Building and Safety Official Vic Peterson appointed as head of new department.
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to The Malibu Times
The City Council enthusiastically approved a major redesign of the city staff structure at its meeting Monday night. Following the announcement of the resignation of the city’s sixth planning director, Drew Purvis, City Manager Katie Lichtig proposed combining the Planning and Environmental Building Safety departments to form the Environmental and Community Development Department. At its helm will be Building Official Vic Peterson.
“We have had problems,” Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley said. “We have had personnel turnover problems. We need to try to do something different.”
Lichtig said there is precedent for this type of system, as it is used in the cities of Santa Barbara, Calabasas, Laguna Beach and Hermosa Beach. The new department will include three divisions. One is the Planning Division, headed by a planning manager. Another is the Environmental and Building Safety Division, which deals with the traditional elements of that department, but also is involved with wastewater management. The third division is the Permit Services Division, which is responsible for permits services and code enforcement. Lichtig said the purpose of this redesign is to streamline the whole process, making it easier to manage for everybody, especially the applicants.
“There are now times when people have to actually come to a public counter, and take the plans back to a different department within the city,” she said. But now people will be able to do everything in one place.
Earlier this month, Lichtig said the reason for putting Peterson at the head of the new department is because of his great knowledge of the city. He is the second-longest tenured city employee. But Kathryn Yarnell, past president of the Malibu Association of Realtors, is not sure he is the best one for the job.
“He is very capable and he can wear that hat, but he just doesn’t have the flow that is necessary for somebody in that position,” she said.
Yarnell said Peterson is good at what he does, but said, as a person who usually deals with numbers, he may not be looking for what is best to make sure Malibu is beautiful. Instead, she suggested his interests are to make sure everybody is following the rules. She said somebody with a planning background would be able to fill the position better.
“Vic is a nuts and bolts kind of a guy,” she said. “We need somebody who can see the bigger picture.”
But Peterson, in a phone interview late Tuesday, said he will not be the person dealing with day-to-day planning issues, but rather, the planning manager will do that. And that manager will have more free time to do so with the new system.
“My purpose will be to look at the broader range of things, and to take the requirements of a department director away from the planning manager, so the planning manager can concentrate on planning issues as opposed to budget issues and personnel issues, and customer service issues,” he said.
Peterson said the scope of his responsibility would be to just make sure the different managers within the department are doing what they are supposed to do. He added that the combined departments would not at all be a new system, but rather modeled after ones in other cities that have already proven to be successful.
Beginning with the next council meeting in April, the Malibu Association of Realtors will be making a presence. Yarnell said they have formed a five-member task force that will regularly attend meetings.
“We are Malibu’s number one industry,” she said. “We need to make sure the city knows what we think.”
Although she said she feels wary about the new system, Yarnell said if it works it will be great. She said Lichtig’s idea of streamlining the planning process is wonderful if it does in fact make it a more pleasant experience for everybody. But she also warned that it would be catastrophic for her industry if it does not work as well as Lichtig envisions.
Also at the meeting, the council approved several of Lichtig’s proposals, which she said would help to ensure there is better communication about the planning process in Malibu. Mayor Jeff Jennings and Councilmember Joan House were selected to serve as council representatives to meet with city staff and the new planners on what the council’s vision is for Malibu. They were chosen since both were on the council when the General Plan was drafted in 1995, and will be able to provide a historical perspective. In May or June, a public workshop will take place with the Planning Commission, City Council and the planning staff to explore ways to improve communication.
The appeal of the Forge Lodge Bed and Breakfast Inn project has been contineud to April 28.