E XPRESS Thank you! The
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Locally owned and proudly independent
for saving our boy
Greg and Robyn Smith travelled from Charters Towers to Granite Gorge, Mareeba on August 2 to meet up with local couple Chad Donohue and Leah Nugent who dragged their drowning son Jack (second from left) to safety during the school holidays. FULL STORY ON P5.
TRC warns of slow down By Boyd Robertson
T
he project manager for the Tablelands Regional Council’s (TRC) upcoming de-amalgamation has warned of an impending drop in council service levels as middle management are burdened with the task of splitting the organisation’s staff and resources. Council’s chief executive however played down fears that dayto-day council services will be impacted. De-amalgamation project manager Brett De Chastel told council at the August 1 meeting that “all TRC management staff” would be saddled with extra work for several months as they are sorted into small working teams to fine-tune the transition in areas like asset management and payroll. This includes finding holes left in each department after the split and sourcing or training replacements before the official transition on January 1, 2014. The working teams will be formed in early September and their work is expected to be completed by the end of November.
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“What we’re saying is that over the next three months a lot of staff will be tied up getting the new council ready, and that’s going to impact their workload,” Mr De Chastel said. “They are going to be tied up with meetings and other extra work and obviously it’s going to make it harder for them to get back to people and do their other duties at the same time. “We hope that day-to-day services won’t be affected.” Council chief executive Ian Church admitted that there would be a noticeable slowdown in some parts of council customer service. “Some customers will notice it but we’re hoping that most won’t,” he said. Mr Church said residents did not need to worry about a loss of general council services like and that most impacts would be internal. “I don’t believe that will be the case,” he said. “This is going to impact more behind the scenes of things in middle management on longer-term internal projects... it won’t things like mowing and garbage disposal. We are going to do everything possible to prioritise work so we LOT 206 CATHERINE ATHERTON DR.
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have a minimum of impact on daily customer service.” Transfer manager Rod Ferguson explained that the working teams would “ensure both councils have a reliable level of service” after the split. “It’s a matter of identifying what skilled staff come across to Mareeba and which stay in the TRC,” he said. “In some departments it will be relatively quick but in others it might take some time.” Mr Ferguson said the extra workload was an inevitable part of de-amalgamation. “This is what de-amalgamation was always going to be,” he said. “You can’t just split; you have to make sure that both councils are still providing service to their communities.” The final list of which staff will be transferred to the new Mareeba Shire Council and which staff will remain with the TRC is expected to be complete by the end of August. The TRC employs about 570 full-time equivalent staff, and has engaged “a local firm” to provide employee support during the transition, according to Mr De Chastel’s August 1 report.
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