City of Orinda Planning Director Drummond Buckley to Retire

    Drummond Buckley, Orinda’s director of planning, will mark his retirement from public service Jan. 18. A longtime planner who joined the city staff in 2016, Drummond may best be known for his ability to create transparent processes that foster open dialogues.
    “Before I was hired, I was told one of my main responsibilities would be to restart the conversation about downtown,” said Buckley, noting that frequent attempts to address the controversial issue had been unsuccessful.
    “We started with a very memorable, standing-room-only meeting at the library in 2016,” remembered Buckley. The room was filled with a mix of people who opposed change and those who wanted modifications and updates.
    “That was the only meeting in my career that, at the end, the crowd applauded,” said Buckley, with a self-deprecating laugh. He prefers to talk about his staff rather than himself. To him, the meeting demonstrated Orinda’s collective ownership of smart planning and development.
    Orinda City Manager David Biggs has appreciated Buckley’s insight about the community.
    “He has a great knowledge base and really does love Orinda,” said Biggs. “He’s had to navigate tough issues and did it with great aplomb, considering local constraints and state obligations.”
    Under Buckley’s leadership, in January 2023 Orinda adopted its Downtown Precise Plan (DPP). Representing years of planning efforts, consultations, studies, community outreach and feedback, the DPP guides the community and policymakers toward a shared vision for downtown.
    Biggs praised Buckley’s work in training many of the city’s key planners over the years.
    “He’s constantly challenging them and encouraging them to grow as professionals,” he said.
    In conjunction with the DPP adoption last year, the city approved the 2023-2031 Housing Element. The housing element allows zoning for the construction of more than 1,000 new housing units in the eight-year period.
    In December, the Orinda Planning Department received the Mayor’s Award of Excellence for 2023. Buckley prefers not to take personal credit for the achievement. Instead, he highlighted the dedication and accomplishments of the planners who joined the department during his tenure.
    “Looking back, I’m most proud of the team that I work with here,” said Buckley. “I’ve had the opportunity to mentor a lot of really great planners. And I’m grateful to the city council for supporting the planning department and the process we’ve taken the community through over the years.”
    The city is working with an executive search firm to carefully identify and hire Buckley’s successor.
    “The goal is to have someone in the position by May or June,” said Biggs. “In the meantime, we will have an interim planning director who will bring a lot of experience to the city.”
    Biggs was unable to share that individual’s name before this issue of The Orinda News went to production, nor had the job requisition officially opened.
    Biggs expects no major changes to the existing job description on the city’s human resources web page. The consolidated salary schedule, published July 1, 2023, shows the annual starting salary ranging from $156,322 to $190,743.
    “I think we’ll get some quality candidates,” said Biggs. “The key is to continue this forward momentum and give life to those plans we now have in the uniquely Orinda way.”
    As for Buckley, his plans after Orinda will bring him to a new continent.
    “I’m going to move to Bogotá, Colombia,” he said. “It’s a city I’ve been to at least five times. I plan to learn Spanish more fluently and I want to keep my mind active.”
    Moving around the globe is not new to Buckley, who worked as a master planner on a U.S. military contract in Afghanistan in 2013.
    Buckley added, “Orinda has been a great place to work. We’re small but dynamic, so you get to do some of everything.”