AUSTIN (KXAN) — Late Friday night, the City of Austin announced in a news release Interim City Manager Jesús Garza is reorganizing the city’s top leadership positions “to prioritize the public’s needs and ensure reliability of services for Austinites.”

The changes made will be as follows, according to a memo from the city manager to the department directors:

  • The city’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will now report directly to the city manager. That will also mean the Fleet Mobility Services Director and Building Services Officer will report to the CFO
  • A new executive position “of Strategic Communications and External Affairs” is being created and will report directly to the City Manager. That will mean the Intergovernmental Relations Officer and Chief Communications Director will report to that person
  • Sammi Curless, an advisor to the Assistant City Manager is being promoted to assistant to the city manager
  • Ken Snipes, currently the director of Austin Resource Recovery, will be on “special assignment” to evaluate emergency operations and will be Special Assistant to Bruce Mills
  • Jason Alexander, Chief of Staff, will be on a special assignment at the airport, helping Jim Smith, the new interim director of airport operations

“My highest priority is to organize our people and our work so that the organization is operating cohesively and supports an integrated approach to problem solving and enterprise-wide thinking. This structure must be conducive to reducing processes, redundancies, and inefficiencies,” Garza wrote.

Garza also reorganized the departments each Assistant City Manager oversees “to bring new perspectives to important issues and challenges.” The letter listed them out directly as follows:

The following Departments will continue to report directly to the City Manager:  

  •  Jackie Sargent, Austin Energy, General Manager 
  •  Anne Morgan, Law Department, City Attorney 
  •  Sylvia Hardman, Office of Police Oversight, Interim Director 

Chief Financial Officer, Ed Van Eenoo:

  • Financial Services Department, Ed Van Eenoo, CFO 
  • Fleet Mobility, Jennifer Walls, Director  
  • Building Services, Darrell Alexander, Officer  

Interim Assistant City Manager Robert Goode:

  • Public Works and Austin Transportation, Richard Mendoza, Interim Director
    • Austin Transportation, Public Works, the Corridor Program Office, and the Project Connect Office will be consolidated into a Public Works and Transportation Department with each of the Officers reporting to the Director.  
  • Austin Water Utility, Shay Ralls Roalson, Director  
  • Watershed Protection, Jorge Morales, Director  
  • Aviation, Jim Smith, Interim Executive Director  
  • Capital Delivery Services Department–this will be a new department fully dedicated to capital program implementation and more detail will follow regarding the purview and responsibilities.  

Assistant City Manager Veronica Briseño:

  • Development Services Department, José Roig, Interim Director
    • Austin Code will be consolidated under Development Services with Interim Director Daniel Word reporting to José Roig.  
  • Housing Department, Rosie Truelove, Director  
  • Planning Department, David Gray, Interim Director
    • Lauren Middleton-Pratt will be the Director effective May 1st and has over 10 years of urban planning and development experience in both the private and public sectors.  
  • Economic Development Department, Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, Director  
  • Austin Convention Center, Trish Tatro, Director  
  • Small and Minority Business Resources Department, Edward Campos, Director 

Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales:

  • Human Resources, Rebecca Kennedy, Acting Director  
  • Communications and Technology Management (CTM), Kerrica Laake, Interim Director beginning April 1st
    • The Chief Information Security Officer and Interim Chief Innovation Officer will be consolidated into CTM. Chris Stewart has agreed to stay on for 6 months to assist Kerrica with this important transition.  
  • Sustainability Office, Zachary Baumer, Interim Officer  
  • Resilience Office, Laura Patiño, Officer  
  • Equity Office, Kellee Coleman, Interim Officer  
  • Civil Rights, Tamela Saldaña, Interim Director  
  • Labor Relations Office, Sarah Griffin, Interim Officer  

Assistant City Manager Stephanie Hayden-Howard:

  • Austin Public Library, Roosevelt Weeks, Director  
  • Austin Parks and Recreation, Kimberly McNeeley, Director  
  • Austin Public Health, Adrienne Sturrup, Director  
  • Animal Services, Don Bland, Director  
  • Austin Resource Recovery, Richard McHale, Acting Director 

Interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills:

  • Austin Police Department, Joseph Chacon, Chief  
  • Austin Fire Department, Joel Baker, Chief  
  • Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services, Robert Luckritz, Chief  
  • Downtown Austin Community Court, Robert Kingham and Jennifer Sowinski, Interim Court Administrators  
  • Homeland Security & Emergency Management, Ken Snipes, Special Assistant to the Interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills  
  • Forensic Science, Dr. Dana Kadavy, Director  
  • Office of the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Mark Escott, Director