More than 150 Waitaki District Council staff met yesterday to hear about the next steps in the path to Transformation, and not all will have liked what they heard.

Staff from Ōamaru and Palmerston, including those who work at facilities such as the Waitaki Museum & Archive, Forrester Gallery and Ōamaru and Waihemo libraries, met in Ōamaru’s Opera House Inbox, Empire Room and online, for discussions which included proposed changes to job roles and teams, a council spokesperson said.

“We are proposing to move to a different way of delivering services and the proposed change to teams and roles is significant, but not finalised,” they said, when asked if any jobs are being disestablished or roles combined.

The changes are with the intention that services will work more effectively for the public, the spokesperson says.

Following yesterday’s meeting, a consultation process will take place, where responses from staff will be considered, any amendments made, and then final changes to roles and teams will be shared.

The consultation period will close in early June.

Council chief executive Alex Parmley says the goal is to make Waitaki "the best place to be". 

“To achieve this, we need to be an innovative council that is delivering the best for our communities. Transformation is part of this. It's about finding different ways to do things so that we can deliver the best for you, your family, your community, and our district.” 

Things have changed a lot since councils like Waitaki’s were set up, and “we need to change as well”, he says.

“An important part of this, especially in the current economic climate, is looking at doing things differently to deliver value for money with the resources we have. 

“We want to offer a better experience for communities, ratepayers, and customers of our district.

“As part of the changes we are looking at, our staff will be working differently to how councils have traditionally worked. That means we need different technology, processes, job roles and team structures to deliver for you.

"We’re focusing on the big issues that matter the most to the community so we are set up to meet the challenges facing, and take the opportunities for, our district,” Alex says.

Councillors voted in September last year to move to phase three of the transformation plan, which is implementation. The total estimated cost of the three-year plan is around $4.5m.

The council did not specify, when asked, whether this estimated cost took into consideration potential savings, if staff numbers were reduced.

“We aim to make better use of council's resource to improve our effectiveness and provide better value for money,” the spokesperson says. 

“We appreciate the community wanting to know more, and will share information once we are able to.”

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said in an online post that he and councillors want to make the council one the community is proud of.

“That's one of the core reasons we recruited Alex Parmley three years ago.

“The transformation journey has been underway for the past 18 months or so, though a lot of the work to date hasn't been that obvious to the public. 

“That is about to change as the overall structure of the council organisation changes to meet our aspirations. 

“We realise it won't be an easy transition, but we remain focused on the goals we first set out several years ago - to be the best district to live in,” Gary says.