MOORPARK : City Council Fires Landscape Architect

The Moorpark City Council fired the city’s landscape architect after he complained of landscaping proposed by developers and criticized the council’s lack of interest in the subject.

The council’s unanimous decision on Wednesday to terminate Wolf Breiman’s $45-an-hour contract with the city of Moorpark was prompted by Breiman’s comments in a local newspaper, the Moorpark News-Mirror.

In the article, Breiman, who runs a landscape architecture business in Ventura, criticized several developers’ landscaping plans and the council’s failure to examine the plans themselves.

“I wish the damn council would take a look at it and see what old Breiman is doing,” he was quoted as saying. “They should get off the dais and take a look instead of jabbering away a mile a minute about God knows what.”

In a heated exchange before the council Wednesday, Breiman continued to criticize developers’ landscaping plans. For example, he called the plan submitted by developer Urban West “an example of flagrant, gross incompetence.”

Councilman Scott Montgomery did not defend Urban West, but he took particular issue with Breiman’s comments about the council, calling it insubordination.

All five members voted to fire Breiman from his job of reviewing all landscape plans proposed for city developments.

Councilman Clint Harper asked city staff to look into the landscape architect’s complaints about faulty irrigation systems around housing and commercial projects.

“Some of what he says has a ring of truth to it,” Harper said Thursday. “I have concerns that some of his comments may be valid.”