63 years later, Tampa’s longest-time employee calls it a career | Column

Mary Brian applied for just two jobs in her life on the same day after graduating from high school. One was in Tampa City. The other is Bush Garden.

“I really wanted Bush Garden,” recalled Brian, 81, the other day. “It was a block from my house and I didn’t have a car.”

But city hall first called, and as her dad explained, the fair was fair. She was hired on December 12, 1962. John F. Kennedy is president, with gas at 30 cents per gallon, and the Beatles released their debut single “Love Me Do.” Brian took the bus to her first full-time job. She earned $40 a week.

As Brian moved from one urban sector to another and took on new tasks and greater responsibilities, the entry-level path to the adult world grew over decades. She acquired the lives of her colleagues and friends along the way, serving as 11 mayors and 59 city council members as Tampa grew into a modern, thriving city.

Currently, Brian is scheduled to retire in August and has been leaving for nearly 63 years as a long-time city employee in Tampa. She circles the numbers in her left palm, the bittersweet countdown to the last day.

“I like it every minute,” Brian said on a recent quiet Friday, pouring vintage photos into the foyer outside his Old City Hall office.

Brian’s first job was a city update program aimed at reducing the slum environment in Tampa. She later worked in the housing, code enforcement and zoning departments before transferring to the city’s law firm. Her energy and follow-through made Brian a go-to person for her colleagues and bosses.

“She typed all the ordinances for early zoning regulations,” says Stephen Michelini, a city planner in the 1970s, who now works as a private business consultant. “She had the only memory typewriter.”

Gina Grimes, who later became a city counsel for the Tampa city, recalled Brian, who helped draft resolutions, declarations and other official documents when Grimes first began at a law firm in the 1980s. “If there’s a deadline, what you struggled with, she goes in and says, ‘We can do it,’ and she’ll stay until 3am,” Grimes said.

For the past 16 years, Brian has served as a legislative aide to City Council member Charlie Miranda. Her contact information and administrative knowledge have become legendary when Brian resolves compositional requests. Noisy neighbor? Do you have a garbage truck? Pot hole in the corner, water bills, rough business? Miranda nicknamed her: 1-800-Call Mary.

“It’s rare for the night I go home and it’s not dark outside,” Tampa Mayor Jane Custer said the other day. “And if there’s another car in (lot), it’s Mary’s.”

Brian’s tenacity helps. She is also in person. “She tells you which bus stop to get off,” Michelini said. “She picks up the phone, calls the admin and says, ‘Do you really want to do this?’ and it’s fine. ”

Former mayor Sandy Friedman also occasionally calls Brian. “She moves fast,” said Friedman, who served as mayor in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. “She’s not afraid to speak her mind. For me, that’s good. For some people, they don’t accept it.”

But now and now with her colleagues, Brian’s stubbornness and straightforward stories say it reflects her loyalty and concerns about her helping the underdog. For example, residents who appear before the council can easily feel the threat, face a room full of suits, trying to follow Robert’s rules of order. Brian sometimes held people’s hands as he helped him navigate the bureaucracy.

“When she’s in your corner, she’s a fighter,” Grimes said.

Michelini, the main force of the council meeting, agreed. “You couldn’t have a better guide,” he said. “When people get stuck, she goes out into the audience and grabs them and says, ‘Come here.’ She was thousands of friends. ”

Back in her office recently on Friday, Brian scribbled with post-it notes and legal pads, scribbled one female band with a perfect rhythm on the mixed chaos of public service. Before she retires and goes on a family trip to Europe, Brian wants to close down the last part of her unfinished business.

That happened to be a Parks department official the other day said that the basketball lights paperwork was almost complete. With Brian’s palm-related mathematics, city officials have spent 46 days starting today to make it happen. Tampa’s longest-serving employee may eventually get her farewell wish.