New department would be modeled after other cities. Concerns about overloading already overworked staff expressed by one planning commissioner.
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to The Malibu Times
City Manager Katie Lichtig has plans for a major redesign of the city staff structure. She made public her proposal at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting, following Planning Director Drew Purvis’ announcement that he will be leaving his post to head his own private consulting firm at the end of the month.
Lichtig’s proposal is to combine the Planning Department with the Department of Environmental and Building Safety, with Building Official Vic Peterson heading the new department.
“I think that there’s going to be efficiencies in being able to combine the departments, and there is also the side of it of being able to remove structural barriers,” Lichtig said prior to her public announcement at the meeting.
Lichtig said an example of a structural barrier is the geological review stage of the planning process. Some of this is done through Environmental and Building Safety, while other portions go through Planning. With a combined department, it could be all done at one place. Lichtig said there are other examples, but she could not think of them at the top of her head.
As for choosing Peterson to lead the department, Lichtig said he is one of the most knowledgeable people on the city staff. Peterson is the second-longest tenured member of the city staff.
“He knows the ins and outs of how we are doing business, and he knows the ins and outs of how we should be doing business,” Lichtig said.
Peterson did not return phone calls for this story.
The new department would include three divisions. One would be the Planning Division. Another would be the Building Safety and Environmental Health Division, which would deal with the traditional elements of that department, but also would be involved with the wastewater management plan. The third division would be responsible for customer service at the office counter and deal with quality of life issues and code enforcement.
“Across the country, this is a model that has worked in many cities, and cities that have as complex issues as the city of Malibu has,” Lichtig said. “So we are confident that this can work in the City of Malibu as well.”
Lichtig said examples of other cities with a combined department include Santa Monica, Laguna Beach, West Hollywood and Culver City. She plans to bring her proposal to the City Council for possible approval on Mar. 24.
Only one commissioner, Deirdre Roney, reacted to Lichtig’s idea. She raised a concern about how this might affect an already overworked planning staff.
“I hope part of this (plan) is not pairing down of staff, because of what I hear, quality of life for the staff is very difficult because of the workload,” she said.
Lichtig said she believes the amount of staff members will remain the same, but a final decision on that has not been made. She stressed that it will be an ongoing process of figuring out the details of how the new department would operate, even after an approval by the council.
An architect who works on projects in Malibu, but asked not to be identified for this story, said that a combined department would not necessarily lead to more efficiency as Lichtig suggested. The person said for that to happen, the lack of clarity and other complications associated with the Interim Zoning Ordinance must be addressed.
However, Lichtig said bringing clarity to Malibu’s zoning laws is something she wants to address. She is going to propose that a series of public workshops be held with the Planning Commission and the City Council to discuss the issue.
“If it’s confusing or frustrating, I want to make sure we provide every opportunity to have clarity about what can be built and what can’t be built,” Lichtig said.