Why the city needs this reorganization

Let’s talk about my proposal to reorganize parts of City government.

Before I dive into the specifics, here are two things you should know. First, the city’s organizational chart gets changed frequently. No reorganization is ever perfect or permanent. If this proposal is adopted, we’ll review it in six months when we take up next year’s budget. We’ll make changes to these changes — always seeking to use your tax dollars more efficiently and effectively.

Second, you should know who is — and who isn’t — affected by the proposal. Of the city’s 1,400 employees, fewer than two dozen people will have their jobs changed, almost all top managers. The rest of the women and men who work hard every day to deliver services to you will have the same co-workers, job titles, salaries and benefits. The overall expected financial impact of the reorganization is roughly $20,000.

What is the reorganization? We’re proposing a new Community Health and Safety Department, making a team of police, fire, community services, recreation and emergency management. This proposal is a meaningful response to calls to rethink policing and public safety. For example, it will equip us to deploy public health professionals to certain calls that currently go to the police. It’s the right idea at the right time.

We’re also proposing a new Community Development Department. The idea is to bring together tourism, land use, economic development, affordable housing and arts and culture. Too often, these departments operate as silos. Together they become a team that will deliver a more livable Santa Fe.

Finally, we’re joining the City Clerk’s Office and the Constituent and Council Services Department to create a new “front door” for information, data, community engagement and council services. The aim is more information and transparency for everyone in Santa Fe.

Why do it? To continue to improve the way the city is managed. To deliver better services to you with the resources you provide.

How will this help? It will reduce gaps, confusion and redundancies in the problems you call on us to fix for you. For example, you want us to cut weeds in your neighborhood. Right now, one city department cuts weeds in the medians. A different department cuts weeds on the side of streets. A third department cuts weeds in arroyos. That’s bureaucracy. This reorganization fixes it.

Here’s another benefit to you: clarity about what your city government does and why we do it. In business, companies regularly ask themselves, “What business are we really in?” (Hotels and restaurants aren’t in the hotel or restaurant business, not really. They’re in the business of providing fun, relaxation and great experiences that bring people back again and again.)

This reorganization is a chance to ask that basic question: What business is your city government in?

Our departments do a lot of things every day. Police officers issue citations, firefighters battle blazes, community services delivers meals to seniors, recreation offers fun programs. But when we combine them in a new Community Health and Safety Department, they become more than the sum of the parts: They’ll work together to offer prevention, support and appropriate responses to issues of security, safety, health and opportunity.

The same is true when you think about Community Development. Individually, each department does a lot: Land Use issues permits; Tourism attracts visitors; Economic Development supports businesses; Affordable Housing helps our residents who need housing assistance; and Arts and Culture celebrates our unique Santa Fe way of life.

Together they’ll do more: They’ll combine those individual tasks into an overall community development strategy that delivers on the different ways we can produce more choices for everyone and a better quality of life for Santa Fe.

That’s the reorganization in a nutshell. We will continue to find new ways of working, new ways to save money, new approaches to teamwork and new methods to deliver better services to you. That’s the business your city government is in.