Cash-strapped Angus Council is likely to trim its management team in a move which could see one of the two current strategic directors appointed depute chief executive, while the other is made redundant.
The latest corporate management structure shake-up will take effect from April 1 2019 and is expected to return savings of approximately £31,000 a year.
It comes five years after half a dozen top officials were given golden handshakes in a £360,000 cost-saving measure.
The move will create a two-horse race between current strategic directors Mark Armstrong and Alan McKeown to take the second top spot.
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Among a package of proposals to go before a full council meeting on Thursday is the reinstatement of the position of head of legal and democrat services with a salary of £115,000.
The corporate leadership team currently comprises two strategic directors, chief officer for the Health and Social Care Partnership, seven heads of service and the service leader for legal and democratic services.
Chief executive Margo Williamson proposes a reduction to one depute chief executive, a chief officer for the HSCP and eight service directors.
Her report says the council procedure for filling posts means the depute chief executive vacancy would, in the first instance, be subject to restricted internal recruitment.
As such, applications for this post would be limited to the two current strategic directors – Mr Armstrong and Mr McKeown.
If the post is not filled during the internal process, applications will be opened up to external candidates.
Mrs Williamson said: “If this were to happen other changes to the management structure may be advised and would be subject to another report.
“Reducing this tier of management from two to one will result in redundancy and severance costs for at least one of the current post-holders.
“Severance costs will arise as part of moving from two strategic directors to a single depute chief executive. It is not possible to confirm the value of such severance costs at this point ahead of the recruitment process but these could be significant depending on individual circumstances.”
The report concludes the depute chief executive grade would be the same as the current strategic directors and the post of head/director of legal and democratic services grade would be the same as existing heads/directors of service.
There are no ongoing or severance costs associated with the proposed change in the title of head of service to service director.
