Ventura’s New Manager Takes a Look at City Hall : Administration: Donna Landeros says the community appears to be in solid financial shape. She starts Jan. 17.

Donna Landeros, Ventura’s next city manager, made her first visit to her new city Thursday since accepting the job last month, meeting with local officials and touring the marbled corridors of City Hall.

During an afternoon news conference, Landeros said she anticipates working with the council on such issues as economic development and revitalizing the downtown. Otherwise, she did not detail any specific plans she had for her new job, besides trying to help the often-fractious City Council work more smoothly together.

“I welcome discussion, I welcome debate, but at the end, it has to conclude with some direction,” she said. “That’s when the manager has to step in (and say), ‘All right, what do you want to do, what do you want the staff to do?’ ”

Describing herself as a workaholic, Landeros said she sees her job extending beyond City Hall to frequent interactions with the community. She said she hopes to regularly attend Chamber of Commerce mixers and other civic club meetings to get to know city residents.

From what she has seen, she said, Ventura seems to be in solid financial shape.

“I think the city is very strong and I think the council has made a lot of really tough (budget) decisions,” she said. Landeros will be the first permanent woman city manager in the county when she begins her job Jan. 17 and will make $105,000 in her first year.

She replaces John Baker, who left the city in July after 12 years to start his own consulting business. Ventura has had two interim city managers since Baker resigned--the former top administrator in Santa Barbara and, since Dec. 1, Ventura’s chief of police.

Assuming the council is pleased with her work, Landeros is scheduled for merit raises in the next two years of her three-year contract, to $112,000 in her second year and $121,000 in her third year, city officials said. She will also receive a full benefits package, which under previous City Manager Baker was worth about $23,000 a year.

Landeros now makes $86,292 a year, plus $8,950 in benefits as Yolo County administrator.

For at least the first six months, she said, she plans to commute between Ventura and her family’s home in Woodland, the Yolo County seat, where her son attends eighth grade and her husband supervises a migrant education program.

Her husband and son will move to Ventura next summer, she said.

Landeros comes to Ventura with rave reviews from Yolo County, where county supervisors and private citizens alike praise her ability to finesse negotiations and make scarce resources stretch far through careful money management.

The 46-year-old Landeros grew up in Santa Paula and has visited the county many times since on trips home to see her parents. But on Thursday, she saw a new side of Ventura--the one within City Hall.

City officials gave her a tour of the building, and she lunched in the council’s offices with city department heads.

Everett Millais, the city’s director of community services, said he is looking forward to having a city manager in place so officials can stop postponing such items as budget planning. “She’s personable and she displays self-confidence,” said Millais, who met Landeros for the first time Thursday. “I’m looking forward to working with her--and frankly, I can’t wait for her to get here.”