No.31 Regarding Organizational Reform

(Inagi Newsletter published on May 15, 2014)

City Hall has implemented an organizational reform along with this year's transition, and is now operating under a new structure. At the beginning of April 2014, to avoid confusion, we increased the number of staff at the main entrance, but was the guidance sufficient?
This organizational reform is one of the first issues I tackled after taking office as mayor, and it has been implemented after three years of preparation.
In the reform,

1. To create an organization that is easy to understand and use,
2. Reducing the burden on staff by categorizing tasks and managing them centrally in specialized departments,
3. By doing so, each staff member can focus on their respective duties and improve the quality of citizen services,
4. Consolidate human resources and improve efficiency

We established this as a basic concept. Additionally, unlike traditional organizational reforms where the Planning and General Affairs Department unilaterally creates reform proposals, we conducted hearings for opinions from staff across all departments and formulated the reform proposal for the entire City Hall.
The main points of the reform are,

1. To integrate and streamline the child-related operations that were traditionally spread across three departments as much as possible, a "Child Welfare Department Head" has been appointed.
2. In order to promote the collection of debts for the entire city, some of the outstanding payments other than taxes will also be centrally managed by the Collection Division (formerly known as the Taxation Division),
3. To categorize the necessary operations for facility management and operation by nature, and to assign each to a different specialized department.

Such as.
Although it can be summarized as facility management and operation, there are different dimensions of tasks such as "daily management" like opening and closing keys, cleaning, paying utility bills, and minor repairs; "operational management" like hosting events and lectures; "asset management" like registering in the asset ledger and preparing financial statements; and "preservation management" like diagnosing building deterioration, planning renovations, and carrying out construction.
Traditionally, each facility's organization was responsible for all of these tasks, but it was difficult for staff at each facility to become proficient in all of these tasks and execute them efficiently.
Therefore, this time, we have decided to separate these tasks in principle, with the General Affairs Department handling asset management, daily management being outsourced as much as possible, the original responsible department focusing on operational management, and the Department of Urban Development handling preservation management, allowing multiple organizations to actively engage with a single facility.
Recently, the socio-economic situation has been rapidly changing, and administrative demands are becoming increasingly diverse and sophisticated. Amidst a declining birthrate and an aging population, we must achieve maximum effectiveness with limited financial resources. For this reason, internal organizational structures such as the organization’s framework and personnel appointment systems must be constantly reviewed.
We will continue to strive to maintain and sustain citizen services, and we appreciate your understanding.