CAMARILLO : Council to Vote on Planning Nominee

The Camarillo City Council will vote this week on the nomination of Harriet Hammond to the Planning Commission.

If the council approves the nomination Wednesday, Hammond would begin serving immediately on the five-member commission.

Nominated by Councilman David Smith, she would succeed Commissioner Greg Gose, who was also nominated by Smith when he began serving four years ago. Gose, who is chairman of the commission, is resigning to devote more time to other obligations, Smith said.

Smith said Hammond was the best candidate of the seven or eight residents who applied.

A resident of the Leisure Village retirement community, Hammond, 66, is a retired manager from Unisys Corp. who keeps busy with volunteer activities. She served on a committee last year that made recommendations to the City Council on amending the General Plan.

Hammond said she also is secretary of the Ventura County chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, through which senior citizens volunteer for small businesses.

In addition, she helps low-income senior citizens prepare their tax returns through volunteer programs operated by the American Assn. of Retired Persons and the Ventura Commission on Human Concerns.

In an interview, Hammond said she is neither pro-development nor slow-growth.

Camarillo “is a nice town and I’d like to keep it that way,” she said. “At the same time, there are economic worries and Camarillo needs to be sure it has a tax base to keep the town’s services up to par.”