Tina Werner can brag she's the only person working for Jefferson City to ever hold her position or title - for now.
Werner has been the senior management analyst for the city's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department for about four years now, but she joined the department's staff in 1987. Next Thursday, she will retire.
Werner started with the department a few years after earning a parks and recreation degree from the University of Central Missouri, then called Central Missouri State. She started as a recreation programmer and spent most of her career in recreation programming.
"I did pretty much everything we had in recreation and sports - adult sports, youth sports, leisure classes, camps - different things," Werner said.
At one point, she moved to just being in charge of adult sports. During that time, the department remodeled and upgraded the softball fields at Binder Park.
Eventually, she became the recreation division director, which is where she first started working with finances and budgeting. When Parks Director Todd Spalding started working for the department, she expressed an interest in working more with that aspect of the programming.
The position of senior management analyst was created - a new and unique position for the city.
In her current role, Werner works on the financial aspects of the department including budgets and contracts and helping the rest of the staff with budgeting. At monthly Parks and Recreation Commission meetings, she keeps the department staff and commissioners updated on finances.
"I'm still behind the scenes, and I'm still helping," she said. "I feel like I'm helping coworkers in a different capacity now. They're doing the actual hands-on, but I'm helping with the financing part of it."
Werner said she spent her whole career with JC Parks because shes likes the people she works with and the people she works for - the community - and she has a love for sports and recreation.
"I like to recreate and I want other people to have fun recreating, so I want to make it an enjoyable time for them," Werner said. "I look at the department as we're providing a service and helping people have fun."
Serving the community comes with challenges. She said when creating programs, she tried to balance what everyone wants, but it can be difficult.
"Everybody likes to recreate, and they all have their own ideas of what fun is to them," Werner said. "You want them to have fun, and you try your best to let them have fun, but you can't please everybody all the time."
One highlight of her career was the creation and move to The Linc wellness center, where the JC Parks offices are.
"It's something we've looked forward to probably from the time I started working with the department," she said. "Our goal was to have a rec center."
Werner said she decided to retire following the college graduation of her son. As her 33 years with the department come to an end Thursday, Werner is excited to spend more time out on the golf course.