A handful of residents were treated to a personal introduction to the city departments on Monday for the city’s monthly Town Hall at the Crowell Public Library.
Department leaders and representatives from the City Manager’s Office, Police Department, Fire Department, Finance Department, Human Resources Department, Planning and Building Department, Parks and Public Works Department and Community Services (including the Crowell Public Library and Recreation Department) delivered brief presentations of their role and encouraged residents to reach out to them in their work to provide service to the community.
Residents Cinzia Zuffada and Bruce Paine shared with The Tribune that they appreciated the warmth and transparency of the city employees.
“At a high level, I think it was good,” said Zuffada. “You see a face, a list of things. It was a first impact. I think it was appropriate.”
“It was a nice introduction to the people,” said Paine. “It’s nice to connect a face to the function of the city, as well as to know a little bit about what they do, which is a lot. There’s a lot that goes on in a city that we don’t appreciate.”
For the City Manager’s Office, Community Engagement Manager Amanda Fowler explained that the office’s “main purpose is oversight, direction and organizational support for the other departments. A big piece of that is strategic planning, facilitating, making sure all departments are talking to each other and coordinated.”
The office also lends support to the City Council.
“We work at the pleasure of the City Council and take their direction on policy,” said Fowler. “But obviously since it’s not a full-time job for them, we’re here to offer them support, make sure we’re identifying policy priorities and ensuring these priorities are addressed in an innovative and cost effective manner.”
Public engagement is also a main facet of the City Manager’s Office, a point that Fowler said will be expanded in 2020, including more channels of social media. The city clerk functions within the office as well, with City Clerk Eva Heter managing elections, preparing minutes and agendas for city meetings, providing public records requests, along with addition duties.
Contacts for the City Manager’s Office includes City Manager Dr. Marcella Marlowe at citymanageroffice@cityofsanmarino.org or (626) 300-0788, Fowler at afowler@cityofsanmarino.org or (626) 300-0781 and City Clerk Eva Heter at eheter@cityofsanmarino.org or (626) 300-0705.
For the San Marino Police Department, Police Chief John Incontro encouraged residents to not hesitate in calling if they had either an emergency or a concern about an activity in the community.
“If you have a police-related issue, a traffic-related issue, if there’s something going on that you’re not sure what’s happening, you call us and we’ll figure it out, and if we need to, route it to another department,” said Incontro.
SMPD includes operations (patrol teams, traffic enforcement, community engagement, parking enforcement), support services/administrative support divisions, support services division (detective bureau for investigations) and the administrative support division (police dispatch and records department).
Incontro advised residents to call 911 for emergencies and to direct non-emergency questions to (626) 300-0720 or police@smpd.us. He noted that social media should not be used to report crimes in progress, nor should texting an officer directly.
“Please call the station,” said Incontro. “We’ve available for anything you need. We are the 24-hour, 7-days-a-week resource along with our partners in the fire department, so let us know what’s happening.”
For the San Marino Fire Department, Division Chief Mark Dondanville shared that the department oversees emergency medical services delivery, fire suppression and rescue, emergency management, fire prevention, administration and planning, equipment/apparatus maintenance and public and disaster education.
He noted that a fire engine and ambulance will arrive together in the event of a 911 call.
“People always ask, ‘why so many?’, but in the event of an emergency or a medical emergency, everyone’s working,” said Dondanville.
Dondanville encouraged residents to contact police dispatch for 24/7 non-emergency support at (626) 300-0720 and the fire department office for home safety inspections, public education requests, EMS billing or questions at (626) 300-0720 or fire@cityofsanmarino.org.
For the Finance Department, newly hired Finance Director Paul Chung shared that the department provides a wide range of internal financial oversight for the city, including investments, cash collections, payroll, and the public aspect of the adoption of the annual budget.
