Harford County's new executive Barry Glassman announced a rearrangement of many county offices last week, including setting up a new Division of Citizens Affairs.
Glassman said the changes would streamline county government by offering improved customer service, according to a statement issued Dec. 3, two days after he took office.
The Division of Citizens Affairs and Administrative Services is being set up under the oversight of Billy Boniface, the new Director of Administration, and will be led by Ben Lloyd, a Boniface protege, who was deputy chief of staff under former executive David Craig.
The Office of Chief of Staff, in which Lloyd served in the previous administration, is being abolished by an executive order Glassman sent to the County Council last week.
Besides being a point of contact for residents, citizens affairs will "be a resource for County Council members serving constituents" and its chief will be a liaison between the county executive and community councils.
Prior to taking office, Glassman had not committed to continuing the community councils, a type of quasi-municipal board of citizens in Joppa, Fallston, Darlington-Dublin, Jarrettsville-Norrisville, Abingdon and Whiteford that had been revived and expanded by Craig,
Glassman also has already sent the County Council an executive order reviving the Department of Government and Community Relations that Craig shut down midway through his administration. A director and deputy director have been appointed.
He said the revived department will "promote the county's interests on behalf of our citizens with agencies, regulators and legislators at the local, state and national level."
Glassman also announced he will move Harford Transit from the Department of Community Services to the Department of Economic Development, which he said would allow the transit agency to leverage the relationships of the economic development office.
"The availability of reliable transportation is essential to promoting jobs and job growth," he said in his statement.
The risk management division will be moved to the Department of Law, except for security, which will remain under control of the director of administration.
The tourism and marketing division will be moved from the Office of Economic Development to Visit Harford!, a non-profit that promotes tourism and economic development.
The Sustainability Office will become the Division of Efficiency and Innovation, a broader entity that will still be overseen by current sustainability director Erin Ferriter.
The new division will be moved to the Department of Procurement to reflect Glassman's "philosophy of continuously identifying efficiencies throughout county government" and to leverage "the skills of my Procurement Department director nominee who has demonstrated the ability to find cost savings in large organizations," his statement explained.