With around thirty signings and moves in the management of the City Hall, the government of Jaume Collboni has completed the internal restructuring of the big house. The empowerment of municipal management has been a priority since the socialist mayor took over in Ada Colau. The changes go towards the Maragall model: the internal gearing is enhanced to gain efficiency and agility and it is piloted with more competitive criteria.
In this new structure, support is given to the action of a municipal government so far in the minority (with 10 of the 41 councillors), but which sets the course for the next ten years, also with a clear commitment to digital management and use and application of new technologies in all areas.
“It is not about announcing a dance of names, it is a fundamental change that has led to the restructuring of areas, starting from deleting some and merging others to be more effective and to give more coherence to management”, explains the municipal manager, Albert Dalmau, who is in charge of devising and leading this transformation, “the most ambitious in 15 years”, he says. Therefore, areas such as Housing and Urban Planning have been unified, “because the objective is to make more public housing and it didn’t make any sense for them to be separate”, and the Economy with the Economic promotion.
The municipal structure that runs Dalmau is now divided into seven departments, four with new managers (Joan Cambronero, Xavier Patón, Marta Clari and Sara Jaurrieta). In the list of internal promotions and signings with selection processes there are names like Maria Buhigas and Glòria, in the Urban Planning and Housing area; Oriol Altisench, in Engineering; Oriol Marti (ICUB); Elena Molina (Municipal Institute of Finance); Lorenzo Di Prieto (Barcelona Activa), and Álex Montes (Foment de Ciutat).
Another outstanding addition, due to his career in the technological field, is that of Emili Rubio, who comes from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) to direct the Municipal Institute of Informatics. “The bet on technology is a priority, we want to be a one hundred percent digital administration and see how we can incorporate artificial intelligence in some processes, such as hiring, and speed up the licensing or building permit processes and simplify the regulations”, explains Dalmau.
The renewal of the management structure has also affected the management of the districts with changes in Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Sants and les Corts.
“The transformation of the City Council is a priority of this mandate to prepare and address the current and future challenges of society and achieve a more efficient, agile and sustainable administration to offer the best service to citizens”, he maintains the mayor, who adds that “the objective is to take a step up in the implementation of technology and talent”. Although he is part of the previous municipal government team, with this fundamental remodeling Jaume Collboni wants to mark his own profile with his eyes set beyond this mandate.
“Barcelona City Council has always been a benchmark and solvent thanks to the team of top-level professionals that we have now strengthened”, affirms the municipal manager. “The transition has been impeccable and it was necessary for the public administration to be more efficient, so that we don’t fall behind and be able to continue offering quality services”, he adds.
With the changes already consolidated, Dalmau gathered a few weeks ago 300 municipal managers – including companies, consortia, institutes, the Urban Guard and the Fire Department – to share and set with them the new road map: the Transformation Agenda municipal He also shared the change of course with the 25 main suppliers of the City Council: “Public-private collaboration is essential”.
The organizational changes and appointments respond to this Municipal Transformation Agenda that affects the entire executive structure and also dependent entities attached to the public sector. An agenda that sets ten strategic areas, five with an external vision and five with an internal vision. In the first group there is the Endreça Plan, decarbonisation (measures against climate change), housing, major urban transformations and global reputation, which involves revising the story of the Barcelona brand to the world, enhancing the city’s leadership and promote large events.
In the internal field, the five objectives of the new municipal management are, first of all, “for an easy administration, which can guarantee comprehensive attention to the citizenry through all channels”, explains Dalmau, who is set as with the aim of taking a step towards positioning Barcelona as a European benchmark for digital administration. Data culture, with a commitment to comprehensive and real-time management of automated information, is another goal. “This will allow us, for example, to improve the cleaning service because we will manage the data provided by all the sensors carried by the vehicles, so that perhaps we will not need as many inspectors, because we will know what is happening at all times”, points out the manager of the City Hall of Barcelona.
Territorial decentralization and the metropolitan environment are other priorities, without forgetting the primary one: “Maintaining solvent finances to guarantee financial and budgetary capacity”, points out Dalmau, with the aim of maintaining a debt of less than 35% and, between others, measures, negotiating a financial co-responsibility pact for Barcelona and concentrating municipal services in publicly owned buildings.
