San Gabriel : 2 City Departments Merge

Hoping to streamline city operations and encourage new business, the City Council last week combined two city departments to create a new agency and hired a former San Marino city manager to head it.

City Administrator P. Michael Paules said the merger of the Planning Department and the Department of Public Works into a new Department of Community Development would allow for greater efficiency in processing desirable business proposals.

The reorganization will not reduce city staff or diminish the level of services, and the cost to the city in salaries and benefits will not increase, Paules said.

John E. Nowak, confirmed Tuesday as deputy city administrator to direct the new department, will replace Director of Public Works Dwight French, who departs June 15 to pursue other commitments.

Nowak, city manager of San Marino from the middle of 1986 through 1990, most recently was city manager of Lawndale.