AUBURN — Fewer, more efficient department head meetings are just one of the results of a revamped organizational structure at Auburn Hall.

City Manager Glenn Aho on Monday night outlined his effort to remap city management, making it more nimble, efficient and responsive to resident needs.

The plan reorganizes city hierarchies — with fewer people reporting directly to Aho — standardizes services and creates testable benchmarks for city employees.

The goal is to create an organizational plan for city government that is more efficient and less expensive.

Aho said the changes grew out of necessity and last year’s budget cuts. Department heads have been working with Aho since the summer to draw up the management plan.

“We reduced staff, and we had to find a way to make that work,” Aho said. “We had to do something. We simply could not work with fewer employees. We had to look at how we could make ‘teamwork’ work with the city of Auburn.”

According to the plan, Auburn’s departments have been grouped into three teams. The public safety team includes Police, Fire and the city’s representatives to the LA 911 center and the county Emergency Management Agency. Public Services includes Public Works, Planning, Engineering and Parks and Recreation. The Public Administration department includes Finance, Assessing, the City Clerk and Health and Social Services.

Each team has a leader and that leader meets weekly with Aho, acting Assistant City Manager Phil Crowell and each other.

“Before, we had weekly department head meetings with 14 department heads, all together around one table,” Aho said. “It was difficult for everyone because they were all so different. And there were so many people, some were reluctant to talk.”

Now, those department heads meet regularly with the other members of their smaller teams.

“With this structure, we have been able to eliminate three administrative positions,” Aho said. “So, what we are doing, instead of having people up there, we are hiring more people down here. Instead of hiring someone at $80,000, we are hiring someone at $26,000 that can actually help with permits, for example.”

Departments have spent considerable time working to understand their core functions — their programs, in Aho’s explanation. They have a number of jobs, or projects, that make up each program.

For example, inspections are one program under the city’s Planning and Permitting department. Those employees will perform inspections of electrical work, sanitation, building, internal plumbing, fire, waste water and festivals. Each inspection is considered a project, according to Aho’s definition.

Aho said staffers have developed policies for each project, explaining the steps to follow to make them work.

“You have to define what you do before you can measure it,” Aho said. “It creates standardization because you want things done the right way each time and every time. It also sets expectations so everyone involved knows what is going to happen.”

Aho said staff has been working to adopt the new structure over the past few months and he’s presented it to a management class at Central Maine Community College and at the Maine Municipal Association’s annual technological conference last week in Bangor.

“If you talk to our department managers, you’ll find that they like this,” Aho said. “They believe in this, it make sense. So, why not trust your own employees?”

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