Job cuts at Ottawa City Hall could be announced within a month

Ottawa's top bureaucrat says he's getting close to announcing a round of job cuts that will focus on administrative areas, and make decision-making at city hall more efficient for staff.

"I've been pretty clear with council that the objective is to improve our accountability, deal with many of the issues our staff have raised," city manager Steve Kanellakos said on Wednesday.

Kanellakos said he's spent the summer consulting with employees, including meeting 3,600 of them face to face, and poring through 10,500 comments from staff.

"They're basically sharing with me their frustration in terms of being able to get decisions made, left hand right hand being co-ordinated," said Kanellakos. "Too much process, so we're addressing that."

While Kanellakos didn't specify how many positions will be eliminated, he did make it clear where he sees the cuts being made.

"We're focussing very much on the administrative areas, we're trying to protect our front-line services," said Kanellakos.

Kanellakos added the cuts will be made by the end of October, before the city budget is tabled in November.

Cuts follow sweeping internal re-organization

The planned workforce reduction comes in the wake of a major re-organization of senior managers in July.

The revamp, which Kanellakos orchestrated just two months after being hired as city manager, saw six executive managers and two additional workers let go.

While this next round of cuts will not come as a surprise, given Kanellakos signaled his intentions back in July, it will nevertheless mean a stressful month for many City of Ottawa employees.

"I understand the employees are worried," said Kanellokos.

"Seventy-one per cent of the employees that did submit comments, it all related to organizational effectiveness. I've listened very carefully. I need to improve how they do their work because ultimately that's the only way I'm going to make the service better for residents."