Why City of Greater Geelong says council job cuts are needed

An internal email sent to City of Greater Geelong staff has shed light on why executives believe staff cuts are needed.

Acting City of Greater Geelong chief executive officer Kaarina Phyland

The City of Greater Geelong’s acting chief executive officer has claimed the city’s “future (is) at risk” and that proposed changes are necessary to ensure it becomes financially sustainable.

The internal email, from acting chief Kaarina Phyland, comes after the city recently announced it was seeking to axe some roles as part of a proposed restructure.

It’s understood there are 19 affected positions, all of which belong to the community life sector.

It’s believed the positions expected to be terminated include the social equity policy officer, social housing officer and the multicultural diversity policy officer.

“Over the past years the city has been trending into a negative underlying financial position that if allowed to continue would mean that the city would no longer be able to deliver a balanced and responsible budget in accordance with the financial management principles set out in the Local Government Act 2020,” the email, seen by the Geelong Advertiser, read.

“This puts the city’s future at risk.

“It is with this backdrop that a number of difficult decisions have had to be made by the CEO and executive team, with councillor support, to save our organisation from that situation occurring.

“These are unavoidable circumstances that are upon us, that require significant and sustained actions.”

In the email, Ms Phyland said there had also been reviews of the city’s current “business plans and funding streams across the organisation” and that work originally funded through now-defunct community grants had been identified.

“A number of initiatives and roles in the Healthy Communities space fit the parameters of originally externally funded and/or are initiatives that can be slowed/paused or other areas of our organisation can deliver,” the email read.

“This is critical to do now so we can recover our ability to be financially stable into the future for our community.”

Other internal correspondence seen by the Addy indicated consultation was expected to end by April 19, with staff then notified of role changes by April 28.

Changes are expected to be implemented by June 19.

According to the documents, the planned restructure would see the city shift its focus to five key areas – municipal planning, customer and community, infrastructure, service delivery and enterprise.

It’s proposed that several departments would also undergo name changes.

The city last week said it expected to record an $8m deficit at the end of the financial year, meaning previously promised projects would be paused and new initiatives would no longer be funded.

Australia Services Union branch deputy secretary Tash Wark said executive staff had provided “very little hard evidence” of why council was proposing these changes.

In a statement, Ms Phyland said: “Hearing from employees is an essential part of our change and consultation process.”

“While we are actively engaging with our people to ensure their feedback can be captured in the final change, we cannot make further comment.”

Originally published as Why City of Greater Geelong says council job cuts are needed