Aberdeen City Council’s strategic transformation committee (STC) will meet on Friday where the recruitment process for new civil servants and the authority’s assets will be reviewed.
Councillors will meet ahead of budget talks later this month, with town house insiders saying the upcoming STC was “setting the scene” for this year’s settlement.
The local authority is seeking to cut £125million in five years – with administration leaders blaming decreasing block grants from central government.
The STC, made up of leaders from the five aligned groups, was set up to provide democratic oversight of the process.
A total of 13 chief officer posts are being created with salaries ranging from around £58,000 to £85,000 – with councillors asked to potentially approve hiring a “recruitment partner” and advertising campaign if the candidates cannot be sourced internally.
These are below the £115,000 director posts which were appointed last month.
Both opposition SNP and Liberal Democrat groups opposed the shake-up when first brought forwards, arguing they did not have enough information of where the £125million cuts were coming from.
In November SNP group leader Stephen Flynn pulled out for the panel for recruiting directors “grave reservations” of their being a lack of democratic oversight of the process.
Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said: “Obviously we face increasing pressures financially given we are the lowest funded council in Scotland so that is why this transformation is needed.
“We are reviewing our spending on everything.”