Public service is nothing out of the ordinary for Scott Ciambor, a longtime employee of the City and Borough of Juneau. He’s worn different hats within CBJ, from chief housing officer to planning manager to his newest role as director of the Community Development Department.
KTOO’s Mike Lane sat down with Ciambor and talked about what his goals are for leading the department.
Listen:
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mike Lane: So Scott, how did you get into this type of work? And can you tell me about your background?
Scott Ciambor: Sure. Thanks. So currently, I’ve been with the Community Development Department for about five years, so there’s a lot of familiarity with the specific roles and goals of the department, but I’ve been with City and Borough of Juneau for almost 10 years now. (I) really got into it, because the chief housing position became available along with the implementation of the housing action plan. So there was some real, targeted housing goals that the city wanted to put into place. And I shepherded that process for about five years, which was really enjoyable.
Mike Lane: What about your experience will make you a good leader for CDD?
Scott Ciambor: Yeah, I think, you know, my leadership style is collaborative and supportive of staff. So familiarity with staff — we have a great staff, everything from the inspectors through our long term planners to our admin officers and our GIS specialist, so we have a great crew. So familiarity and continually supporting them will be great. And then also, you know that experience in the manager’s office, knowing how to speak to Assembly goals and to orient the department’s kind of work towards that, so that will be a big strength as well.
Mike Lane: In a nutshell, what does the community development department do?
Scott Ciambor: Yeah, this is always, it’s a big nutshell. Definitely, we’ve been doing a lot of interviews, so I try to, like, get it to the elevator speech, but it’s really hard to do because we do so much. Obviously, on the building side, we have the chief building official who kind of helps make sure that things meet building code in town, and with the eye on health and safety, we have inspectors who are out in the field every day making sure things are done properly. We have an admin team. You know, one of our big responsibilities is to staff and help the planning commission. So there’s a lot of legal requirements and public notice involved with that. So we have an admin team who really helps us, get us prepared for those meetings. And then on the planning side, it’s everything from, you know, daily building permits, letters of zoning compliance, lots of public questions that we receive, that we take care of through our planner on call service. And then, like some of the exciting stuff on the long term side is we’re in the process of updating the comprehensive plan, and then we manage a series of housing programs, the Affordable Housing Fund, accessory dwelling unit grant program and the manufactured home loan program. So we got a pretty diverse set of activities, and keeping it all going is the goal.
Mike Lane: And I got to tell you, through a little bit of background research, I found out that you are a big advocate for solving the housing crisis in Juneau. So how do you plan to navigate that moving forward?
Scott Ciambor: Sure, I think, you know, since we’ve moved here in 2007, I’ve kind of worked on homeless and housing issues, you know, whether it’s project development or statewide policy. But yeah, I’ve been excited to work at the city with the housing action plan, and just to see that from where we were 10 years ago to where we are now is just night and day. The city and the Assembly and the staff have figured out how to use the tools that are available to municipal government to kind of create the environment for more housing development. And so we’ve done public private partnerships to get the assisted living project done out on Riverview. We’ve got the affordable housing fund that just finished up its fifth round so that five years in a row of investment in two projects for affordable and workforce housing. The grant program, you know, is kind of cutting edge. We’ve gotten calls about that from around the country asking us, you know, how you implement it and and how to go about it. And so I think it’s, it’s great to see that the tools are in place, so now it’s just a matter of continuing to use them. As, you know, the Assembly sees fit.
Mike Lane: If there’s something else you’d like to add, that’d be great.
Scott Ciambor: Sure, you know, I’m excited to take this role, really, to build off, you know, the work that the previous director, (Jill) Lawhorne, helped spur. And so right now, we’re in the midst of a comprehensive plan update. We have a new software permitting software system that we implemented in January, which is going to allow us to to be more efficient and to be better, you know, for user experience on one hand, and then tracking stuff on our end. And then, like I say, the housing programs are fantastic and, you know, people really kind of migrate to like, “Oh, that’s a cool program. You know, how do you get that operating right? And how do you keep it going?” So, excellent — lots, lots to work on here in the near future.
Mike Lane: Well, congratulations on the position as the director of Community Development Department at CBJ, and wish you luck.
Scott Ciambor: Yeah, thank you very much.
