NORTHAMPTON — City Clerk Wendy Mazza sat behind her desk at City Hall Thurday, under portraits of five former city clerks.
Her picture would soon be nailed to the wall.
This is Mazza’s last week in the office where she worked since 1971, climbing her way up to city clerk in 2004. There was a “happy retirement” balloon not far from her desk, but little else to denote the occassion.
She has shunned off a party.
“I want to go out the way I came in,” Mazza said. “I came in very quietly, and I want to go out very quietly.”
Mazza, 65, announced in April she would retire at the end of June for “personal reasons,” six months before the end of her term. She declined to elaborate Thursday.
She said deciding to end her tenure early was a hard decision.
In 1971, she didn’t know how long she could stay.
“Believe me, the job did not appeal to me then,” Mazza said. “I didn’t think that I was actually going to stay here. Actually I was sick to my stomach every day I came in here.”
One of her bottom-of-the-ladder tasks was cutting out newspaper clippings that mentioned Northampton.
“I said, ‘oh, Lord, I don’t know if I’m going to make it,’” Mazza said. She got comfortable, and started gaining more responsibilities, like keeping track of vital statistics, births, deaths and marriages.
“As I came forward in my job, it became more and more interesting for me,” Mazza said. “It was just the fact of being able to be in contact with the public, being able to help the public.”
Former Mayor Clare Higgins said in April Mazza was a “fierce advocate” for the clerk’s office — so much so that she recalled one instance where, amid staffing cuts, she angrily plopped a plastic doll down in an empty staffer’s chair.
“She was mad, but she was, as I said, a fierce advocate for what she thought the office needed,” Higgins said. “She’s been anchoring that corner of City Hall for decades.”
Mazza said her favorite memory was in 2004, when the state Supreme Judicial Court legalized same-sex marriage.
“I was one of the only city clerks in western Massachusetts that signed on to the lawsuit,” Mazza said. “We had a wonderful day that day. It was a party in the parking lot.”
In retirement, Mazza said she’s “going to enjoy my summer. It’s always been very difficult for me to take a summer vacation because there’s always been an election.”
We may not have heard the last from Mazza. In 2019, she said she is considering a run for 7th Ward City Councilor.
To fill the vacancy, City Council President Bill Dwight announced in a news release interested candidates should attend the City Council City Services Committee meeting at 4 p.m. July 10 in the City Council chambers.
The full city council will vote on a replacement at 7 p.m. July 13. Anyone interested can also send a letter of interest to Councilor Maureen Carney at citycouncil@northamptonma.gov.
Those interested can also drop their letters at Room 3 of City Hall, 210 Main St.
Two residents have declared their candidacies for the clerk’s position in the November election, Pamela Powers and Robert Driscoll.
The interim clerk will serve from July to January, when the elected clerk takes over.
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.