New planning director steps in at pivotal time
CITY HALL — Officials aren’t taking any chances when it comes to filling one of the city’s most high profile jobs, which in recent years has also proven to be one of the most controversial.
The search for a new planning director, the post vacated by Suzanne Frick on March 31, will be a slow and arduous process to ensure the right match is found, said City Manager Susan McCarthy, who will ultimately make the decision.
“We are not going to rush the process,” she said. “It’s a very important job. We are sinking a lot of time into the search and our strategy.”
City Hall will hire a recruitment firm to conduct a national search in an effort to locate the most appealing candidates. Previous recruitments for top administrators have cost about $25,000. However, the cost for this latest search is dependent on what officials ask of the firm in terms of networking, outreach and advertising, said City Hall spokeswoman Judy Rambeau, adding the search could cost between $15,000 and $25,000.
The hiring and arrival of a new planning director comes at a pivotal time for Santa Monica, as officials begin overhauling a massive set of laws which control how the city will be developed for decades to come. The rewriting of laws, ordinances and zoning codes will affect not only development, but also transportation plans throughout the entire city.
The plan is expected to be adopted in the fall, after much public participation and comment.
McCarthy hopes to have a new plan-ning director hired before then so he or she can help guide the effort and feel a certain amount of ownership for the new plan.
“It’s a huge attraction for a candidate,” she said.
Viable candidates will no doubt have to posses long-range vision and have the ability to translate the community’s desires into a complex set of laws that are easy for the average person to navigate through — whether they are a homeowner simply trying to remodel or a large developer seeking approval for a condominium project.
The planning director position, which pays between $112,900 and $138,144, and oversees 108 employees, is responsible for many policies that affect people’s day-to-day lives.
“The planning and zoning function is certainly high profile where the kinds of decisions made affect people’s livelihoods and their homes,” McCarthy said. “Impacts occur on a very personal level.”
For years, City Hall’s planning department has been under fire from many developers, merchants and residents for being overly bureaucratic and unresponsive. The department was subjected to an independent audit last year that verified complaints directed at City Hall for being more difficult to navigate than those in neighboring cities.
Through policies and ordinances passed by the City Council over the years, Santa Monica’s zoning codes have become so complex that they invite confrontations between planning staff and customers who have different interpretations of the laws.
As a result, development has been controlled by process rather than by a clear set of laws that reflect the community’s vision.
“We can no longer have a dogmatic planning department,” said City Councilman Herb Katz, who is an architect and a frequent user of City Hall’s planning department. “There are two schools of thought: Do you want to be cooperative or adversarial?
“Right now, we are adversarial.” McCarthy said she’ll be talking to interested groups — including most city governmental bodies that deal with development issues, as well as users of City Hall’s Planning and Community Development Department — about what kind of qualifications and experience the new director should have.
That discussion will begin with a joint meeting between the City Council and the Planning Commission on Tuesday, April 26. The discussion will also touch upon what challenges and opportunities the new director will face, as well as what it takes to attract a good applicant.
“I’m interested in what’s worked and what hasn’t,” McCarthy said, adding it will be crucial that a good working environment is created for the new director.
Katz hopes to see the position filled well before the general development plan is approved.
“We need someone sooner than later,” he said. “We need a person who has flexibility, and they must obviously be bright and strong.”
A thick skin should prove essential for the new director — oftentimes, Frick ended up being the scapegoat when criticism about the department’s bureaucracy was discussed in the public realm, as well as in political circles.
“Her people were under attack,” said local developer Craig Jones, of Frick’s employees. “I think she did an excellent job of protecting her people.
“Whoever takes that job, they’ll definitely be attacked,” Jones added. “That planning director needs to be a really good manager for a large and important department.”
The department, which includes building and safety, has suffered from employee turnover in recent years, compounding City Hall’s customer service problems.
“We need someone who will keep them there and keep them motivated,” Jones said. “Based on that turnover, there must be a lot of unhappy people there and it’s not Suzanne Frick’s fault.”
Santa Monica’s reputation as having an overly-bureaucratic and difficult city government must change, especially if the community wants to attract quality candidates for the job.
“That kind of thing doesn’t help with an executive search,” McCarthy said, adding the community must begin speaking positively about the city’s future opportunities.
And those opportunities are plentiful — currently on the table are proposals to raze Santa Monica Place Mall and replace it with high-rise condominiums and the redevelopment of the Civic Center, located south of downtown.
Jones, who has developed mixed-use projects consisting primarily of retail and residential buildings in downtown Santa Monica, believes city officials have a tremendous opportunity to reshape the commercial core.
“Santa Monica is going through an identity crisis,” he said. “It’s this lily white affluent enclave...
“It’s going to be a tough job for whoever takes (the planning director job) because of the general plan, but it’s a really exciting opportunity.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 23, 2005. Read the original PDF.