Mayor’s executive order reorganizes city divisions and shifts staff as council examines mayor’s office budget increase

City staff walked the council through an executive order that would revise the charter organization and reassign several functions across new divisions and departments, and discussed technical budget changes tied to the reorganization during a May budget hearing.

According to a presentation from the mayor’s office, the executive order creates two divisions: public administration (reported to cover roughly 61% of the budget and about 2,167 employees) and public safety (about 28% of the budget and roughly 2,067 employees). Staff said the two divisions together would manage about 89% of the city’s operating budget and roughly 4,200 employees.

The reorganization also establishes three departments the presentation named explicitly: a Department of Neighborhoods and Planning, a Department of Animal Services (moved under public safety) and a Department of Resilience and Equity (elevating the mayor’s prior Office of Resilience and Equity to department status). Other changes move parts of the former Department of City Experience into the mayor’s office and into other departments: city-design staff were moved to multiple places (arts/grants work to the Department of Resilience and Equity; building-services functions into parks and asset management; public-engagement tasks into communications; and special-events permit work into development services). Staff said department and position moves are reflected in the FY26 budget book and that some line items need technical corrections.

Budget discussion and numbers: city staff identified a proposed increase in the mayor’s office budget of about $945,000 for the coming fiscal year. Staff said three positions moved from the Department of City Experience account for approximately $414,000 of that increase; the remaining $531,000 was described as funding mayoral appointees and new mayoral priorities, including positions focused on housing, homelessness coordination and public-art staffing. Staff said the mayor has 16 appointees (13 currently seated) and that much of the increase would fund those appointees and new priorities.

Staffing and grants: staff confirmed the chief mental-health officer is a general-fund position created last year; several positions under the mental-health office are grant-funded, including positions funded by the Children’s Mental Health Initiative, community-violence and opioid grants and others. City staff said they will add visual clarity to the budget book (for example, to mark grant-funded positions) and will provide a corrected organizational chart including department-head names on request from councilors.

Council questions and follow-up items: councilors requested technical edits and line-item reconciliation to show which positions moved, which budgets increased because of transferred staff, and which programs are grant funded and therefore subject to sunset dates. Councilors also raised “optics” concerns — asking the administration to more clearly show what money was moved from other city budgets rather than new spending — and asked for department-head names and an improved chart that shows where each position and dollar amount now sits.

Authority and process: the executive order was introduced as "pursuant to Article 3, Section 1.6" of the charter; staff told the council the order will take effect unless councilors act to change it before the effective date specified in the meeting materials. Councilors did not take a formal roll-call vote during the hearing recorded in the transcript.

Ending note: city staff said they would return with technical corrections to the budget book, a cleaner organizational chart with department-head names and clarifications marking grant-funded versus general-fund positions so the council can evaluate FY26 and FY27 funding consequences before final budget adoption.