REYNOLDS PLANTATION – Mayor Chuck Shaheen, wrapping up a two-day retreat of city officials and department heads, proposed an organizational chart for the city Saturday that would create some new positions.

Shaheen, after quoting from Matthew 7:24 in the Bible, said the chart would give the city a foundation on a rock for the future.

According to the chart, new positions of public safety commissioner and operations manager would be created.

The city’s department heads of engineering, city development, pubic works, utilities and recreation reporting to the operations manager.

The police and fire departments would report to the public safety commissioner.

The city’s human resources, purchasing and building authority departments would report to the city clerk, along with the new position of assistant city clerk.

“This chart is built for success, I promise you,” Shaheen said. ‘The mayor cannot manage 10 to 12 departments. This is the 21st century and we cannot run the city like we used to in the 1960s.”

Council member Paul Shealy asked if the new positions would be filled with people already working for the city, and Shaheen replied that some positions would.

He added that he was proposing the chart in order that a full-time mayor would be successful, saying Foy Evans was the last successful two-term mayor in the city.

Council member John Williams questioned why the city would raise its overhead with new high-paying positions, and council member Bob Wilbanks said experts who can handle any questions already head the city’s departments.

Shaheen said the chart would enable him to better delegate authority.

In another matter, Shaheen asked council members their opinion of putting up a portrait of former council member Clifford Holmes on the wall of the lobby at city hall along with other former mayors. Holmes, then mayor pro tem, filled in for more than two months in the fall of 2008 when then-Mayor Donald Walker was ill.

“I’m getting questions about doing this,“ Shaheen said.

“An acting mayor is different from an elected mayor,” said Williams. Council members said they would think about it.

The two-day retreat was an exercise in team building and clarifying of the roles of department heads, city council and the mayor.

Retiring Northside High football coach Conrad Nix spoke Friday about the importance of teamwork and the individual. Rabun Neal, president of Reynolds Plantation, opened the retreat Friday with a talk about the development and how they overcame obstacles to make it a success. Walt McBride of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at UGA led the Saturday sessions.