Bureaucracy and The City
Prior to May 1,2010 the City of Nanaimo staff was organized into 15 Departments.Two days later a reorganization of senior management responsibilities was announced.Included therein was confirmation that a new department has been added to the already bloated City management structure, something called “Strategic Relationships”,which includes Economic Development and Sports Tourism and is a liason to the Vancouver Island Conference Centre,the Port of Nanaimo and the Snuneymuxw First Nation. ( Why V.I.U. isn’t considered to be a strategic relationship is strange ). I assume the previous department titled “Economic Development” is now eliminated, leaving the total number of City departments at 15.
By contrast the City of Victoria ,similar in population to Nanaimo, lists 11 departments.However, to provide an accurate comparison between the two cities it is necessary to delete from the Victoria list the Police Department and the Victoria Conference Centre,because these 2 related are not classified as “departments” in the Nanaimo hierarchy.This brings Victoria’s number of comparative departments down to 9.
In Victoria, 35 senior staff manage the 9 departments:
1 City Manager
2 General Managers
8 Directors
8 Assistant Directors
16 Managers
By contrast,the City of Nanaimo lists 45 Senior Management positions in 15 Departments:
1 City Manager
1 Assistant City Manager/General Manager
2 General Managers
9 Directors
32 Managers
I suggest the City of Nanaimo have a critical look at it’s overall management structure with the intent of finding more efficiencys.Interestingly the press release notes that the senior staff reorganization ” is necessary at least in part due to the fact that the City now has fewer senior managers than it did one year ago.” That’s certainly a positive sign and hopefully the new City Manager will continue to deconstruct the bureaucracy that is Jerry Berry’s legacy.
Wayne Schulstad
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
Victoria has a similar population but a boat load more “old money”. The Greater Victoria Region (CRD) is much more and although has more “cities” in it is more along the lines of what Nanaimo and the RDN need to look at to come together and get the show on the road with planning for the future.
Having more “people” is not necessarily a bad thing but if they don’t add value and are considered dead weight, then let them go is what I say.
Surely, by looking at the CRD with a population of 400K (give or take) the RND here could stream line and get a similar system in place, no?
This is good reporting. I always thought Victoria had a much larger population. As it turns out, its the CRD that contains the population. How much does the CRD contribute to Victoria’s tax base compared to our regional district?
The breakdown of management staff to “working” staff is what we really need to look at. In my estimation there are far too many “chiefs” and not enough “indians” (I know not PC – but it is what it is!). And too many managers means that the paper has to pass through too many hands, and too many meetings, before anything is accomplished. The citizens of Nanaimo who have to work through this top heavy system are frustrated!… and rightly so!