Webber adds chief of staff at City Hall
Role, part of ‘restructuring,’ to be filled by Capital High alumnus who worked in Obama administration
Mayor Alan Webber has begun assembling his staff in what he promises will be a “significant reorganization” of City Hall.
One of the first steps: Webber said Wednesday he’s hired a veteran of the Obama administration to serve as his chief of staff, a new, high-level role overseeing what will be a strengthened and more populated mayoral office.
Webber also said the city’s constituent services division will be “substantially” expanded and folded into the Mayor’s Office.
On top of that, an additional two positions will be moved under the Mayor’s Office umbrella, Webber said. Those individuals will spearhead sustainability and “neighborhood-livability” initiatives, both priorities in his agenda.
“Nobody’s insensitive to the notion that, ‘New mayor, oh, great. Now we’re adding palatial staffing so that he can feel good about himself and spend more taxpayer money.’ That’s not the plan,” Webber said. “The program is to scoop up savings through reorganization in the budget process and also give people their money’s worth.
“In an ideal world, what I would do is create a real Office of the Mayor,” Webber added, “and treat it as an executive office.”
The plans reflect the whirlwind of the ongoing transition — between mayors and between degrees of mayoral power — as Santa Fe’s new system of governance puts the executive at the head of city government. The addition of a chief of staff, in particular, underscores Webber’s thinking on the shape and strength of his office as well as the consolidations and changes he expects will result in thinner, more cost-effective managerial ranks.
All of which comes as Webber, the first full-time Santa Fe mayor, seeks to put his fingerprints on preparations already underway for the city’s budget for the next fiscal year. City departments, he said, will use a “zero-based” method — meaning they’ll start from scratch — and, at Webber’s urging, will emphasize “userfriendly, eco-friendly and familyfriendly” priorities.
The budget is expected to be delivered to the City Council’s Finance Committee by mid-April.
Webber, sworn in last week, called this the “Budget 1.0,” and said he plans to “revisit” it six months after its approval.
“I want a bite at the apple as we move forward,” he said.
Jarel LaPan Hill, 37, a Santa Fe native and 1999 graduate of Capital High School, is the new chief of staff.
LaPan Hill, whose likeness and endorsement appeared on a Webber campaign mailer, worked eight years in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the administration of former President Barack Obama, as chief of staff to the agency’s deputy secretary.
LaPan Hill played a “key role” in that department’s priorities, including the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a city news release. She also worked on the Obama campaign and transition.
A graduate of George Washington University, she said she and her husband returned to her hometown this year after her stint in Washington, D.C. They have two children.
“Santa Feans want their children to have every opportunity to go out into the world and succeed, and then to come back home and continue to build a life while serving our community,” LaPan Hill said in the release. “It is incredibly fulfilling to be able to make that a reality for our family.”
LaPan Hill’s role is a natural outgrowth, Webber said, of the shift to a full-time mayor, approved as an amendment to the city charter by voters in 2014.
The full-time position also comes with streamlined say-so over municipal operations, as the mayor may now unilaterally fire the city manager, attorney and clerk.
City voters said they wanted a stronger mayor, Webber said, and they’re going to get one.
“If I kept myself to what Javier had,” he said, referring to former Mayor Javier Gonzales, “there’s no change in our government. And it’s not just for me. There will be a strong mayor after me. Sooner or later, somebody’s gonna have to set up an Office of the Mayor.”
Saying he was mindful of the public resistance to the creation of a six-figure deputy city manager position two years ago, Webber said the new role and bolstered office are more about reorganization than bureaucratic padding.
“When we reorganize the budget … there’ll be consolidations, there’ll be job title changes,” Webber said. “We’re not gonna keep adding people at the top. We will be using, to some extent, reclassifying empty positions. So we’re not creating new positions; we’re filling historically empty positions.”
The chief of staff is a merging of two reclassified positions that had been vacant for years, rather than a new add-on to the city’s budget, city spokesman Matt Ross said.
“The chief of staff is to coordinate the efforts of Mayor’s Office with the City Council, with the community — to [do] what chiefs of staff do,” Webber said. “They’re the people who make the trains run.”
It’s unclear how the enhanced mayoral office might mesh with what had been the responsibilities of the city manager and deputy city manager — the constituent services division, for instance, was previously under the deputy city manager. But Webber, while demurring on some specifics, said the city’s organizational chart will look different in a few months.
“We’re in for a significant reorganization,” Webber said. “I think it will produce some managerial savings.”
Within his first days in office, the new mayor said all exempt city employees must reapply for their posts. The full suite of positions — from airport manager to deputy police chief to the city’s tourism bureau director — is open and available to candidates from the general public.
“We have a huge opportunity to rationalize our entire operation,” Webber added. “From planning, development, permitting and inspections, housing — all the pieces need to fit together.”
Webber’s expanded constituent services division might put staffers in field offices with the hope that they will solicit and anticipate input from the public, breaking what he described as the “reactive” and “complaint driven” habits of City Hall.
That also might take in some of the traditional work done by city councilors, who often field calls from constituents and navigate those complaints through constituent services themselves.
Which speaks to the question of how responsibilities will be divvied between Webber’s office and the eight other members of the City Council.
Webber said he has encouraged city councilors — who serve part time in that capacity — to think of themselves as the city’s “board of directors.” The should set policy but not be obligated or compelled to dive into the “bowels” of work better handled by professional city staff, he said.
“If you actually have a mayor’s office, you need to have an Office of the Mayor,” Webber said.