The city is having difficulties finding a senior planner which means the city is paying more money than it wants to conduct business within the Community Development Department.
“Planners in general are hard to try and find,” City Manager Doug Dunford told the Ceres City Council. The comment came at last week’s meeting when Councilwoman Cerina Otero expressed concerns about the growing cost of farming out the duties to professional firms. The topic came up when the council was asked to approve using Gouveia Engineering for $40,000.
Putting things in perspective, Dunford said the top step salary offered by the city is over $100,000 but with benefits and retirement costs it’s probably closer to $200,000.
In recent years the city froze the Community Development Director position after the departure of Lea Simvoulakis. When Senior Planner Teddie Hernandez left the city a recruitment effort was initiated. When the department secretary, Ann Montgomery left, the city changed the position to planning technician which was filled by Stephanie Davis in December. Because staff has been short, the city has increasingly relied on Economic Development Manager Julian Aguirre to help out.
Aguirre said the contract planner will process all new applications that require Planning Commission and City Council approval, including six major projects which will need entitlements.
“The streamline for planning will be a lot smoother,” said Aguirre. “It’s imperative. If we do not (contract) then all these projects will be on hold and we have several large projects that are coming to fruition in the next month.”
Otero said she realizes the importance of the contract and noted she wants to ensure “that the recruitment is still active and that we are doing our best with public outreach. When she mentioned perhaps looking to recruit from college graduates, Dunford noted “a college graduate wouldn’t probably qualify for a senior planner position. You’re going to need some experience and … a college graduate’s not gonna have the depth and knowledge of experience. They are going to come on as a planning tech and work their way up.”
Dunford said he is continually recruiting to fill empty positions but coming up empty.
Northstar Engineering services
Also last week the council approved an agreement with NorthStar Engineering Group, Inc. for up to $49,000 for planning services.
NorthStar has been providing critical project management and planning support, particularly for time-sensitive initiatives such as Housing Element implementation, the Downtown Specific Plan residential infill, and several current development projects including Copper Trails, Maverik, and West Landing build out).
In other action the council approved using EMC Planning Group, Inc. to help the city implement the sixth cycle 2023-2031 Housing Element and an Update to the Downtown Specific Plan.
