Woodburn Independent Online

'Pillar of information' retires after 36 years

Mary Tennant called it a career Dec. 31, 2009 and the city of Woodburn lost a lot of its history

• By: Rachel Cavanaugh  
• Published: 1/3/2010 6:56:00 PM
• Last Updated: 1/3/2010 6:57:23 PM

Photo By: Rachel CavanaughMary Tennant
City Recorder Mary Tennant retired Dec. 31, 2009 after 36 years working for the city of Woodburn.

WOODBURN — When Mary Tennant first began working for the city of Woodburn, she used a metal typewriter.
 
She still remembers the clunky old machine, noting how you could see holes in the airspace around the letters. City staff was in the old City Hall building by the post office at the time and most of payroll was done by hand. She recalls roomfuls of paper and notebooks.
 
“If you can imagine those old ledger books,” Tennant said, “you’d have tons of columns going across and you’d have names going down and you’d have all the different deductions and benefits going — and you had to handwrite everything in.
 
“They had carbon paper that you had in between and you had to tally up the end of each page and then each groups of pages had to be tallied,” she said.
 
There were about 60 employees back then and she kept hand records of all their leave times.
 
“It was quite an improvement when we got our first computers,” she added, laughing. “Technology has changed so much in the last 36 years. I mean, it continues to change. It’s just amazing.”
 
The longtime city recorder, who retired Dec. 31, 2009, after three and a half decades of service, grew up in the Woodburn area and attended Gervais High School.
 
She was 19 years old when she took the job as an accounting clerk. When she first started, she also worked part-time at Highway 99E’s Snow White hamburger restaurant.
Tennant began typing the city council minutes right after she started and dabbled in human resource work.
 
As the city grew, she worked closely with the finance recorder and took on more and more administrative work. With time, she was named deputy recorder.
 
In the late 1980s the city recorder retired and she was appointed to the position shortly after.
 
Former Mayor Dick Jennings said there are few other public employees with the kind of historical knowledge of Tennant, calling her a go-to person.
 
“She’s just been a pillar of information (and) responsibility,” said Jennings. “You name it and we could always go to Mary and get it. … She had her ways of getting any kind of information for almost anything. … There’s nobody that could do the job like Mary did the job.”
 
Tennant said she was naturally drawn to accounting.
 
“I’ve always liked numbers to some degree and being able to figure out problems. So in business, that’s what a lot of it is,” Tennant said.
 
She said she likes to “figure out how to make it work.”
 
As years have gone by, management staff has allowed her to do things she likes to do, she said, such as additional human resources work and budget assistance.
 
She has also worked a lot on elections.
 
A long career taught her lessons in how to stay afloat, she said.
 
“I learned a long time ago to be very careful in what you say and when you say it and how you say it and who you say it to,” Tennant said. “I didn’t really get into the politics end of things, in my mind  … politics is really not my bag.”
 
At council meetings, she said she didn’t say anything unless asked. During some executive sessions she would offer her input, but only where appropriate.
 
She viewed the city recorder position as a supportive rather than initiative role, she said, as opposed to the job of city administrator or public works director.
 
Earlier this month, Woodburn Mayor Kathy Figley declared Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009, Mary Tennant Day.
 
She also announced the creation of the Mary Tennant Award to acknowledge exceptional public employees.
 
Tennant was named the first recipient.
 
“There’s kind of a short list of people that I would just call good people without qualifying it in any way, shape or form, and she’s certainly one of them,” Figley said about the city recorder.
 
“Thirty-six years in one job is something most people don’t do and in her case, she did it because she liked it, she wanted to do well, and she wanted to bring everything that she could into it. … She is not only a terrific city employee … she’s just a good person.”
 
Tennant said she has enjoyed working with so many different people over the years.
 
“I wouldn’t have been in this business if I didn’t like working with the public ... What can I say? I had a lot of opportunities and I took advantage of them,” Tennant said.
 
She and her family have long been members of St. Luke Catholic Church and Tennant has been involved with her children’s schools as well.
 
Her favorite part of the city job was working with the community, she said, noting how over time, residents would come in asking for her.
 
Before the new police station was built on Mt. Hood Avenue, there were times she worked in the same building as her late husband, Tom, who was a police captain.
 
They would sometimes see each other at work, she said, although she noted they kept it professional. Occasionally, they would take lunch together.
 
On Dec. 12, 2008, Tom was killed on duty when a bomb exploded at West Coast Bank’s west branch.
 
Tennant said the tragedy is part of the reason she is retiring.
 
“After his death, life changed,” she said.
 
“My simplest answer (about why I’m leaving) is the need to take care of my kids and take better care of myself, our home and our property,” Tennant said.
 
Retirement will give her time to work on her house, do some volunteering, and possibly travel a bit, she said.
 
She has booked an upcoming quilting retreat and talked with friends about taking a cruise.
 
Her two daughters live at home now and her son, Scott, is studying at Western Oregon University. He often visits on the weekends.
 
She said the retirement will allow her to “regroup.” As she begins a new stage of life, she said, she will have to learn a new routine.
 
“It’ll take time. … You (get) so used to having your partner always there, you know, with you, when you go do something.
 
“Now that partner’s gone, so you have to figure out a way of still doing something. I don’t want to be a recluse all my life.”
 
At this point, she said, she is looking forward to taking a break and letting some other people put forth their skills.”
 
“There’s more yet to come,” Tennant said.

  (log in to rate)