The city of Missoula is well on its way to getting rid of the position of finance director and replacing it with an entirely new position.

"We re-titled the position to Central Services Director and given the position more responsibility, said City of Missoula Chief Administration Officer Bruce Bender. "So, it's bringing together all of these different divisions that have basically internally serve in the city employees and in city operations and trying to centralize them so we get the efficiencies and the effectiveness of bringing together all of those functions."

Departments such as Finance, Human Resources, City Clerk, Vehicle Maintenance, and even Geographic Information Services will all be under the new Central Services Department. Bender says the change was not made because of public complaints about inefficiency.

"These divisions are very effective right now, so it's not really a cry to improve performance, but it's more or less bringing together this energy of these different divisions so that they can be more effective overall, so it's really more an opportunity," Bender said.

Resumes have already been collected and Bender says the city has narrowed the selection down to three candidates. Final interviews will begin in February.

Bruce Bender:

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