More than a few eyebrows were raised when Mayor Richard Riordan replaced the president of the private-sector host committee for the Democratic National Convention with his own press secretary, Noelia Rodriguez.

Some questioned Rodriguez’s lack of chief executive experience. Others wondered about the timing of the move, which came after the committee was criticized for failing to meet fund-raising goals and appearing to fall behind in other preparations for the convention, which is less than six months away.

“She’s great with the media, which is important with 15,000 media folks coming to town, but they really need someone in that post who knows how to run organizations, which she doesn’t,” said one local observer who has had dealings with the committee.

At stake, of course, is how L.A. presents itself as millions of people around the world tune in to the August convention at Staples Center. City and convention officials are eager to avoid a repeat of L.A.’s disastrous millennium celebration and of the riots that plagued Seattle at last fall’s World Trade Organization meeting.

People close to the convention effort said Riordan’s trust of Rodriguez and her knowledge of City Hall were crucial factors in his decision. They also pointed out that Rodriguez’s predecessor, Lucy McCoy, was perceived as an outsider and, as a result, city department heads didn’t respond to her as quickly as they might have responded to Riordan or his staff.

“When Noelia makes a call to a city department head, they know that behind her is the full force of the mayor,” one source said.

In her new role, Rodriguez will coordinate the various city agencies making final preparations for the convention and help mount a public relations and marketing campaign. She will also lend a hand on the fund-raising side, although much of that will be done by Riordan and the eight host committee co-chairs.

“Mayor Riordan has a huge amount of confidence and trust in Noelia to coordinate everything on behalf of the city,” said SunAmerica Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Eli Broad, one of the three original co-chairs of the host committee. “She gets along very well with the department heads, which is crucial at this stage. When you get to the final six months, looking at what happened with previous conventions in San Francisco and Chicago, the city takes over the operations.”

Rodriguez is still engaged in her duties as press secretary and was busy last week handling Riordan’s response to the L.A. Police Department corruption scandal. She is expected to officially move over to the host committee offices in the next week or so.

“I’m going to be leading the convention planning team through the implementation process,” she said in a brief interview between meetings. “I will be strategizing on how best to use the mayor (in fund-raising) and making recommendations on who we should be targeting.”

Rodriguez does have some executive experience. Before coming to Riordan’s office in 1994, she was director of corporate advertising for Southern California Edison in charge of a $5 million budget. Also, she has a bachelor’s degree in administration, with a focus on management.

But convention co-chair Bill Wardlaw the political power broker who was Riordan’s chief campaign strategist agrees with Broad that Rodriguez’s key attribute is having the faith and trust of Riordan.

The mayor appointed Rodriguez after U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein expressed concerns about the convention organizing effort and urged him to take a more hands-on role. “With Riordan stepping up to the plate now, he needs someone that he is extraordinarily comfortable working with,” Wardlaw said.

The key, of course, will be Rodriguez’s ability to keep the mayor’s trust during the harried final months of preparations. As other Riordan staffers like former Chief of Staff Lesa Slaughter can testify, Riordan’s trust can be quickly withdrawn if expectations aren’t met.

Riordan promoted Slaughter from head of his business team to chief of staff 18 months ago, despite what many observers at the time said was her relative inexperience at City Hall. Her tenure lasted only four months before she was replaced by current Chief of Staff Kelly Martin.

While she’s not yet on board full-time, Rodriguez has already acted to speed up the marketing campaign, according to host committee spokesman Ben Austin. She’s also pulled together various city department heads and Democratic National Committee officials to push ahead on the myriad transportation, security and party planning details.

Wardlaw said Rodriguez is also firming up final details of the official party that will be thrown for the estimated 15,000 media representatives.

As of late last week, the host committee was still about $9 million short of its $35.3 million goal. But Broad said the committee was close to announcing several sponsorship deals that would “move that figure forward substantially.”

“Unlike a presidential campaign, we’re not talking about individual contributions here,” Broad said. “At every convention, it’s mostly the large national corporations that want to get their names up in lights in front of a national audience. And dealing with corporations takes more time.”