“We provide the support for the various departments, police, fire and all the various departments within the whole city,” Chung said. “We also produce…the annual financial statement which will be presented to the council in January. That’s a snapshot of the financial status of the city and a healthy tool to see the vitality of the finances for the city as well.”
To contact the Finance Department, Chung recommended reaching out to him at (626) 300-0708 or pchung@cityofsanmarino.org, or Accounting Manager/Controller Mark Siegfried at (626) 300-0737 or msiegfriend@cityofsanmarino.org.
For Human Resources, Manager Scott Pilch said the department oversees recruitment, selection and onboarding of city employees, classification and compensation, labor relations, personnel rules, employee benefits and a risk management program that includes general liability, workers’ compensation and safety programs.
“When it comes to Human Resources, it really comes down to two things: one is we find the talent and the second thing is that we retain the talent,” said Pilch. “It costs a lot of money to develop and retain our employees, and we want to do everything we can to keep them in-house.”
Pilch encouraged anyone seeking employment with the city or anyone who has concerns with any aspect of the department to reach out to him or Administrative Assistant Courtney Martin at (626) 300-0780 or hr@cityofsanmarino.org.
For Planning and Building, Director Aldo Cervantes said the department consists of a number of divisions including planning (including the tree preservation ordinance and the historic preservation ordinance), building, building licenses and code enforcement.
Cervantes also highlighted the newly developed economic development division.
“It’s really managing the catering of new businesses as well as trying to retain existing businesses that are in town,” said Cervantes. “We are at the beginning stages of developing this program to help facilitate business improvement along Huntington Drive and Mission, so if you have any ideas as to the types of business you want to see, certainly reach out to our department to help with that.”
Cervantes can be reached in planning at (626) 300-0710 or acervantes@cityofsanmarino.org. For building and inspections, contact Peter Flores at (626) 300-0712 or pflores@cityofsanmarino.org. For Code Enforcement, call (626) 300-0789. With Economic Development, contact Stephanie Britt at sbritt@cityofsanmarino.org. To inquire about business licenses, contact Illona Anderson at (626) 300-0700 or ianderson@cityofsanmarino.org.
For Parks and Public Works, Director and City Engineer Michael Throne detailed that “Public Works pretty much touches you every day in what you do. We make sure that when you flush your toilet that that water gets out to the sanitation district so that they can take care of it. When it rains, we make sure the streets drain and it cleanly goes out into the Los Angeles River and ultimately out into the bay.”
The department also oversees emergency preparedness, keeping streets safe, repairing roadways, maintaining parks and public buildings, and repairing city vehicles.
“We’re always willing to hear what it is you have to say,” said Throne. “You’re our eyes and ears. We can fix anything, we just need to know about it. So if you see a sprinkler going off in the median at 2 o’clock in the morning, call us and let us know it’s spraying off into the road. Because sometimes we don’t see that.”
Parks and Public Works can be contacted directly at City Hall at (626) 300-0765, at Lacy Park at (626) 300-0790 or at publicworks@cityofsanmarino.org.
And finally for Community Services, Recreation Supervisor Eddie Covarrubias shared that the department covers the Recreation Division and Crowell Public Library. Recreation provides before/after school day programs, aquatics, special events, day camp at Lacy Park, senior activities, contract classes, facility rentals and preschool at Stoneman. The library provides passports and circulation, children and young adult materials, adult and Chinese collections and various programs.
“We’re out there in the community trying to improve the quality of life for all the residents of San Marino,” said Covarrubias.
To contact recreation, call (626) 403-2200 or email recreation@cityofsanmarino.org. For the library, call (626) 300-0777.
The city’s Town Hall events are held every first Monday of the month for residents to engage with city staff and learn more about current city projects and priorities. The next topics will include the mayor’s state of the city address (Jan. 6), the budgetary process and priority initiatives for next fiscal year (Feb. 3) and resident engagement with new programs (March 9).
For questions or to request a modification or accommodation in order to participate in the meeting, contact the City Manager’s Office at (626) 300-0781.
