Planning director is back on the job

The city’s planning director is back on duty after being put on a

very public leave of absence by the city administrator.

“It feels good to be back,” Howard Zelefsky said Monday after a

City Council study session. “Everyone has been real welcoming. I

don’t have words to say that describe how nice people have been.”

Penny Culbreth-Graft officially placed Zelefsky on a 30-day leave

Aug. 15, prompting questions throughout the city and real estate

development community about the fate of one of the most powerful men

in city politics.

Rumors abounded as to why Graft placed on leave the man with a

hand in nearly every major development in Huntington Beach.

Days after the move, Culbreth-Graft said she was trying to clear

up Zelefsky’s employment status. A contract he had negotiated with

former City Administrator Ray Silver had given him the extra salary

benefits attached to being an at-will employee who could be

terminated at any time, but it also granted him civil servant

protection, which carries strong job security.

Silver later said Zelefsky was given the contract during a

reorganization of the planning department that involved a complicated

management shake-up.

The result was that it would have been very difficult for

Culbreth-Graft to fire Zelefsky. To correct that problem, the first

step, which she took in August, was to strip him of his at-will

employment status and place him on a 30-day leave. Now that Zelefsky

has returned, he enjoys the protections of a civil service employee

and can be terminated only if CulbrethGraft documents insubordination

over an extended period of time, according to city and state

employment codes.

As for his current status, Zelefsky remains the top official at

the planning department, city spokeswoman Laurie Payne said Tuesday.

“Everything remains the same,” she said.

Zelefsky said he had no bad feelings about being placed on

administrative leave, and he planned to continue with business as

usual. He said he spent most of the absence on vacation in Maui.

Zelefsky was a popular figure in the planning department, both

with his staff and with large-scale developers seeking to push their

projects through the city. Pacific City developer Michael Gagnet once

referred to Zelefsky as the “voice of reason” in the city, while

Bella Terra developer Milton Swimmer said Zelefsky was instrumental

in ending a 10-year stalemate over the direction of the mall.

“It’s a juggling act, a balancing act,” former planning director

and developer Michael Adams said.

“At the same time that you’re trying to address council issues,

you have to balance city regulations and tell the council why they’re

there.”

Often, Adams said, it’s hard not to make foes.

“In that position, you have to be somebody on either side of most

issues, and it’s inevitable that you’re going to make enemies,” he

said.