SIMI VALLEY : Piper, 2 Others to Join Planning Panel

Michael W. Piper, who just completed a one-year appointed term on the Simi Valley City Council, was one of three people selected this week to serve on the city’s Planning Commission, which reviews development issues and makes recommendations to the council.

Piper, a vice president at Integrated Telemanagement Services, was a Planning Commission member from 1981 to 1991.

Last December, he was appointed to finish the term of Councilman Glen McAdoo when McAdoo moved out of the city.

Piper decided not to run for the council seat in the Nov. 3 election.

He said Mayor Greg Stratton asked him last week if he wanted to return to the Planning Commission.

“I would like to think he encouraged me, but it didn’t take a whole lot of encouragement,” Piper said.

Stratton, Councilman Bill Davis and Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who were elected Nov. 3, each nominated a planning commissioner at Monday’s council meeting.

Stratton selected Piper. Davis chose Dean Frank Kunicki, a self-employed benefits consultant who has served on two neighborhood councils and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District board.

Williamson nominated Robert C. Swoish, an aerospace manager who is a member of the Simi Valley Family YMCA board and served on the Planning Commission between 1976 and 1981.

The council voted 4 to 0 to appoint the three nominees, with Councilwoman Sandi Webb absent.