CAMILLE Barnett doesn't own a hazmat suit.

She doesn't ride on trash trucks, stop at fires, manage traffic disasters or hold news conferences, as previous Philadelphia managing directors have. But Barnett says that behind the scenes she is running things in her own way.

"How it works is, things that need to be done, get done," Barnett said.

Since joining the administration 18 months ago, Barnett - who held top city jobs in Austin, Texas, and in Washington, D.C. - has kept a low profile. Her two biggest public projects have been the new 3-1-1 nonemergency-call line and the PhillyStat data-tracking system.

But many tasks that typically fall to a managing director are now done by one of the city's deputy mayors, who report to both Barnett and Mayor Nutter.

For example, last year, when the city managed a massive parade in honor of the World Series-winning Phillies, the deputy mayor for transportation and public utilities, Rina Cutler, took media questions on the post-parade cleanup.

During the controversial attempt last fall to close city libraries, the deputy mayor for health and opportunity, Don Schwartz, was front and center.

And currently, the deputy mayor for public safety, Everett Gillison, is in charge of preparation for a potential city workers strike.

"By charter the managing director is really the chief operating officer of the city, but that's been less and less the case," said Zack Stalberg, chief executive officer of the Committee of Seventy, a political-watchdog group.

"It seems as if Dr. Barnett is not really playing that role. Whether it's the mayor's choice or her choice, she seems to take on these singular projects."

Barnett said she supports the setup, which gives more authority to the deputy mayors, noting that it is a common governing structure in other cities.

"I think one of the things this organization does is strengthen the executive function," Barnett said. "I'm a supporter of the deputy-mayor concept."

Asked if she thought the responsibilities awarded the deputy mayors diminished her role in the government, Barnett said: "I don't view power as a zero-sum game."

Nutter agreed that he had organized his government to spread some of those responsibilities around, but stressed that this system meant that Barnett could focus more time on government reform.

"We've empowered numerous high-level officials in the government. It's shared responsibility and process," Nutter said. "I think what it does is free up [Barnett] to work on a variety of the reform efforts. "

Given that it's only 18 months into Nutter's first term and that the city is gripped by a massive fiscal crisis, it is hard to fully assess Barnett's performance. But it is clear she is not operating in the public eye as previous chief operating officers did.

W. Wilson Goode - who was managing director under Mayor Bill Green - rose from that job to the mayor's office. Known for working long hours, Goode was credited with cutting city costs and negotiating contracts with wage freezes for blue- and white-collar workers.

More recently, under Mayor John Street, Phil Goldsmith and his successor, Pedro Ramos, were both visible presences at fires or flood scenes.

"You're always on," Goldsmith said. "You have your in-office hours and then, even on vacation, you're waiting for the phone to ring."

You have to look back to Gene Shipman, who was lampooned as an "invisible man" during his two years as managing director under Mayor Ed Rendell to find a chief operating officer with a lower profile than Barnett.