EDMONTON -- A report from the City of Edmonton's auditor calls for a reduction in the number of managers the city employs, citing a 21 per cent increase over the past three years.
The report shows the city has hired 232 new staff since 2017, prompting city auditor David Wiun to recommend reviewing supervisor roles and responsibilities in an effort pare down costs.
"Since 2017, the workforce has grown each year and supervisory full-time equivalent positions (FTE) have grown disproportionately high compared to non-supervisory FTE," he wrote in the report, noting non-supervisory staff had declined by 1 per cent since 2017 while the number of supervisors grew by 21 per cent.
"Reversing this growth by reducing supervisory FTE is an effective way to reduce costs for the organization."
His audit shows the number of middle managers grew by 22 per cent and the number of front-line supervisors grew by 19 per cent since 2017.
"Clearly the auditor has found that there are more supervisors than we need in this organization, as we look to manage the workforce ... we are likely to shed positions in the coming budget cycle," said Mayor Don Iveson.
"I'll be looking for and pushing for a good number of those positions to be supervisory positions."
Iveson said the city would need "unusual cooperation" from labour unions given a number of those supervisory positions are unionized.
"The City welcomes the recommendations and findings from the audit. We've always committed to continuous improvement and that includes reviewing the number, cost and composition of our workforce," said Interim City Manager Adam Laughlin.
The report will be discussed further at a meeting of the Audit Committee on Sept. 18.
