There are no municipal jobs on the chopping block in Meaford.
CAO Frank Miele says the review found that Meaford is staffed appropriately for its size and service levels.
And with no one being laid off, the report actually recommends that more people be hired.
For example, one recommendation is that ‘the process start immediately to hire a full time Director of Corporate Services/Treasurer’.
While that seems to fly in the face of efforts to find savings for the municipality, Miele says it doesn’t always come down to dollar savings.
He says the purpose of this whole process was to make staff more efficient and able to provide better service.
Some of the recommendations include additional training and clearer job descriptions.
Miele says if you want to get right down to dollars and cents – there’s not a lot of wiggle room in the budget when it comes to discretionary spending.
He says there’s approximately 450-thousand dollars to work with, otherwise you’re talking about cutting services.
Miele says while the Operational Review process was very stressful for municipal staff, they truly proved their worth and showed how much work they do.
He says the municipality provides 130 services, but most residents only notice garbage pick up and snow removal.
Miele says a lot of credit is due to the volunteers on the Community Task Force who helped him and a consultant perform the operational review.
Of their recommendations, he’s put together 128 into a work plan.
Of those 128 recommendations, Miele says over a third have already been implemented or will be by the end of the year.
The rest will be phased in up to 2013.
In the meantime, the CAO will provide the Committee of the Whole with a progress report every six months.