gallagher said he considers the proposal logical. "I can see the logic. I'm comfortable. He's calling for feedback, it would be my intention to give feedback at some point to clarify one or two things, but the structure that he's proposing seems sensible."
Disestablished staff will have first opportunity at the new roles.
Councillor Dave Macpherson said he is concerned about the period of time it could take to see savings from any proposed redundancies.
"It [could be] this time next year before the cost of redundancy are covered by the savings.
"It will take over a year before we can recoup the cost of redundancy. Why bother?"
He wants to see jobs renegotiated with current employees.
"Let's keep the existing staff and stop mucking around. We have some very good staff at lower levels who will be delivering the same programmes as they were before."
Council created the Hamilton Plan to help guide development of a stronger economy and make the city more attractive for families given Hamilton's fast growing population, forecast to reach 174,000 over the next decade.
The plan's priorities centre on building on the lifestyle and economy Hamilton already has, to maximise all the opportunities.
If achieved it would see an enhanced economy and act as a drawcard for tourists and the country's top athletes.
The Hamilton Plan was adopted by council as the new Community Outcomes within the 10-Year Plan.
The 10-Year Plan outlines the council's priorities, plans and budget for Hamilton over the next decade, with a specific focus on the next three years.
For more about the plan visit www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-council/hamilton-plan/Pages/default.aspx.