Director restructure as Kempsey Council embarks on the largest program of work to date

An additional Utilities Director has been proposed to focus on major projects in water, sewer and waste to more effectively spread the workload across Directorates.

The move from a two Director to a three Director structure is a result of significant increase in workload for the council's senior staff over the past five years with the work expected to build.

The State and Federal Government has responded to the impact of recent natural disasters of fires and floods along with the pandemic on Kempsey Shire with provision of additional funding at a significant level.

This has seen the capital expenditure budget for the council move from around $30M in 2018-19 to $107M in 2022-23.

With an increase in budget comes an increase in programs for the Macleay.

The Water and Sewer Capital program is forecast to be around $270M over the next five years and $310M over the next 10 years.

"It's a huge program to be delivered," said Kempsey Council General Manager Craig Milburn.

According to Mr Milburn these programs, split between water and sewer and waste, come with "significant risks" to council in regard to approval processes, construction challenges, and environmental compliance.

"Currently the executive leadership team would be spread far too thin to try and do this all properly as we move forward with that workload ahead," Mr Milburn said.

Kempsey Council currently has only two Directorates, Stephen Mitchell (Director Corporate and Commercial) and Michael Jackson (Director Operations and Planning).

The new role of Utilities Director would help manage the workload with a focus on the Water and Sewer capital program which is is the largest program of work council has ever embarked on.

Council's recently completed employee engagement survey indicated an overall wellbeing score across the organisation of 58%, which is 4% below the industry average.

The wellbeing score was particularly low across council's senior leaders and so a new Utilities Directorate will be created to address the risk of burnout and staff turnover.

"We need to manage risk and that's environmental risk, it's legal risk and it's also the wellbeing of our senior leadership team, which is extremely important, and the ongoing efficient provision of services to our community," Cr Arthur Bain said.

"Waste Management is going to be a huge area moving forward where we're looking at developing the Circular Economy so that we're reusing, recycling and reducing the level of waste and the need to use landfill and there's many challenges with that".

The newly created role will be funded principally through water and sewer and waste.

"Financially it's a very efficient way of creating a third director structure," Mr Milburn said.

It is estimated that 75% of the costs would be attributed to the Water and Sewer Funds. The remaining 25% would be attributed to Waste services, with a component of that cost funded from the Domestic Waste Reserve.

"It's not hitting our General Fund in any significant way, which is an important factor as we look at our financial sustainability," Mr Milburn said.

"The benefits of having [the additional director] allows them to really focus in on these major projects, that in itself with save the organisation and save the community money in the longer term".

The organisational restructure from a two Director to a three Director structure is underway after council accepted the recommendation at the Ordinary Meeting on Tuesday, March 21.

"The 270 million dollars in water and sewer, which would incapsulate the new sewer system for Kempsey is one of the biggest projects that we've taken on in our council's history that I can think of," Cr Anthony Patterson said.

Mr Milburn says initial responses from the staff have been positive and they are not expecting any negative feedback from the staff.

"We'll commence the consultation with the staff immediately and we'll also commence recruitment immediately and it'll then be the time is takes to find a suitable applicant," he said.

Council aims to have the new senior staff position of Utilities Director filled by July 1, 2023.

IN OTHER NEWS: