New city manager sets priorities

 Jenny Haruyama, Scotts Valley’s new city manager who began work July 18, moved her family to the city last weekend.
“We had a smooth transition,” she said in an interview this week.
She and her husband, Arthur, a Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, moved into the Scotts Valley home where they had lived since 2001 while she was working as an assistant budget director in Los Gatos.
Their children are four years older than when they left Scotts Valley: three boys, now 17, 16 and 12, and one girl, now 8, and a second girl born a little over three years ago. The older children will be returning to Scotts Valley public schools, she said.
Her mother, Marion Harwood, lives in Scotts Valley, as does her aunt and uncle and three cousins, with several relatives in Santa Cruz.
Haruyama brings 22 years of experience to local government. Her annual salary will be $198,927.
Steve Ando, who spent nearly eight years as Scotts Valley city manager, retired in December.
The transitions at City Hall also are going smoothly, she said.
Harujama said she has begun recruiting for a key position in her administration, an administrative services director/ deputy city manager. The focus of that position will be finance and human resources. “I’d like to fill this position very soon,” she said, depending on the quantity and quality of applicants.
She said Taylor Bateman will continue in his role as acting community development director.
She begins her job just a city election season begins, with the filing deadline for city council candidates a week away. It is expected there will be five candidates for three positions.
She said she will treat all candidates – incumbents and challengers – equitably, which means providing information and access to her staff during the campaign. “Everyone gets the same information,” she said. “It’s a level playing field.”
Haruyama comes to the job with a clear set of priorities that will be the focus of her attention in these first months.
Topping her list are land-use and development issues. “We have a lot of things in the pipeline, and I will be making sure those processes move forward in a reasonable rate of time.”
“The council members are very passionate about wanting these projects to come to fruition, because they have a direct bearing on our revenue picture, and expense picture.”
The other is the completion of the hotels – the Lexington Hotel, the extended-stay Marriott, and the 1440 project, which she said are “incredibly important.”