OSOYOOS TIMES-November 17, 2010

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

The Town of Osoyoos will pay $34,360 for an independent review of the Town’s structure and operations scheduled to take place over the next three months.
At a closed meeting on Oct. 27, Osoyoos council decided to award a contract for the review to Helios Group, a Vancouver-based management consulting firm.
The firm submitted one of four bids to conduct the review and the Town will pay the firm $28,000 for project services, $3,000 for travel expenses, plus $3,360 HST.
The Town’s budget for the review, which is aimed at making sure Town staffing and financial arrangements are as efficient and effective as possible, was $30,000.
According to a media release from the Town, the review will focus on four areas including the “best structure and staffing level for the Town administration,” which Town business activities are mandatory and which are discretionary, a succession plan to deal with Town employee retirements and “financial planning strategies to achieve needed capital and operational improvements.”
The review will begin later this month and is expected to be completed by Feb. 15, 2011, allowing for council to consider the firm’s recommendations during preparation of the Town’s 2011-2012 budget.
Budget deliberations have already begun and Barry Romanko, the Town’s chief administrative officer, said any recommendations that come from the review may be incorporated into preliminary budget planning.
“If there are recommendations that we have to consider for this year’s budget we may have to make some changes to our proposed actions,” he said in an email. “Given the amount of work that goes into the budget, waiting for the results of the review prior to starting the budgeting process would be administratively irresponsible.”
Part of the review process will include interviews with councillors and Town staff as well as a “review of local services and comparisons with the structure and operations of a number of similar municipalities,” the media release states.
Mayor Stu Wells has said the review will not lead to any job losses.
But reports have arisen that many Town employees are nervous about the review.
“My experience with these types of reviews is that all people (council, management and staff) within an organization have a degree of ‘nervousness’ because of the anticipation of recommendations related to ‘change,’” Romanko said. “I have expressed to staff that if they have any questions or concerns about the review that I will answer any questions to the best of my ability.”
Similar reviews have taken place earlier this year at the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) and the City of Penticton.
Seven jobs at the RDOS were cut as the result of an organizational audit, including an engineering services manager, a human resources advisor, an accountant, an environmental planner, a project engineer, an air quality coordinator and various part-time or relief positions totalling the equivalent of one full-time position.
Since the RDOS audit was done internally, there were no external costs or expenses for the review.
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