Planning Department

I heartily agree with Councilman Ron Robert’s characterization of the city of San Diego Planning Department as “the most poorly run department in the city.” His proposal to move the Planning Department to the control of the city manager (as are the other city departments) is a great idea, and long overdue.

Some of the inefficiency and poor reputation of this bloated bureaucracy can be traced to this department’s longtime elite status of being directly under the City Council, as opposed to the other departments, which are responsible to the city manager.

In addition, the number of employees should be further trimmed back in this huge department. Having too many employees inevitably results in the creation of bureaucratic busywork to fill the available hours.

Now, during these fiscally difficult times, is the perfect opportunity to trim back the busywork and the busyworkers, and to focus our limited financial resources on basic essential city services such as police and fire protection. If we wait until the good economic times return, the incentive to clean house and return to the basics will be greatly lessened.

JOHN W. CHENEY

Linda Vista