Newsletters: Subscribe | Log in

Related Links

Manager: City has made hard choices

John Brown discusses planning department cuts, future projects

By
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 11:02 a.m.

(Editor’s note: The Argus-Courier recently conducted an in-depth interview with City Manager John Brown. This second excerpt concerns development and planning issues in Petaluma. A third excerpt will focus on management issues.)

Facts

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BROWN, PART 3:

The Argus-Courier's in-depth interview with City Manager John Brown continues in the next issue.
July 16: In the third and final excerpt, Brown talks about management issues.

Argus-Courier: Shortly after you came on board, you observed that Petaluma is a “very engaged community with articulate and passionate community members.” You spoke about the importance of tempering that passion with practicality, and how people needed to seek solutions that transcend their own individual needs in order to find workable compromise. Reflecting upon some of the latest political controversies involving the development approval process, do you feel we’ve made any progress on that front, or have we slipped backwards?

John Brown: No, I think we have made some progress on that front, and difficult choices, perhaps, have brought us to a place where practicality is taking more of a prominent position in the decision-making process.

With less to work with, we’re having to make hard choices about what we do and what we don’t engage in, and so I’ve seen the City Council make those kinds of choices — due to where we are, resource-wise — that may not have otherwise been so quick to make.

It’s a new day, and we don’t have as much to work with as we used to. That’s a message that I know people are hearing and that people are understanding, but I think it’s one that we need to continue to try to emphasize for people.

The issues have been framed in terms of what we can no longer afford to do, and of course that plays very largely into what has happened with the community development department and the development-review process.

I do see a lot of correspondence from people or calls from people where they just want what they want. And they’ll start with, “I understand you have a budget problem, but I just want what I want, and it’s not that much and you should be able to find a way to do it.” And I have not seen that kind of communication slow down all that much, so I think there’s still a message that unfortunately is going to have to be delivered time and time again, at least during the remainder of this coming fiscal year, which is, “We have to live within our means and it isn’t going to be business as usual.”

I hear the council saying that, so I feel like they’ve internalized that — and maybe they didn’t need to, maybe they always known that, but I hear them expressing that, and that’s something I need the council to do, I’m happy that they’re doing it, and to the degree that they weren’t doing it before, then I think we have made progress.

AC: What do you predict will happen on the applications for both the Deer Creek and the Regency shopping centers? Do you anticipate these projects will be approved or denied?

JB: I think that has a lot to do with the way the projects are presented, as well as the outcome of environmental analyses that either are being done or may be done, and the mitigations that may need to take place.

I choose not to predict, although I would say I think there’s some merit in these projects. I know that there are some concerns with respect to design issues and compatibility with the adjacent neighborhoods, and I think all of those are legitimate concerns that need to be fully addressed, and should be through the public processes around this.

And if they’re adequately addressed, then I would see those projects being approved and moving on to the construction phase. I think a lot of that has to do with the applicant and how responsive they want to be to the stated needs of the community.

AC: The city’s planning department was mostly dissolved and you have a request for proposals out, and several responses to that. What do you predict will happen in terms of outsourcing planning services for Petaluma?

JB: There are a number of factors that enter into my decision making on this: Can they provide as good or better service than what we’ve been getting? Do they have the depth of staffing level to continue to provide that service without lapse? Do they have the ability to get up to speed quickly and absorb as much institutional knowledge as they can, or figure out a way to find it when they can’t? Can they bring me a pricing structure that is essentially full cost-recovery so that the city’s general fund isn’t burdened further?

I’m also looking for someone with the right customer service orientation, to be an assistive presence for the community. If one of these firms can do that, then I see outsourcing as being a very viable alternative.

The City Council has indicated that it doesn’t see itself doing that on a forever basis. There were some comments made when we discussed the layoffs in CDD that they would want to return to an in-house model as quickly as the financial circumstances allowed us.

My conversation with them had to do with, anybody who’s going to take a contract needs some level of security, so we’re in this for at least a year, and that’s how I intend to focus on this right now. After a year, if we’re satisfied with each other and things are working out, then there’s the possibility of extension. Some of the folks I’ve talked to up to this point are suggesting they think the privatized model is one that’s going to gain more ground in the coming years, and they’re looking at Petaluma as an opportunity to fine-tune, in anticipation that many other organizations are going to need or want to go in the same direction.

I’m feeling like I will be able to select a motivated company that understands our needs and is willing to work very hard to provide the kind of service we need in order for this to work. It isn’t going to work seamlessly, just because of the gearshift — and we’re seeing a lot of gearshift right now.

People have worked with some of our in-house planners who are no longer here. For example, (assistant community development director) George White carried a pretty large planning load, and when George left, all of that had to be redistributed, and so there is a learning curve that’s associated with those projects.

It left a lot of people with concern about “What happens to me now?” We’re going to have that happen to us again when the new firm takes over, if in fact that’s the direction we go.

Our other choice is to just leave things as they currently are. I have one senior planner who is both riding herd on everything that’s happening, as well as managing an application caseload, as well as trying to learn how to manage the department and take over there. It’s a pretty big job. Beyond that, we really only have one other in-house planner who’s working with us on a part-time basis, and the contract planners are just that.

(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)

VIDEO OF INTERVIEW WITH CITY MANAGER JOHN BROWN

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

Comments are currently unavailable on this article

▲ Return to Top