Changes to the town's governance structure approved

At an extraordinary meeting of the Hafnarfjörður Town Council this morning, the following changes to the administrative structure of the Borough of Hafnarfjörður were approved.

Change to the administrative structure of the Borough of Hafnarfjörður:

The Hafnarfjörður Town Council approves the following changes to the administrative structure of the town of Hafnarfjörður.

The municipality will have four service departments and two support departments. The service departments are primarily concerned with serving the town's residents, while the support departments' tasks are aimed at supporting the implementation of projects in the service departments.

The town's organisational structure will, following the changes, be divided into family services, education and leisure services, environmental and planning services and harbour services. The two support departments will be the administrative department and the finance department.

The new organisational chart emphasises achieving better utilisation of manpower and, at the same time, positioning projects more effectively alongside others where synergies are evident.

The main changes to the current governance structure are:

· the sports and youth affairs, after-school clubs and youth centres are transferred from the family service to the education and leisure service,

· the planning and building projects are transferred to the Department of Environment and Operations, which after the changes will become the Department of Environment and Planning Services,

· Port services will be brought under the remit of the mayor.

In addition, the internal organisation of each department shall be reorganised in accordance with the town's revised administrative structure.

The plan will be implemented in two phases, with the activities of after-school clubs and youth centres being transferred from the Family Service to the Education and Leisure Service with immediate effect, but it is important that this transfer is not delayed so that school managers can take it into account in their preparations for the next school year.  In the second phase, other activities will be transferred in accordance with the new structure, and this transfer must be completed no later than 15 September.

It is clear that these organisational changes involve staff reallocations and changes to staffing levels.  The aim shall be that the revised operational focus yields increased profitability. The mayor is tasked with implementing the changes necessary to achieve the efficiency required by the new organisational structure.

The post of Director of Planning and Building will be abolished.

Hafnarfjörður Town Council agrees to abolish the post of Director of Planning and Building.

The organisational changes previously approved envisage that the planning and building functions will be integrated into the Environment and Operations department, which will thereafter be known as the Environment and Planning Service.  The position of Director of Planning and Building is thereby abolished. The head of the combined department will be the current Director of Environment and Operations. The Mayor is tasked with implementing the necessary changes.

The following proposal, which was referred to the town council, was also before the meeting:

Communication rules between elected representatives and town staff

The Hafnarfjörður Town Council agrees to instruct the Mayor to prepare a code of conduct for communication between elected representatives and the town's employees.

It is important that there are clear lines between the roles of elected representatives and staff, so that both staff and elected representatives are aware of each other's areas of responsibility.  Rules of engagement of this kind are designed to sharpen the distinction, clarify roles, ensure professional handling, and increase the certainty and speed of case processing.

The town council agreed to refer the proposal to the town board.

On the homepage of www.hafnarfjordur.is, you can watch a recording of the meeting.

Here you can access an analysis of the town's operations and governance – the analysis section.