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That loud whooshing sound you heard rising all over Berkeley last Thursday afternoon was the collective sigh of relief when citizens learned that Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz is going to try to straighten out the Planning Department. Phil (everyone is on a first name basis with him) is one of the best-liked, and also (and not always the same thing) one of the most respected people in the city administration. His sharp pencil has saved the city budget in ways that seemed miraculous for years, though this year might be more of a challenge. 

For the last few years, it’s seemed that planning for the future of Berkeley has been in the hands of graduates of the Robert Moses School of Public Policy. For those of you too young to remember Robert Moses, he was New York City’s planning tsar from 1933 to 1959. He tried to reconstruct New York City in an imperial style with lots of concrete and highways, and his contempt for citizens who disagreed with him was legendary. 

Phil Kamlarz doesn’t have a degree in planning at all, which is probably a good thing. He might, for example, start his job by actually reading the description of the duty of the department’s Advance Planning Division, which is printed on the city’s Web site: “… assisting the  

Berkeley community in its efforts to plan for the city’s physical, cultural, environmental and socio-economic future.” Note that word “assisting.” It’s not “controlling” or even “guiding.” Ever since they laid out the streets in the Berkeley hills to follow the contours of the land instead of destroying them, members of the community have traditionally taken the lead in planning Berkeley’s future. 

Talleyrand said “war is too important to be left to the generals.” Similarly, planning for the future of Berkeley has always been considered too important to be left to the planning professionals. The same Web description says that the Planning Commission “oversees and reviews the planning process and planning issues.” It doesn’t say “carries out the plans made by staff” or even “endorses plans made by staff after the fact.” It clearly says “oversees.” 

When Carol Barrett, the departing planning director, arrived in Berkeley, planning commissioners had just finished a mammoth two-year effort to update the city’s General Plan. They started out with a draft which had been essentially dictated by former City Manager James Keene. At many lengthy public hearings they took testimony from hundreds of citizens, and re-wrote the plan from top to bottom to reflect this input. The cooperation of planner Andrew Thomas, who takes the old-fashioned title of “public servant” seriously, was key to the success of the process. But Thomas was hired as a consultant, and after the plan was finished he moved on to another city. Barrett, on the other hand, was uncomfortable from the beginning with Berkeley-style civic discourse. On her way out the door, it seems that she’s still trying to spin the Chronicle’s ever-gullible columnist Chip Johnson to blame the civilians for her failings. 

Phil Kamlarz has always gotten along with civilians. He’s needed to work cooperatively with them on election campaigns to fund civic projects like library improvements. Besides his sharp pencil, his eyes are sharp enough that he’s always known what was going on in city government. 

A classic cartoon shows The Little King standing on his balcony, looking out over a crowd of angry peasants. “Sire,” says his vizier, “The people are revolting!” Says the king imperiously, “Get a new people!” Phil Kamlarz has been around Berkeley long enough to know that he’s not going to get a new people, so he’s learned how to get along with the people we have. Maybe he can teach the Planning Department how to do it. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Berkeley Daily Planet.