Aurora eliminates office of special events

Aurora will eliminate its Office of Special Events next year and look instead to private companies and nonprofit groups to organize communitywide festivals and celebrations.

Funding for the office has been yanked from next year's budget as a cost-saving measure to help the city overcome a projected $18 million deficit, Carie Anne Ergo, chief management officer, said.

But Aurora is looking to work with other groups to continue gatherings formerly planned by the office, including the Downtown Alive! summer music series and the Blues on the Fox festival, Ergo said.

“In these times when resources are scarce, we need to look at new models of doing things,” Ergo said. “The budget will be significantly reduced, staffing will be eliminated and we're going to have to look at a public-private partnership approach moving forward.”

Kevin Stahr, city spokesman, said eliminating the office will not affect events planned for the rest of the year, including the city's tree-lighting ceremony scheduled for Nov. 24.

Ergo said office staffing was reduced at the beginning of this year in an effort to balance the 2010 budget.

“At this point, it only had two staff members and one of them had taken the voluntary (severance) package,” Ergo said. “The other one will be reassigned to other duties.”

Gina Moga, special events manager, confirmed her office will be eliminated in 2011, but said she could not comment further on what will happen to her job responsibilities at that time.

Sanura Young, special events coordinator and the office's other full-time employee, did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Some service groups and organizations that have volunteered at festivals in the past may emerge as natural fits to run events in the city, Ergo said. But she added it is too early in discussions with those groups to say which may eventually partner with the city.

Alderman Lynda Elmore said the Office of Special Events unfortunately falls into the category of services that are not 100 percent necessary to govern the city.

“It's a sad loss in some respects because it always provided a service and events that people certainly enjoy,” Elmore said.

Even if private organizations take over the planning of parades, music festivals and other gatherings, some duties performed by the office, such as organizing insurance and security, still should be city responsibilities, Elmore said.

And if aldermen wanted to re-create a spot for the office in next year's budget, they would have to find funding from somewhere else, a nearly impossible task in the current economic conditions, Alderman Leroy Keith said.