Barnett's style is unusual for that job in recent years

The low-key tenure of city Managing Director Camille Barnett is more a rarity than the norm among past managing directors. Most have had high profiles. Here are some with the highest:

* Hillel Levinson (1972-80) was Frank Rizzo's only managing director. He negotiated labor contracts with longtime union leader Earl Stout and dealt with numerous controversies involving the Police Department, including a Justice Department lawsuit alleging systematic police brutality.

He was indicted by a state grand jury in 1975 for illegal fundraising, but the charges were later withdrawn.

* W. Wilson Goode, (1980-82) was the city's first black managing director, appointed by Mayor Bill Green.

Goode was highly visible, known for long hours, endless community meetings, appearances on fire grounds and a focus on housing issues. He parlayed his prominence into a successful run for mayor in 1983.

* Leo Brooks (1984-85), the former Army general appointed by Mayor Goode, was known primarily for coordinating the disastrous police assault on the radical group MOVE that killed 11 people and burned 61 homes to the ground in West Philadelphia. Brooks resigned three weeks after the May 1985 confrontation.

* James White (1985-1990), appointed by Goode after the MOVE confrontation, was known for a tireless work ethic and a patient, tension-defusing style.

His effectiveness was hampered by a severe budget crisis in his last three years. He waged a short-lived and unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 1991.

* Joe Martz (2000-2001) served less than two years as Mayor John Street's managing director. But it seemed longer, both because he played a key role in the preceding administration of Mayor Ed Rendell, and because the energetic Martz never seemed to stop moving.

He's remembered for organizing a blitz to remove 35,000 abandoned cars from city streets in April and May of 2000.