HOUSTON -- A proud grandmother and great-grandmother, longtime business owner, former pipeline worker, and former partner in the Alaska Bush Company strip club in Anchorage, Rosemary Burnett can now add "mayor" to her resume.
In her first week on the job, Burnett said things at Houston City Hall are moving quickly, but she's getting the hang of the job.
"I'm finding out that this is really a full-time job. Just the four days I've been in here has been a lot of work, and of course we're still not to the point out here in Houston that we can just hire people," she said.
In Houston, the City Council selects one of its members as mayor for a one-year term. The mayor gets $1,500 in monthly compensation, provided he or she works at least 100 hours a month. The Houston mayor presides over city meetings and also functions as a city manager, overseeing the day-to-day business of the city.
The council selected Burnett on June 24 to serve as mayor through October, filling in after councilman Roger Purcell resigned as mayor one day shy of a special election at which voters would have cast ballots on whether to recall him.
Purcell's two years leading the city were filled with controversy. Burnett, who often supported Purcell, said she hopes to re-unite the city.
After being sworn in, she appealed to Purcell's opponents to talk with her personally, and not to spread rumors online. Political opponents posted newsletter critiques of City Council meetings called the "Houston Holler" and set up a website, www.houstonrecall.com, where information about Purcell and his allies is posted.
"I'm tired of seeing my city ripped apart with all of this. It hurts," Burnett said after she was sworn in. "There are like 1,700 people in Houston and not all of them feel as strongly as the ones who signed the recall petition."
PIPELINE WORKER, BUSINESSWOMAN
Burnett's background is business. She said it's been useful this week. Running the city is like starting a new business, she said.
"You have to be in on everything that's going on," she said.
Burnett, 69, grew up in Alabama and came up in 1970 to visit her father. Her story has a typical Alaska plotline -- girl meets Alaska boy, marries and stays.
She said she and her husband worked on the pipeline project in Valdez. Post-pipeline, she returned to Anchorage and worked with Edna Cox at the Northern Lights Hotel.
Cox also owned the Great Alaska Bush Company, and Burnett and her husband were partners in the business for a while. Burnett also owned the property where the Alaska Trapline, an escort service in Anchorage, operated.
The Burnetts later shifted their focus to general contracting, operating a towing company and other businesses. They moved to the Valley in 1996 after buying Houston Lodge.
COUNCIL VETERAN
Burnett is the longest-serving council member, with nine years at the table. But as with most stories in Houston, that's only the start of it.
Her husband ran for the council in 2001 and won in a tight election. In a tragic turn of events, he died in Anchorage on the day he was supposed to be sworn in.
Burnett was encouraged to seek appointment to her husband's seat, despite being in mourning, she said. The community was in an uproar over the tight election.
Her business, Houston Lodge, was even part of the election controversy. A city resident complained that the bar was offering a free drink to anyone who had an "I voted" sticker on election night. A city attorney later said there was no proof free drinks were distributed.
Burnett went to the meeting where her husband's successor was to be selected and gave an impassioned speech about her views on the need for a problem-solver to help deal with political factions in the city.
"It was quite a speech," she said nearly 10 years later. She won the appointment hands-down and has made it through three elections since, including a nail-biter where she won by only six votes.
Burnett sold the lodge two years ago and recently began working for the nonprofit Alaska Attachment and Bonding Associates, which teaches adults how to parent foster children. But the job with the parenting program is on hold for now.
If she bonds with the mayor seat, she just might run to keep the position, she said.
Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 907-352-6709.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com