The City of Orinda has announced that Drummond Buckley, who served as Senior Planner in Orinda from 1996 through 1999 and subsequently Interim Planning Director, will be returning to Orinda as Planning Director effective February 29, 2016.
We welcome Mr. Buckley back to Orinda and look forward to a new era of city planning.
According to a recent Contra Costa Times news brief, City Manager Janet Keeter wrote in a statement that "As we work together to discuss the future of Orinda, we need an individual at the helm who brings both fresh ideas and an intricate understanding of our city's complex planning process." Ms. Keeter says "Mr. Buckley's experience both here in Orinda and in other communities will add tremendous value to our city's planning efforts."
Mr. Buckley served as Planning Director for the City of Sausalito from 2001 through 2004. Of Mr. Buckley's background, local community organization Orinda Vision reports that he helmed his own consulting practice in San Francisco from 2004 to 2010 and that Mr. Buckley was most recently employed as Civilian Master Planner for URS Corporation with whom he served in Afghanistan, embedded with the US Air Force Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron. In this role, he developed some 20 Base Master Plans throughout the country.
Mr. Buckley succeeds Interim Planning Director, Victor Carniglia, who temporarily assumed the role when Emmanuel Ursu retired in September of 2015 after a fifteen year run as Orinda's Planning Director.
We'll be on the lookout for signs of progress from Mr. Buckley and his team come March!