City Manager’s 1st Year on the Job Puts Her to the Test

VENTURA —  City Manager Donna Landeros is no stranger to crises.

When the 47-year-old Santa Paula native took the helm at Ventura City Hall a year ago today, she was greeted by disaster.

Floods had displaced more than 100 homeless residents from the Ventura River bottom. Rough seas had knocked out supports from the Ventura Pier.

And back at her Northern California home, her husband and son were bailing out from an equally torrential storm that had struck rural Woodland.

“The first meeting or two, the mayor said in open session, ‘Yeah, we haven’t issued her scissors because we don’t trust her with any sharp objects,’ ” Landeros said Tuesday with a laugh. “I felt like I was in water--water everywhere.”

Although the flood waters subsided, wave after wave of critical issues have pounded City Hall during Landeros’ first year: a crisis in library funding and a nasty fight over the Buenaventura Mall expansion, to name a few.

Landeros’ bosses credit her for taking the challenges in stride. But the self-described workaholic says she is only now beginning to feel caught up.

“The issues are all manageable,” she said. “The difficulty of this last year is just finding enough time to get it all done.”

Landeros became the first permanent woman city manager in county history last year after Ventura officials launched an exhaustive search to replace longtime City Manager John Baker.

The chief administrative officer of Yolo County, Landeros impressed city leaders with her knowledge and interest in local issues, as well as her take-charge style, council members said.

“She’s really a no-nonsense, time-management-focused CEO,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said.

Her multifaceted job primarily requires her to oversee the city’s employee corps and to serve as a liaison to the City Council. Although she could try to influence city decisions, Landeros follows a strict personal philosophy opposing behind-the-scenes politicking.

“I know what my job is,” Landeros said. “It is to support the council in making those policy decisions.

“I absolutely believe in my obligation to give them a recommendation if I feel it warrants it,” she said. But she also believes in implementing the council’s policy direction even if she has a different point of view.

“That to me is just fundamental,” she said. “And if I can’t do that, I shouldn’t be here.”

Among her accomplishments, city leaders credit Landeros for making the Buenaventura Mall expansion a top priority for city staff. Landeros also recruited Berkeley-based consultant Walter Kieser, who helped orchestrate negotiations with mall developers.

“That was an area she could see was imminently urgent,” Measures said. “I credit a lot of our success to date with her focus on that being a very essential and immediate target.”

But Landeros’ management style, which many consider more open and friendly than Baker’s, caught some city employees off guard.

“Her style is definitely different,” Community Development Director Everett Millais said. “That’s not good, bad or indifferent. Everybody is kind of a product of their experiences and Donna has come to the job with different experiences.”

Landeros graduated from Santa Paula High School in 1966. She started college at Cal State Chico, but left after a year to study in Santiago, Chile, as an exchange student. Despite attending three universities in four years, she graduated from UCLA with honors after four years.

She then went to work for Los Angeles County and rose through the ranks in Butte and Yolo counties before coming to Ventura.

“I think that she is doing an excellent job,” Councilman Jim Monahan said. “I think the first year for any city manager is always a difficult one, then you can develop your track record and move on.”

Assuming council members are pleased with her work--and many seem to be--Landeros is scheduled for merit raises the next two years of her three-year contract. She earned $105,000 in her first year and would earn $112,000 in her second year.

“I believe her performance has been received well,” Measures said.

Ventura Police Chief Richard Thomas, who served as the city’s interim city manager for nearly eight weeks, said he has been impressed with the new city manager, particularly in light of such a challenging first year.

“She has a lot of credibility in my book, and she has a lot of guts,” Thomas said.

“It’s a tough job, trying to balance all of the priorities that the community offers up. I would equate that job to being Solomon every day in having to determine who is going to get the baby.”