MARSHALL — The city of Marshall will be reorganizing its Community Services department after action by the Marshall City Council this week. The move will eliminate the city’s community services director position and re-evaluate all positions within the department, but could also increase efficiency, city staff said.

“Recently, administration took on a review of the Community Services division, and how best to meet the future goals of the division,” Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson told city council members Tusday. Hanson said she was recommending some organizational changes, that would flatten the structure of the Community Services division.

Under the proposed reorganization, the position of community services director would be eliminated. Hanson said the director position was deemed not to be necessary under the reorganization. The new division structure would instead have a community education coordinator, a media communications specialist, and a combined parks and recreation director all reporting to the city administrator.

City staff’s recommendation to the council was to approve the reorganization effective Jan. 1, with the current community services director being terminated effective Dec. 16.

Hanson said reviews of job descriptions in the Community Services department would start after the council made a decision on the proposal.

“We are always in a state of continual process of improvement,” Hanson told council members Tuesday. “Each time we look at the organization, we are looking at ways to make adjustments to improve.”

Hanson said some of the structural changes city departments have gone through in recent years included changes to the city finance department, and the city building department changing into the community planning department in 2018. In addition, some city departments like public works and public safety have also gone through leadership changes in the past few years, she said.

Council members voted in support of the proposal, but they did voice concerns about making sure supervisors in the new structure weren’t taking on too much. Council member Russ Labat said he didn’t agree with having the city recreation coordinator reporting to a combined parks and recreation director.

Council member John DeCramer also said council members had talked about the number of people directly reporting to the administrator. Under the new Community Services structure, “It’s still within a reasonable number,” DeCramer said. “But a caution not to exceed that by much.”

Under the proposed reorganization, there would be a total of eight positions directly reporting to the city administrator. In addition to the Community Education, parks and recreation and media communications positions, other direct reports would include the city assessor, the director of administrative services, the economic development director, the director of public safety and the director of public works.

Council members voted to approve the reorganization of Community Services, with council member Labat abstaining.