Aurora staff outline proposed reorganization of city departments; committee took it up as information

Shannon Cameron, the city’s chief of staff, presented an informational briefing on proposed ordinance changes that would align the municipal code with the 2026 budget and rename and realign several departments.

Cameron said the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs would be removed from the code and some of its functions — community engagement and special events — would be shifted into other departments such as Community Services and a newly named Communications, Marketing and Special Events division. She said Community Development would be renamed Community Reinvestment and would house grants and financial-empowerment work. "We found that our name of Community Development confuses a lot of people," she said.

Among other changes, Public Facilities would return to Public Works (bringing central services, facilities maintenance, fleet, transit centers and parks back under Public Works) and Animal Care and Control would move under Community Services. Cameron said the draft also codifies that chiefs of staff for aldermen report to the RAP chair and the wrap committee rather than to the mayor, to mirror past practice.

The item was informational and will be forwarded to the Committee of the Whole. Members asked for clearer, more digestible org charts and noted that renaming and reassigning divisions can complicate finance tracking and historical record-keeping. Cameron said staff will circulate slides and tailored org charts before the next committee where the ordinance will be considered.