Staff Writer

Town departments in Kennebunk could be reorganized as of July 1 as one step toward producing a flat funded budget for the next fiscal year. 

Town Manager Barry Tibbetts presented a proposal Jan. 27 to consolidate the current 12 department heads down to five, maintaining positions for Fire Chief Steve Nichols, Police Chief Bob MacKenzie, Public Works Director Mike Claus and Finance Director Joel Downs, and creating a Director of Economic and Community Planning position. 

Restructuring the departments will eliminate one full time employee position and will not require filling two open part time positions, and will help achieve a zero increase budget for the upcoming year, Tibbetts said. He estimated net savings from restructuring the departments will be between $25,000 and $30,000 annually. 

Reorganizing town departments will result in additional duties for some and new oversight for others. 

The police department will absorb the duties and position of youth and family services coordinator.

The finance department will add the assessor and director of information services. Duties for the social services director will be combined with the front office manager responsibilities in July, when Front Office Manager Sally McKay will be retiring after 31 years. Tibbetts said he anticipates the resignation of current Social Service Director Wanda Cannell.

Kennebunk resident Rachel Phipps expressed concern to selectmen in regard to merging two positions.

“The duties cannot be transferred by untrained personnel. The job requires someone knowledgeable with skills and experience,” Phipps said. “[Wanda] had 20 years experience and has built relationships through privacy, confidentiality and trust. The services provided are inherently sensitive.”

“The services will still be delivered — food, shelter and heat provided — just by a new face,” Tibbetts said after the meeting. “The privacy and confidentiality will still be there and relationships with different services will still be there.”

The new public services department would encompass the public works  and parks and recreation departments, as well as include management of the Kennebunk Beach lifeguards who have formerly been under the direction of the fire chief. 

The proposed creation of an economic and planning department would entail hiring a director of economic and community planning and encompass the current planning and codes offices. The director position is the only new position created under the proposal, Tibbetts said. 

Once the departments are restructured, some current department heads will be under the direction of one of the five new departments, Tibbetts said, but their job requirements will remain the same and so will their salaries.

“Their responsibilities haven’t really changed and they will still be required to do the same amount of work. I didn’t think it would be fair to cut their salaries,” Tibbetts said. “And some of the remaining department heads will be picking up additional work.”

Along with restructuring departments, Tibbetts said some boards and commissions might also need to be adjusted to reflect the new departments. Selectmen have scheduled a workshop March 3 to consider any modifications to those bodies, and are expected to continue discussion of the restructuring proposal. 

“It is not uncommon to do what I’m proposing, and I see a lot of advantages with this plan,” Tibbetts said. “I didn’t base the changes on people, but looked at how positions flow within departments. It’s a different approach, but I’m all for moving forward with this.”