Calabasas Names Its First Permanent City Manager

Charles Cate, a veteran administrator who has helped other California communities stand up to developers, has been named city manager of the fledgling city of Calabasas.

Cate, 49, who begins work Aug. 26, will be responsible for day-to-day operations in the new city, as well as working directly with planners and City Council members to set the ground rules for future development.

Now city manager of the Marin County community of Fairfax, Cate will earn $85,000 a year as Calabasas’ first permanent city manager. Initially, he will be one of only two permanent, full-time employees for the city. The other is an administrative assistant. But as the city grows, Cate said he expects its staff will too.

It was in part because of Cate’s experience in community planning that he was selected from a field of 11 candidates. Before moving in 1986 to Fairfax, which has a population of 8,000, Cate was city manager of Morgan Hill, a community of about 18,000 south of San Jose. He served for 10 years before that as Ventura’s assistant city manager.

In Ventura, Cate said, he helped revise the city’s General Plan to incorporate more open space, an element that Calabasas officials are keen to have included in their community plan. Similarly in Northern California, Cate said he encountered much of the same kind of development pressure now facing Calabasas.

“The sensitivities in Marin are particularly acute, as they are in Calabasas, to issues such as growth and scenic corridors,” he said.

Calabasas incorporated in March after a lengthy battle with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for control over development of its land. Cityhood proponents accused supervisors of overdeveloping the western end of Los Angeles County, where the new 11-square-mile city of 27,000 is located.

Among Cate’s first tasks will be working with planners and City Council members to design a blueprint for development of the remaining open space in the municipality, a process that has already begun. He also said he intends to talk with officials in Westlake Village and Agoura Hills about ways to have a stronger voice in county planning.

Cate said that battles with developers are nothing new to him and that a new community presents the challenge of starting a government from scratch.

“He’s not just a bureaucrat or a glad-hander by any means,” Mayor Dennis Washburn said.

Working in a new city provides the opportunity for officials and council members to assemble a government from scratch, unburdened by the policies of past administrations, Cate said.

“It’s going to be a lot of work initially,” Cate said. “But it’s going to be a lot of fun. It gives you the opportunity to profit from the mistakes of others and to do things right the first time and not be saddled with any excess baggage from the past.”

In addition to overseeing the formulation of the city’s general plan, Cate will be charged with establishing the city’s first system of records management and weaning Calabasas off county-provided services. Such services as planning and accounting are contracted out to a private company, and police and fire protection are provided by the county.

Cate’s appointment is expected to be the legacy of the city’s first council. He shares council members’ ideas about open space and control over development. And while elected officials are vulnerable to the whims of voters, Cate is expected to remain a stable presence in the community, likely outlasting the council members who appointed him.

“The continuity is the staff,” said interim City Manager Ed Kriens, a retired Beverly Hills city manager who coordinated the search for Calabasas’ top administrator.