On Wednesday, Dagsavisen Fremtiden wrote that the councilor in Drammen planned to cut sharply in the directorate of the municipality.
Director of Society (equivalent to the current director of culture, urban and local development, Einar Jørstad), director of management and ownership (Trond Julin), and director of development and digitization (Fredrik Holtan) are the three who remain with councilor Elisabeth Enger on top.
The other four current director positions will be wound up. The same goes for the position of director for work and inclusion, which has been vacant since Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen left.
– I do not make these cuts with a light heart, but with the financial challenges in the municipality, it is natural that the management also has to go through savings. It is important to ensure stability in the operation of the municipality, and rather look at savings in the top management level, says councilor Elisabeth Enger.
Chief safety representative John Ole Olsen has not spoken to any of the people who may be reassigned now. But he is clear on what his message to the councilor has been:
– My role has been to say that those who are affected in changing work tasks must be taken care of as all employees in Drammen should. Everyone must be cared for on an equal footing, whether they are nursing assistants or directors. That assumes I will happen.
Only male directors
The proposal also means that the top management level, apart from the councilor, only consists of men.
Councilor Elisabeth Enger acknowledges that this is far from ideal, but points out that one must look holistically at the gender balance at the top management levels in the municipality.
– If you include our skilled municipal managers, women are in the majority.
She emphasizes that the most important consideration should not be whether those who hold the positions are men or women.
– The most important consideration I have taken is which functions are most important to have in the councilor function. That there are three men left is not ideal, but coincidental.
Five director roles disappear
This means that the director positions for public health, work and inclusion; health and environment; care; education; admin. and efficiency and for culture, urban and local development are taken out of the solitaire.
This is the councillor’s proposal – but it has not been adopted. The councilor will first present the case for discussion, then she will make a decision later this autumn.
Chief safety representative Olsen emphasizes that there has been no dissatisfaction with the directors or that they have done a bad job.
– This is not at all about the people who have been employed in the jobs. But about the features. I only have good things to say about all the directors, he says.
Olsen is pleased that the line within the municipality is clearly clarified.
– The way I read the note that is coming now, I am confident in the well – being of the employees. It will not be shaken by this. If the line, from the municipal manager downwards, does not exercise its responsibility well enough towards employees, it now states that it is the councilor himself who is their manager. It has been unclear.
Chose to retire
Kirsti Aas Olsen, director of administrative efficiency, tells Dagsavisen Fremtiden that she is in a special position of the directors who are now proposing to be cut. This summer, she chose to resign as director, to move to a consultant position where she will work with leadership development at the competence center of the municipality.
Aas Olsen says that she supports the councillor’s proposal to cut the number of directors.
– My assignment as director was administrative efficiency towards the new municipality. This resulted in a cut in the administration with 15 percent fewer managers. Then I think that much of what was my mission has been completed.
The remaining people who fill the positions of director who will disappear do not want to comment on Thursday morning
Unclear distribution
The councilor justifies the changes, among other things, with the fact that it has occasionally been a bit unclear who has been responsible for what. She describes uncertainty about roles, including responsibilities and authority.
– We are ten months into the new municipality. After two months of establishment marked by start-up, we entered crisis management in March. We have simply not had enough time to prioritize development tasks and make the structure work well.
The changes come as a result of conversations with both the directors themselves, shop stewards, and managers at other levels.
The people who have the jobs will be reallocated to other jobs in the municipality, the councilor writes in its discussion note. This probably means a reduction in salary – at least the councilor concludes that it will lead to savings:
What’s the point of these directors?
While the municipal managers will concentrate on the operation of the municipal services for the inhabitants, such as education, health and care, the directors will work to ensure that the municipality reaches its development goals.
– Some have thought that we should not have directors at all, but then we become a pure operating organization, which is swallowed up by the fact that the focus on everything should work from day to day. We do not want to achieve the goals we have set ourselves to have a strong regional position, strengthen relations with the business community, work for better living conditions, develop new forms of interaction with the inhabitants and reduce child poverty.
Drammen was the first municipality in the country to have its own director of work and inclusion. Precisely this position of director Enger thinks it was toughest to put on the cut list.
– Creating jobs for as many people as possible is the basis for reducing child poverty, which is an area we in Drammen work with. I am not saying that we should not prioritize job creation now, but we must do it in a different way.
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