THOUSAND OAKS : Consultant Hired to Review Departments

Thousand Oaks has hired a consultant for $90,000 to study and revamp its departments of planning, community development, utilities and public works.

“The development process is a different animal than it was 10 years ago” because of the city’s rapid growth and varying types of housing and commercial projects, said City Manager Grant Brimhall. As a result, Thousand Oaks officials want to make sure the departments are keeping pace, he said.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire the Sacramento consulting firm, Ralph Andersen & Associates, to review and redesign the departments.

“Since its incorporation 25 years ago, development in the city of Thousand Oaks has been characterized by large housing tracts,” Clayton E. Brown, the president of the consulting firm, wrote in a letter to the city. But, Brown wrote, over the past several years the type of projects in the city has changed from large housing tracts to individual homes and commercial and industrial areas.

“This change in development patterns has, to some extent, changed the nature and scope of the activities of the development-related activities in the city organization,” Brown wrote in his letter.