A major revamping of the town's senior management is seen as a step towards a more progressive and innovative approach to governing the municipality.

Yesterday the town announced the elimination of two positions from its senior management team. It has been reorganized under four general managers, all reporting to Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Dave Devana.

Devana has served as CAO since October 2017 and inherited a senior management team structure. He believes it could be more effective.

"In organizations of our similar size, the senior management team is not as large as the one we have here in Cochrane," says Devana. "I felt it would be a good time to streamline our senior management team, and then focus on some areas where we can make some improvement."

The responsibilities of the eliminated positions will be redistributed.

"We did deem that two of our jobs were redundant and those people no longer work with the town. It has nothing to do with their performance. They were great performers, and have provided a lot for us over their time here, but I don't have a position for them anymore."

Devana said the restructuring places like-minded people with the same skillsets together.

Previous part of Community Services, Parks and Open Spaces now falls under Infrastructure and Operational Services.

Development and Community Services is large a revamp of Development Services and now includes Family and Community Support Services.

"The thinking here is that this will allow us to plan a community that is more inclusive as it relates to the services provided by FCSS," says Devana.

Corporate Services has been modified to include Business Development, a revamped approach to economic development. It also includes a new position of director of corporate affairs and strategy.

"We see this as a group that's going to allow us to be more strategic, be more innovative, and encourage a greater amount of economic development," says Devana.

"A lot of this goes back to the innovation outpost and us trying to do new things and be a more progressive community. In this group here, we're putting like-minded people in one place, and see what they can achieve there."

With the changes, Devana estimates the town will see a savings of about $60,000 per year in its current three-year budget.

We've taken the savings from the senior management area, and we've reallocated them to new positions.

Devana says town council has been supportive.

"This particular council has been very progressive, and they want to move in new directions. This is an opportunity for us to move in a bit of a different direction, but at the same time, we want to recognize all the great contributions that were made by the staff that are no longer with us."

Mayor Jeff Genung believes the change is about creating new opportunities.

"The community as a whole has been demanding and has expectations of the organization to continue to evolve with it into the future," says Genung.

"I think we've had a gap for a long time in the overall strategy for the community. We need an overarching eye on everything. I feel like we've been lacking a binding between each, where we have one hand talking to another.

"I'm not saying anyone has done anything wrong," he continues. "I just think we have been so busy, and the growth has been so extreme that we've been keeping up, and that's it."

Genung says he has been in discussion with Devana for some time on creating an optimal organizational structure.

"It was just felt that this was the right time."