DAYTON DAILY NEWS                   Copyright (c) 1996, Dayton Newspapers Inc.DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996                   TAG: 9605100133EDITION: CITY           SECTION: NEWS        PAGE: 1A SOURCE: By Laura A. Bischoff        DAYTON DAILY NEWS                           LEMMIE TO TAKE CITY HELM    Valerie A. Lemmie will become Dayton's 14th city manager since 1914 and thefirst woman and the first black to hold the position. She accepted the job Thursday, pending salary and benefit negotiations, which are scheduled for next week.   "We will work with her. We will support her," said City Commissioner IdothaBootsie Neal. "We can expect some great things to happen."   Lemmie, 44, is not expected to start for 60 to 75 days because her contractin Petersburg, Va., where she has been city manager for three years, requires 60 days' notice of departure.   "I'm very excited," Lemmie said. "I'm very excited about a community that values its residents as well as its businesses."   It was unclear Thursday who will serve as city manager in the meantime. Interim City Manager Maureen Pero is leaving June 3 to become president of theDowntown Dayton Partnership.   Commissioners said they are confident Lemmie can make the leap from managing Petersburg, a city of 38,000, to running Dayton, a city of 182,000 residents.   "She has always excelled in every position she has been in," Dayton Mayor Mike Turner said.   Commissioner Tony Capizzi used the analogy of a ship captain: Lemmie has been learning about the seas, winds and navigation in a smaller ship which hasprepared her to take the helm of a larger vessel.   In addition to running Petersburg since January 1993, Lemmie has worked as a department director in Arlington County, Va., and in various positions in Mayor Marion Barry's administration in Washington, D.C.   Some of Dayton's priority board chairmen, who had a chance to meet the prime city manager candidates, said they want to see Lemmie involved in neighborhood issues such as freeing up more federal block grant money to pay for housing rehabilitation or helping neighborhood business districts.   Claud Bell, chairman of the Innerwest Priority Board, said he wants Lemmie to orchestrate a smooth transition, focus on economic development and support citizen participation in Dayton government.   "If she can accomplish those three in the first couple of years, I think she will work out great. I wish her well because she has a hard task in front of her," Bell said.   "I would like to see her get the commission to settle down and work together. They are too divided," said George Gregory, chairman of the DowntownPriority Board. "Settle down and let's all work together for a more positive image."   "I have a good feeling about her. I think she is going to be good for the city," said Ken Thomas, president of Dayton Public Service Union Local 101, which represents the city's clerical and labor work force.   Lemmie said her first order of business will be getting to know the staff, residents, priority board volunteers and the city itself.   "I really need to know the community, its true strengths," she said.   Lemmie plans to buy a house in Dayton and her husband, Olen Strozier Jr., will move here. Strozier, a business management consultant, has been living and working in the D.C. area while Lemmie worked in Petersburg, where she rented an apartment.   Next week, Lemmie will meet with James L. Francis, clerk of the Dayton CityCommission, in Dayton or Petersburg to discuss her employment agreement.   "We will not exceed what we paid the last city manager. She knows that," Francis said.   Former City Manager Bill Estabrook was paid $122,000 a year, plus benefits such as a car allowance, health insurance and severance pay.   Francis also said there will be no contract with a set duration of employment; the manager serves at the pleasure of the commission.   Petersburg Mayor Rosayln Dance said Lemmie is a tough negotiator who got Petersburg officials to pay her $85,000, after her predecessor was paid $69,000.   Dayton was the nation's first large city to adopt a city manager form of government and Lemmie will be the 14th permanent city manager since the first was hired in 1914.   She will be the fifth person in the office in the last three years, however.   Former Manager Richard Helwig had held the job nine years when he resigned in January 1994. Since then two interim managers and Estabrook have served, Estabrook for just a year.   Staff members said they need stable leadership.   But Commissioners Tony Capizzi and Richard Zimmer disputed the idea that city government has been paralyzed by instability, an idea which they said has been promoted by the media. Instead, they asserted that Dayton has moved forward in the last 18 Months.   "I would like to see the press do some positive things for a change," Zimmer said.LENGTH: Medium:   97 LINESSUBJ: APPOINTMENT      CITY GOVERNMENT      CITY MANAGER NA: VALERIE A. LEMMIE GEOG: DAYTON AT: FIRST WOMAN    FIRST BLACK  ENHANCER: REF8