"So far, so good," Tsuda said of his first three weeks in town. "I really enjoy the people here, and it's obviously a wonderful town to be working in."

Tsuda received his bachelor's degree in city and regional planning from Cal Poly­San Luis Obispo, and completed graduate work in public administration at San José State University. He has worked for city planning departments in Mountain View, Danville and Campbell. He spent two years with Joint Ventures Silicon Valley Network, a civic solutions group, where he worked on a "smart permitting" program now in place in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Smart permitting uses the Internet to streamline permit application and tracking processes for small projects.

Most recently, Tsuda worked for E*TRADE financial. But his job required quite a bit of travel, and he wanted to be closer to his wife and 2-year-old and 6-month-old children.

He said his experience in Danville will translate well to Los Gatos—both have a lot of hillside development, "quaint" downtown areas and pride in historic roads and other areas.

Tsuda said his work has taken him all over the United States, and Los Gatos is definitely a "jewel" among American cities. He said part of this is simply because of the people here.

"Through the interview process, I gained an appreciation for the sense of camaraderie" among town staff, he said. "That was really one of the reasons I was attracted to the position."

Lortz and Tsuda have known each other for about 18 years, since they worked in neighboring cities. Lortz said all of the references he checked were extremely positive about the assistant director, and his résumé demonstrates a work history that will be useful to Los Gatos.

"He has a very high level of technical competence," Lortz said. "He brings a good complement of experience to the town in terms of both the public and private sector. And his style, his demeanor is very compatible with this community."

Town Manager Debra Figone said she, too, was impressed with Tsuda's professional history and "heartily supported" Lortz's recommendation.

"What I found really terrific about Randy ... is he has a tremendous breadth of experience in community planning," she said. "He's got very practical experience at small to medium cities, plus he's got private-sector experience."

The assistant community development director provides support and oversight to the director. Tsuda will work more as the operating officer of the department, while Lortz will be able to focus more on policy issues.

So far, Tsuda said, he hasn't identified any specific goals to accomplish, as he has spent most of his time getting up to speed on projects in the town and work plans for the next fiscal year.

But he's adjusting to the community just fine.

"I'm really enjoying my first month," he said. "It's nice being two blocks from a wine shop."