Haese is also backing an historic organisational overhaul of council and its administration.

Haese told InDaily that the council would deliver “major projects” for the city starting 2016, but continue to focus on improving city infrastructure.

“I think we can do both,” Haese said.

“I’m not in a position to announce many things at this point in time.

“But I can say that we have open discussions with government about … projects in the city which I wish to pursue in 2016.

“This is the year of delivery.”

One of those projects, said Haese, would be the development of state-of-the art north-south and east-west separated bikeways crossing the CBD.

Negotiations with the State Government on funding for the extension of Frome Street bikeway are in their final stages, and a memorandum of understanding on joint funding for the extension is expected within weeks.

Haese concedes that the council had become “consumed in micromanagement” about the bikeway’s design in 2015.

He and new council CEO Mark Goldstone said they planned to overhaul the way the council meets, and the structure of its administration, to allow better-informed decision-making.

They said the changes are designed to avoid the council becoming bogged down in the minutiae of city projects, and allow members to focus on longer-term strategy.

Goldstone told InDaily the council’s decision-making framework – in which elected councillors meet one week as a “committee”, which recommends actions to itself as the “full meeting of council” the following week – was “odd”.

He said there would be “significant changes” to the structure.

“There are definitely more productive ways that the council meets,” he said.

Goldstone said he wanted to “allow discussion, comments, and points to be made freely, so that you can get some conversations happening that make sense” during council meetings.

And major changes were coming, to ensure that the council is “a very mature, informed decision-making body”.

“That will lead us away from minor details, and (towards) more strategic policy issues, and that is where elected members can add best value.”

Last week, Goldstone unveiled his sweep-out of the council’s top bureaucracy, with all five council general managers to be removed in favour of four new “directors” who will require a “much different skill set” .

The new senior management team would “need to direct, and stay at the strategic level in the delivery of the strategic plan, whereas general managers tend to … get involved in day-to-day management,” said Goldstone.

Lower-level managers would then be “empowered” to manage their patch more effectively and to collaborate on issues that affect all areas of the organisation – such as climate change policy and the park lands – which he said were currently mired in “silos”.

Haese said the council organisation was not “joining the dots very well” between related sectors, such as tourism and the arts, and that the shake-up would help connect them.

He said the council could do much more to promote international and interstate tourism during the Fringe Festival.