Behind-the-Scenes Player Steps Into Spotlight

From her no-nonsense haircut to the detailed lists and plans that cram her personal computer’s hard drive, MaryJane V. Lazz is a model of efficiency.

For the last 18 years as Thousand Oaks’ assistant city manager, Lazz has preferred to work behind the scenes of city government, where she can get the most done.

Lazz would rather pace around the edges of the City Council chambers than sit in the high-backed chairs on the dais. She would just as soon delve into the minutiae of personnel issues and the budget as bicker about growth.

But, starting tonight, Lazz will take center stage for a while. On a unanimous vote last week, City Council members hired her as interim city manager.

She will succeed her longtime boss and friend, Grant Brimhall, who retired on Valentine’s Day from the job he held for two decades.

While Brimhall focused on community outreach and council concerns, Lazz, 49, has long been the day-to-day boss of the Civic Arts Plaza.

“She is just one of the most capable people I’ve ever known,” Brimhall said. “She has this ability to grasp issues with great speed and complete depth, and the ability to articulate them. . . . She gets difficult work done in the shortest period of time of anyone I’ve ever known.”

Lazz is “extremely efficient,” said City Councilwoman Judy Lazar. “I think she does an excellent job.”

Even Lazz’s critics give her high marks for her command of detail, her eloquence, the long hours she puts in and her ability to get things done.

But those who have crossed Lazz complain she is a tough boss with a sharp temper. Lazz acknowledges being demanding, because the citizens of Thousand Oaks should settle for no less than perfection from their employees.

“I’m the person to get things done,” she said last week. “My style is directive; give me something to do, and I’ll get it down. Grant is the creative person who likes to craft the vision. Myself, when there’s a vision, I’ll work to put it in place. . . . That’s what makes us a great team.”

Privately, some of her civilian bosses say that Lazz’s temper contributes to low employee morale and that she plays favorites with council members.

“She’s a partisan,” said one council member. “That’s not what a good city manager is supposed to be.”

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But Lazz says she tries to treat each of her bosses equally, no matter what the issue.

“We all work very, very hard at serving all five council members equally and giving them the professional facts equally,” she said. “I can guarantee that I’ve had knock-down, drag-out discussions, arguments or whatever you want to call them, with the, quote, ‘council majority.’ ”

Lazz is widely regarded as a top contender for the permanent position of city manager--if she wants the job.

After working in the Oxnard and Thousand Oaks city governments for 22 years, Lazz is torn about staying on.

She doesn’t want to abandon her life’s work: bringing order and an emphasis on arts and libraries to Thousand Oaks.

But, with her husband recently retired from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Lazz may opt to retire from her $116,000-a-year post. That way, she could spend more time with her “true sweetheart” flying their Beechcraft Bonanza V-Tail airplane around the West Coast and traveling the country on their motorcycles.

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And with an election on the horizon, there’s always the chance that a shift of power could add up to a pink slip. And it’s almost certain that council debates will turn to political grandstanding as Election Day approaches.

Lazz doesn’t mention those things when asked about staying on permanently.

For the moment, she says she’s “considering her options.”

No time limit has been put on Lazz’s interim appointment, but city officials have asked executive-search companies to submit proposals for recruiting a new city manager, and they hope to select one in March.

Lazz, who grew up in Washington state, wasn’t always interested in government, although she did have a fondness for debate in high school.

The eldest child of an engineer and a homemaker, she majored in anthropology at Washington State University.

While working at the school’s political science library, Lazz discovered a passion for libraries and government.

She and Keith Lazz, who are childless, first dated in junior high and married 30 years ago, when she was 19 and he was 20.

After MaryJane graduated from college, they spent two years in Hokkaido, Japan, while Keith was in the Army.

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While there, MaryJane Lazz nourished her artistic side, taking classes in flower arranging, painting and doll making.

Those talents still show up in the elaborate themed parties she helps throw for city staffers.

Her appreciation of color, texture and movement emerges in speckled pottery on her desk, the bright dresses and eye-catching jewelry she favors, and the art she is in charge of acquiring for the city.

After returning to the States, the Lazzes settled in Southern California--a welcome change from the bitter cold of Japan’s northernmost island. MaryJane Lazz got a job at Oxnard’s public library with plans to get a master’s degree in library science.

But “it became very apparent that the decisions about libraries weren’t made in libraries,” she said. “They were made in the city manager’s office.”

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So she was hired as an administrative assistant for community development and grants coordination in Oxnard, and moved her way up to an assistant to the city manager in four years.

She jumped to Thousand Oaks in 1980 when she was offered the assistant city manager’s job.

Along the way, Lazz earned her master’s degree in public administration at the University of La Verne with a 4.0 grade-point average.