The Aurora City Council is set to consider the reorganization of various city divisions, along with other related changes, at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday.
The proposal from Mayor John Laesch’s new administration would touch a variety of city functions, including communications, legal, community services, public safety and economic development. No positions are expected to be cut because of the proposed change, city officials have said.
Laesch told The Beacon-News in an interview earlier this month that the changes were made based on “common sense,” efficiency of operations and his own priorities as mayor. In Aurora City Council committee meetings, he has said the changes were made after talking with city staff.
Likely the largest of the proposed changes is that the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs will no longer exist. The three divisions previously under that department will be spread out across the city: equity and engagement will each be made into their own sub-department under the control of the Mayor’s Office, while special events will be taken over by the communications department.
This change is at least partially being made because Clayton Muhammad, who ran the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, left his role in May, according to Laesch.
Special events and communications have already been working together, so it makes sense to put them together, he said.
The community engagement function is going to be different under his administration, Laesch said, and it will be working closely with Deputy Mayor Casildo “Casey” Cuevas.
Proposed language to establish the equity sub-department is currently being looked at by the legal department to make sure it complies with recent executive orders from President Donald Trump, since the city does not want to lose federal grant funding, Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson said at a recent committee meeting.
Another proposed change is that the Clerk’s Office would be moved out of the law department to report directly to the Mayor’s Office as its own sub-department. Laesch said that what the clerk does and what the law department does are two different things, so it makes sense to separate them out.
The city’s Emergency Management Agency would also become a sub-department instead of a division under the fire department. Emergency Management Coordinator Natalie Wiza told a committee earlier this month that the change would help the agency since it is supposed to work directly with more than just the public safety departments, plus it needs to be able to tell different departments what their roles are during emergencies.
The Animal Care and Control division would also be moved out from under the Public Facilities department and will instead be part of Community Services. It fits under the leadership of Community Services better, Laesch said.
Finally, the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development is proposed to be replaced with the Office of Sustainability, Development and Business Opportunity. Sustainability was a large part of Laesch’s campaign, and soon after the election, he told The Beacon-News that he planned to add a sustainability aspect to the city’s economic development efforts.
He also said at the time that there would likely be some overall city restructuring, like what is now being proposed by his administration.
The proposed organizational changes have been discussed at multiple Aurora City Council committee meetings over the past month.
The first committee to see it, which was the Rules, Administration and Procedure Committee, voted to move it along in the process without a specific recommendation for approval. It then went before the Committee of the Whole twice before being placed on the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Aldermen generally seemed to accept the reorganization plan overall, though some questioned certain specific changes, such as moving EMA under the mayor’s office when it had previously been under a department related to public safety.
But the biggest hang-up for many aldermen was the designation of the Aldermen’s Office as a “sub-department.” City officials said this was to formally give office Chief of Staff Rich Jacobs purchasing and other administrative powers, but some aldermen said the change seemed like it would make the office report to the mayor’s office, effectively changing the city’s form of government.
Although city officials tried to revise the language so it was clear that the Aldermen’s Office did not report to the mayor’s office, which they said was never the intention of the proposed change, aldermen instead pushed to have their office called something different, not be labeled as a “sub-department.”
Staff said they would try to have a fix ahead of the final vote planned for the Aurora City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Laesch told The Beacon-News earlier this month that there will likely be other organizational changes coming in the future, though the specifics had not been worked out at the time.