From former Grapevine City Council members and Southlake city staff to Fort Worth's city secretary, more than 100 people gathered for a reception on Monday at Lancaster Theatre to congratulate Grapevine's longtime city secretary on her retirement.

After 30 years with the city — 25 as Grapevine's City Secretary — Linda Huff retired this week.

"I just made a lot of friends and I just love them all," she said. "I had one co-worker tell me a while ago when she first came to work for the city she said, 'You were the first person that was friendly to me, nice to me and as the city secretary opened the back door for me,' and I just said, 'It's just what you do.'"

Huff worked as a receptionist and then executive secretary at the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau for five years until she was appointed as Grapevine's city secretary on Feb. 24, 1987.

Instead of promoting the city, her duties as city secretary involved handling City Council matters (attending council meetings and workshops, taping recordings of meetings and transcribing minutes); maintaining and preparing official city records (contracts, ordinances, resolutions and City Council meeting minutes); documentation and legal process (serving as local registrar of vital statistics, administering the oath of office to city officials and monitoring city elections); and administrative work (selecting, training and evaluating department staff). She also responded to public inquires about council actions.

Huff admits she was initially "scared to death" after learning about her duties.

"When I first took the job and found out everything I'd be doing, I thought 'OK, I'll make it five years and then I'm probably going to leave'—and 25 years I'm still here," she said.

After a few months on the job, Huff conducted her first election—a runoff election in April 1987.

"I went home and I cried," she recalled, laughing.

But during her 25 years with the city, Huff gained knowledge about the workings of city government and made friends with colleagues, citizens and others she met while on the job.

Huff's retirement plans include spending more time with her four grandchildren and traveling around the country; an Alaskan cruise trip is planned for August.

"I don't have to do elections anymore," she said. "I think it's probably time for me to move on and Jodi is going to do a great job."

Assistant City Secretary Jodi Brown, who has worked with the city for 29 years, will be taking over as the city secretary.

"I'm honored and of course scared, because I have big shoes to fill," Brown said.