The “business mayor” finally has a chief of staff who’s all business.

That’s the assessment of a number of insiders at Los Angeles City Hall, who say that Mayor Richard Riordan’s recent decision to tap former Business Team chief Lesa Slaughter as his chief of staff reflects a more project-oriented approach from the mayor’s office.

Slaughter’s predecessor, Robin Kramer, was an experienced political aide who had been brought on in part to restore a sense of stability to Riordan’s staff after the brief but tumultuous tenure of William Ouchi.

“Robin did bring stability to the staff,” said Larry Kosmont, a real estate consultant who did a study of LAPD facilities for the city. “And a lot of the relationships with the council have already been shored up. The other relationships probably aren’t going to get any better. I think that’s why, when Robin left, Riordan decided to go with someone who gets things done.”

Riordan, a former venture capitalist, said Slaughter’s businesslike approach was clearly a factor in his decision to elevate her as chief of staff over more experienced aides.

“What she showed on the Business Team is that she’s an implementer,” Riordan said of Slaughter. “She gets things done.”

Slaughter, 34, was hired in 1995 as a Business Team representative in the Hollywood area. She was later named head of the team when Steve MacDonald left last summer to join the Building and Safety Department as director of development services.

Among the projects she worked on during her three-year tenure were the expansion of Hollywood Center Studios and the development of TrizecHahn Corp.’s planned Hollywood retail-entertainment project. She also is credited with helping persuade Capitol Records to stay and expand in Hollywood, and with getting Viking Office Products to stay and expand in the Harbor area.

While at the Business Team, Slaughter developed a close working relationship with Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose district includes most of Hollywood. When Slaughter took a leave of absence for several months to clerk at a law firm, Goldberg went to Riordan and asked that Slaughter to return to the Business Team, according to Goldberg aide Roxana Tynan.

“We really campaigned to get her back,” Tynan said. “Those kind of relationships, when they are good, are rare.”

Slaughter herself says her marching orders are task-oriented, to methodically get the mayor’s major initiatives such as expanding Los Angeles International Airport and charter reform through the council.

“My job is to bring the mayor’s initiatives to reality,” said Slaughter, a graduate of New York University, who is now attending Loyola Law School at night. “That will mean working with the City Council, building coalitions and forming partnerships.”

Since her appointment in June, Slaughter has made only one major decision: appointing Ann D’Amato to replace the departing mayoral liaison to the City Council, Stephanie Bradfield, who took a public relations job with the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. D’Amato, a 30-year city employee who is respected in City Council circles, had been Riordan’s director of Neighborhood and Community Affairs.

While Slaughter enjoyed considerable success on the Business Team, Kosmont and others noted that the stakes are considerably higher now.

“Most of these projects she worked on at the Business Team were of the win-win type, where the council members gained jobs and prestige for their districts,” Kosmont said. “Now, on issues like charter reform and the airport expansion, there will likely be winners and losers. It will be a lot tougher to manage. Her ability to cut deals with council members so that they don’t feel as if they are losing will be where the pedal hits the metal.”

Goldberg aide Tynan echoed that view.

“The Business Team’s whole approach is project by project, which makes it easier to get things done,” Tynan said. “It’s different once you move to the chief of staff’s office. There is less freedom and it’s tougher to implement that style in that post.”

Slaughter’s job has been made even tougher because of the state of relations between the council and the mayor.

To be successful, Kosmont said, Slaughter needs to be more than just someone who implements; she is going to have to summon up her political skills. Before coming to the Business Team, Slaughter worked on several political campaigns, including that of Councilman Mike Feuer.

Another potential pitfall, some City Hall observers privately suggest, is an occasional tendency to be concerned about how she is portrayed.

“In this job, you need to have a thick skin,” one former City Hall insider said. “She is going to be a lightning rod for all sorts of criticism, much of it not from anything she has done directly. How she handles this will be one of her biggest challenges.”