Task Force: Merging City Departments Will Save Money

After 12 meetings since December, the mayor’s Task Force on Efficiency in Government had recommended two key changes to the operations of city hall, according to an article in the Hartford Courant.

The creation of the panel was spurred by the retirement, and impending retirement, of a good number of city employees, Mayor Dan Drew said late last year. “We have a few dozen that have already or will be retiring in sort of a wave,” he said, from September of this year to March of 2012, scattered throughout various departments.

The task force has arrived at a plan that would save the city money through attrition, the Courant reports, by, "merging the information systems and tax assessor departments into the finance department; merging the personnel, legal and human resources departments; transferring the arts office and building division into the planning department; transferring the parks division and parking department into the public works department; and merging the senior services and recreation departments."

The panel also suggested a job performance goal and review system for city employees.