After 37 years of trying to bring Burnaby to the people, city clerk Maryann Manuel is retiring.
During her career, Manuel has held several positions at the city, in the clerks department and as Mayor Derek Corrigan's executive assistant, before taking on the city clerk role in the summer of 2012.
"We bring the people to Burnaby," Manuel said about her job's purpose. "But it's our job to bring Burnaby to the people. Here, that's what we do. We let the citizens know that we're here for them."
Manuel's last day is Jan. 31, but she says Burnaby will always be a part of her.
"I've got a very, very strong connection with Burnaby," she told the Burnaby NOW. "I was pretty much born and raised here. My mom even graduated from Burnaby North when it used to be located ... on 250 Willingdon."
When Manuel was in between jobs 37 years ago, she saw a newspaper advertisement for typing tests the city was running at Burnaby Central high school. She passed her typing test and they offered her one of two jobs, either at the health department, which was part of city hall at the time, or in the clerks department.
"I didn't know what a clerks department was," she said. "I had no idea. I was 21 years old."
Manuel decided to take on the "clerk typist two" position, and from there she eventually worked her way to the top.
"It was sort of the entry level back in those days," she said. "The very, very bottom. Basically, it was just typing back on the Smith Corona's (typewriters) with the carbon paper and four different colours."
Manuel quickly climbed the ranks and was promoted several times within the clerks department.
"I was always on the move," she said. "I was just a sponge back in those days. I couldn't stay doing any one thing for a long period of time. I needed more. I needed to challenge myself."
One memory that sticks out for Manuel is when she attended town hall meetings about housing compaction, which would essentially create smaller lots. She attended the public meetings with Coun. Vic Stusiak who had the idea about shrinking lot sizes.
"Nobody wanted housing compaction," she remembered. "Those public meetings were hostile. They were awful. What was thought to be a good idea, turned out to be not such a good idea as far as the public was concerned. Oh boy, I was frightened to go to my car in the parking lot."
After years of working as a typist, and then the records clerk, Manuel received a promotion that put her in contact with the various council committees.
"I was promoted to committee secretary, and that's when the fun started," she said, and was then promoted a few more times after that.
Through her position as committee secretary, Manuel said she got to know Corrigan at the committee level. After the working relationship she built with him, she became his executive assistant.
"I worked with Derek for nine years as his executive assistant," she said. "He's just been so good to me. And he (knew) what I could do as clerk."
When the former city clerk left, Corrigan asked Manuel to take over temporarily as acting city clerk until they found one in the interim. Manuel was meant to stay on for only three months in July 2012.
"There's a very close relationship between a mayor and a clerk, between a council and a clerk," she said. "When I came back to this department, it was just like coming home again."
But after so many years, Manuel said she's met her capacity and is ready to retire. Also, watching the years of planning she was a part of in the city's four quadrants develop makes her feel "a part of that history."
"I'm old school, I'm so old school," she added. "I've handled the council agenda as a piece of paper. We all have. And now we have the e-agenda project roll out coming out very soon, within weeks. ... I'm just a deer in the headlights on this one."
Although Manuel is leaving now, she said she'll be part of the team who hires the next city clerk. Until a new city clerk is chosen, Sid Cleave, deputy city clerk, will take on the role.
Manuel said she's taking away the close, personal relationships she's developed with each councillor, the mayor and the city's different department heads during her 37 years.
"I just fell in love with Burnaby," she said. "Even though I live in Surrey, my heart is here. It always has been."
