The town has eliminated two of its senior positions and is realigning its organizational structure, Mayor Jeff Genung said at his state of Cochrane address during a breakfast meeting with the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce earlier today.

The mayor confirmed rumors that have been circulating throughout the community. The changes mean positions held by Tracy Radloff, senior manager of Human Resources and Communication, and Tracy Brooker, manager of Recreation, Culture and the Arts, have been eliminated.

Human Resources and Communications personnel will report directly to CAO Dave Devana while those in the recreation, culture and arts department will report to Gerry Murphy, community services senior manager.

"It's not about people," explains Genung. "It's about performance and efficiencies and moving in the right direction."

"It may seem like a small shift, but organizationally it was pretty big."

Neither of the positions will be rehiring, says Genung, and the town intends to move forward in a more streamlined manner.

The decisions fall fast on the unprecedented town staff meeting that saw operation shut down for two hours on Jan. 29 to discuss issues that have been rearing their head within the town's operation.  Genung and CAO Dave Devana lead the meeting to attempt to resolve those concerns.

Whispers were floating through the community on the town employees forming a union and Genung says he had noticed the town staff morale was low.

"I have to be careful with what I say because I can't be in favour or opposed to a union or talk someone in or out of a union by law, but the fact that someone would want to become unionized in Cochrane bothered me. So I stopped focussing on the union and started focussing on the problem."

CAO Devana is heading a committee representing a cross-section of town employees to talk about issues and to encourage staff to bring forward ways to improve town operations.

"It will be a town-way conduit of connectivity between the town staff and CAO to break down the barriers," he explained.

Some of the problems may lie in some of the policies implemented by the town, suggested Genung, and they are being reviewed.

Genung included a team building exercise in the town staff meeting involving plastic building blocks.

"I asked them at the end, 'Who is with us? Who will stand up in front of everybody and come down and put block beside mine and the CAO? Who will help rebuild the culture and build the community with us?"

An icebreaker occurred when one of the plastic pieces was thrown at Genung.

"It was a guy I knew for 30 years and he laughed and that kind of broke the ice and we built a cool little castle."

Despite the tension that has existed, Genung says 99 per cent of the town staff is doing a great job. He says this is just a start and realizes more has to be done to resolve concerns.