Planning her departure




MAP QUEST—Maureen Tamuri shows former Calabasas City Councilmember Fred Gaines a planning map for the city. Acorn file photo

MAP QUEST—Maureen Tamuri shows former Calabasas City Councilmember Fred Gaines a planning map for the city. Acorn file photo

For all the highlights on the resume of Calabasas Community development Director Maureen Tamuri—earning a degree in architecture by age 19; working for famed designer Frank Gehry on the Benson House in Calabasas; preventing a car dealership from being painted flamingo pink—there’s one entry that really stands out: tearing down stripper poles to put up a park.

In a one-on-one interview with The Acorn, Tamuri assessed a career that’s spanned four decades and talked about what retirement might bring when her nearly 20 years with the city ends Dec. 27.

Community development in California means creating conditions of economic and social prosperity for the entire community. In Calabasas, which incorporated in 1992, this can mean keeping cars off lawns, keeping the noise down and encouraging businesses to come to town.

“The job has less to do with planning than administering a very large department,” Tamuri said, noting that she oversees 13 city staff members and some eight consultants.

Code enforcement also falls under the community development banner, and Tamuri said that’s been “one of the things that’s just been the funniest thing to deal with.”

She recalled a phone call from an elderly man summoning a code enforcement officer.

“My pool. It’s full of ducks,” the man told the officer.

As Tamuri told the story, she couldn’t help but laugh. Because, really, what can the city do?

“Does your neighbor have a dog?” the officer replied. Ah, yes, one that could chase away the ducks.

“The case was closed quickly,” said Tamuri, adding, “Creative solutions are sometimes all you need.”

Then there are the people who swear they’ve been hexed by a neighbor or that a neighbor’s trees are rustling too loudly.

“These are real things,” she said.

Tamuri left home at 17. Two years later, she earned a Bachelor of Architecture. Later came a master’s degree in urban planning and architecture from UCLA.

She went on to work on some large hospital projects, and then there was the strip club—not building it, getting rid of it— during her time with the City of Los Angeles, where she built parks.

“You create parks for a variety of reasons,” Tamuri said. “Sometimes it’s to clear up a problem.”

A “problem” is exactly how city officials viewed a particular piece of property—a good-size strip club and bar that the L.A. vice division had raided due to brothel activities.

The city bought the property and, with it, the stripper’s license, in hopes of closing them down and doing away with the blight.

It was a plan easier said than done.

“What I didn’t know is that it’s not too easy, when you own booze and a stripper’s license, to get rid of them,” Tamuri said.

She eventually appeared before the L.A. Police Commission and asked to have the license revoked. It worked, and the city was ready to move on.

“They giggled, but it was fun to do,” she said. “We ended up building a park where a brothel used to be.”

Through the city she next took over a $17-billion new schools program, where she worked with Navy Seabees.

“Working with the Navy was fun.”

Calabasas was her next stop. She came to the city to work on the Civic Center project, lured by then-City Manager Tony Coroalles. The two had worked together at the City of Los Angeles. She’d done professional planning work but never managed a public project.

That all changed with the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Civic Center, which opened in 2008. The architect described it as giving the city “its first opportunity to express in architectural terms the civic ideals of community and environmental stewardship.”

To this day, Tamuri marvels at the complex, which features a mural that she painted.

The thing she’s most proud of is getting defibrillators in public spaces. While with the City of Los Angeles, Tamuri trained with the fire department and became an EMT. That’s where she learned the importance of defibrillators.

“When I came here we didn’t have any,” she said, “and within three months, four months of them being put in, they saved a life.”

That was in 2004.

Tamuri spearheaded making the Lost Hills bridge over Highway 101 a piece of art in a public space, and she also took the lead in doing away with a business registration tax, imposed by the county and costing businesses $20,000 per year. That code essentially said that if a business has the potential to create vice or needs regulation, it needs to be registered to do that.

But the county never inspected any of those taxed businesses.

“I found an error in a code that we adopted . . . and had it rescinded,” Tamuri said. “It was money paid to the county to inspect, and they never inspected.”

Businesses were happy.

Not everything community development does has the same universal appeal.

“I once had a member of the public report me to the attorney general’s office,” Tamuri said, “because I was proposing workforce housing. He thought I wanted to build houses for (city) employees.”

The role of the community development director has never exactly been popular, she said. “We were built on anti-development. We were built to stop overdevelopment by the county. And so, this position is seen as a potential barrier to that production.

“But that’s why we have a general plan and a set of rules, and that’s why we have to follow them. We don’t advocate on one side or another. . . . I owe an applicant a fair and recognizable process.”

Asked to summarize her thoughts on the city, Tamuri said, “Calabasas prides itself as the last of the Old West. I think the city has always been a trailblazer. It’s always been pioneering. It’s been willing to take on concepts, ideas that other cities don’t.”

She’d like to continue helping the city—and others—as a contract provider.

First comes a two-month vacation. And she’ll be barred for another four months from doing anything for the City of Calabasas.

“I’m just going to, you know, rest,” she said.

Tamuri wouldn’t say when she made the decision to retire, but her eyes welled up at the reality of the situation.

“It’s been a difficult life change.

“I want the best for the city,” she said. “I have a good working relationship with the city.”

She said her goal “is to continue to help the city and court other communities and keep my fingers in government. If I can help, I’d be happy to help.”

Follow Scott Steepleton on Twitter @scottsteepleton.