Interim City Manager Plans Short, Sweet Tenure : Ventura: Dick Thomas helped revitalize Santa Barbara. The retired executive will hold the reins until a replacement for John Baker is found.

Dick Thomas, Ventura’s new interim city manager, figures he won’t have much time for his leisure reading anymore.

And the rose garden that he has so carefully tended since he retired as chief administrator of Santa Barbara last spring--well, it will just have to wait for the weekends now.

Thomas, 63, will hit the road at 7 a.m. today in his beige Oldsmobile Firenze and drive south for 30 minutes from his home in Santa Barbara, to assume his duties as Ventura’s top manager.

“This is an ideal arrangement,” Thomas said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s about as convenient as you get. There are similarities to Santa Barbara. Plus, I’ve been close enough to have some feel for what’s been going on.”

Thomas will fill the vacancy left by former City Manager John Baker, who resigned two weeks ago after serving 12 years. Baker plans to start his own consulting business.

The council hired Thomas two weeks ago to manage the city while it continues to look for a permanent replacement for Baker.

Thomas certainly cherishes no grand plans for change in Ventura, especially since he hopes he will only be needed for three or four months.

“I’m strictly an interim,” Thomas said, adding that he is thoroughly enjoying his retirement after 36 years managing cities in Kansas, Colorado, Montana--and Santa Barbara.

Thomas comes to Ventura with rave references from Santa Barbara, where he oversaw that city’s revitalization efforts. Longtime Santa Barbara council members say he provided a positive, nurturing atmosphere for staff at City Hall.

Ventura Councilman Steve Bennett said Thomas’ experience was precisely the reason he supported his selection.

“The thing that stood out to me is that he’s very experienced as a city manager, and in a city similar to Ventura,” he said. “I wanted somebody who was going to make sure we were not going to get in trouble.”

Since he landed the interim position last month, Thomas said, he’s had to leave his pleasure reading aside to wade through thick Ventura City Council agendas and other bureaucratic tomes issued by city staff.

The new interim manager, however, has not yet attended a council meeting or staff conference, so today should be an abrupt introduction. His schedule includes: a council economics committee meeting at 8:30 a.m., sessions with key staff the rest of the morning, a 1:30 p.m. council Environment Committee meeting and a 4 p.m. joint meeting of the council and the Planning Commission.

“I’ll just jump into the pool and see how wet I get,” Thomas said.

Even as he planned his retirement last year, Thomas said, he had hoped to return to the city administration business on an intermittent basis.

“The whole 36 years (of my career) have been exciting,” he said. “You can’t help but look back on all those exciting times and hope you’ll have some of that again.”