Guillermo Trujillo, Aurora's deputy mayor, gets ready to leave City Hall
When Aurora Deputy Mayor Guillermo Trujillo soon serves out his last day in the role, it won't be the first time he has retired from the city.
Trujillo previously spent 30 years at the Aurora Police Department before retiring for the first time. But around seven months into his retirement, Mayor Richard Irvin gave him a call.
At first, Trujillo thought Irvin was joking, he told The Beacon-News, but he eventually accepted the job as the city's second-ever deputy mayor. He was appointed in 2021 after former Deputy Mayor Chuck Nelson, the first person to ever hold the new position, retired.
Now, Trujillo is set to retire again, with his last work day scheduled for May 13. That's the day Mayor-elect John Laesch, alongside newly-elected and reelected members of the Aurora City Council, are set to be sworn into office.
As deputy mayor, Trujillo said he was Irvin's right-hand man, doing what he didn't have time to do and going where he didn't have time to go, so Irvin could focus on the bigger picture.
Mostly, that has meant dealing with resident and business complaints, he said, but he also helped to open better lines of communication between the mayor's office and public safety departments like police and fire. Plus, he also acts as a liaison between aldermen and city, he said.
The job has been interesting, Trujillo said, because he never knew what he was walking into. But it's that unpredictability, with no two days being the same, that he said has been his favorite thing about the job.
He's had to be able to multitask, know how to navigate the system and be personable, but still tell people what they need to hear, not what they necessarily wanted to hear, he said.
In person is how he preferred to do business, he said, so that residents could see him face-to-face as they talked out their problems. Even when the city wasn't able to help, Trujillo said he was still willing to listen to residents' concerns and point them in the right direction.
While his reliance on facts and evidence came from his time working at the Aurora Police Department, the deputy mayor job gave Trujillo a new perspective he didn't have in that previous career, he said. He now knows how City Hall really works, he said, and how important it is for residents to get involved.
His advice for Aurora residents is to be aware of their elected officials and to hold them accountable. He said that, if there are things residents want changed, they should make noise about it, but residents should also be aware that the city does not have control over everything.
Another difference between his time in the Aurora Police Department and his time as deputy mayor is how, in the latter role, Trujillo has been able to be proactive rather than reactive, he said. He has been working to make the city better for everyone, he said, rather than just responding to things that happen.
And that work to make the city better was not done by choosing sides, according to Trujillo. No matter a person's politics, skin color or side of the city, everyone was treated equally, he said.
Trujillo said the experience has been 'awesome' but also humbling.
At an event honoring outgoing Mayor Richard Irvin and many from the mayor's office on Tuesday night, Irvin remembered how he and Trujillo would face each other in court back when he was a defense attorney and Trujillo worked at the police department.
'I came up against this dude that I was cross-examining on the stand that made me look foolish,' Irvin said. 'I was like, 'Man, I respect this dude.''
In his own speech at the event, Trujillo called Irvin 'a great man' and thanked him for believing in him even when he didn't believe in himself.
He told The Beacon-News that he originally told Irvin he'd stay two years to see how he liked the job, but he ended up extending it to four. Plus, he was willing to stay on another four years, he said, if Irvin had won the past election.
Trujillo said he gives Irvin a lot of credit for turning the city around. People need to realize where the city was, where it is now and where it hopefully is heading, he said.
It will be the camaraderie between city staff that Trujillo said he will miss the most. Over the past four years, it feels like he spent more time at City Hall than at his own house, he said.
Trujillo also thanked his family, including his wife Sally and his children, for supporting him. It was because of them and city staff, he said, that he was able to do his best.
And, as a migrant who came to Aurora with his family at age 7, he hopes he did his culture and family proud, he said.
Although he will no longer be working at the city, Trujillo said he will still be living in Aurora. Although he is hoping to stay retired, he said he has always been a 'connector' and will continue to help people out as it fits into his life.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
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