Ventura to Consider Interim Manager : Government: The council could select one of four city department heads until a permanent replacement is found for John Baker.

Looking for someone to fill Ventura’s top job when City Manager John Baker leaves this summer, City Council members say they may temporarily appoint a department head to the spot while they search countrywide for a permanent replacement.

Baker will vacate his job for the private sector July 1 after nearly 13 years at the post, but council members say they probably will not have Baker’s permanent successor in place before September. Since the council does not meet in August, an interim manager’s job could be limited to July.

The four department managers some council members say they would consider for the job are: Everett Millais, the city’s director of community services; Terry Adelman, who oversees the city’s finances; Ron Calkins, director of public works, and Richard Thomas, the city’s chief of police.

Adelman said he would be eager for the chance.

“My professional goal is to be a city manager,” said Adelman, who is traveling north on Monday to interview for a city manager’s job at another California city. However, he said he would rather stay in Ventura if he gets the job.

“I have every intention of competing for that job,” he said. “I have a long-term commitment to Ventura and I would prefer to be here than leave.”

Both Councilman Jack Tingstrom and Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said Adelman would be one of their top choices for the job, at least on an interim basis.

Of the other three department heads, Thomas and Calkins say they don’t really want the job, even temporarily, and Millais will be out of the country for half of July.

“Before John Baker announced his resignation, I had made vacation plans for the first part of July,” said Millais, who will go to England with his wife and son. “To the extent that the timing works and all that, I certainly would consider it. The job could be rotated, you know, between the department heads.”

Both Thomas and Calkins said the job does not appeal to them.

“I’d consider it because I’m a good soldier, but I would not want to be the city manager,” Thomas said.

Calkins agreed. “I think my value to the city is the greatest as a public works director,” he said. “I’m enjoying it, and I can’t think of any other reason why I’d want to do something else right now.”

Three council members, Rosa Lee Measures, Jim Monahan and Jack Tingstrom, mentioned Millais as one of their top choices for the job. Millais, director of the city’s redevelopment efforts and planning procedures, has been with Ventura longer than even Baker. Monahan said he would like to consider Millais as a permanent replacement.

Councilman Steve Bennett and Mayor Tom Buford said they would not comment yet on their choices for an interim city manager.

Councilman Gregory L. Carson could not be reached for comment.

Of the four department heads under consideration for the job, all have been with the city for at least five years, and two have made their entire careers in Ventura.

Thomas, the police chief, began his police career in 1969 as an officer with the city of Ventura, and has been with the Police Department ever since. Originally from Fresno, he was promoted to chief of the department seven years ago.

Millais has also worked almost entirely in Ventura, taking a job as an assistant city planner just out of graduate school in 1973. Since then, the native of Upstate New York has worked at a variety of planning jobs at the city, receiving a promotion to his current post as director of community services in 1986.

Calkins started as public works director only a year ago, after spending seven years as the city engineer. Before that, he worked for three years as the city engineer in Santa Barbara, and 11 years in various jobs with the Ventura County Regional Sanitation District. He grew up and went to college in Missouri, and moved to the Ventura area in 1972.

Adelman, the city’s director of management resources, was raised in the Oakland area and spent the bulk of his professional life there, working as a budget analyst and assistant financial director. He has also worked for five years in the private sector as a political consultant, and as an assistant treasurer in Alameda County and for the finance department of the Berkeley public school system. He came to Ventura seven years ago.