She's helped an army spy who served in Vietnam, a chairman of the board, a Speaker of the House, and a NSW Labor minister. Independents, conservatives, and progressives have all relied on the same person at Lake Macquarie Council for advice, support, confidence, and guidance for four decades.
Empires rise and fall, and it's one thing to be in the room where it happens. It's another entirely to be the consummate confidante at the door through successive leaders' tenures, the person with the keys to the kingdom - the mayor's executive assistant.
For 40 years, Angela O'Brien has been the closest confidante of Lake Macquarie's highest political office. She has run the diaries, arranged meetings, conferred with experts and kept confidences with every Lake Macquarie mayor since Ivan Welsh was elected in 1987.
It should tell you everything you need to know about Ms O'Brien that every former and serving Lake Macquarie mayor to whom we spoke described her as a trusted advisor and a stalwart of their tenures, all while Ms O'Brien discretely deferred the praise.
"Everyone had the absolute faith that Angela was there to do her job to the highest degree, and she did it," NSW house speaker Greg Piper, who served as the city's two-term mayor from 2004 to 2012, said.
"Councillors can be a little bit difficult at times, I know it's hard to believe. There can be a few egos, and a few issues blow up, but Angela is one of those people who can deal with everybody. The mayor relies on her, but so does everyone else. She respected everyone's position, even when I would imagine it wasn't easy for her to do it at times. It must have been frustrating sometimes, but you wouldn't know."
Ms O'Brien did not necessarily aspire to public service, but it was the career that suited her. Her first position was as an administration officer in the city. From 1982, she worked through a handful of departments before assisting the town clerk's office and eventually the mayor.
"The city was different then, and there were different expectations of what the people wanted from the city," Ms O'Brien said. "Now, people expect more than roads and rubbish; they also want great playgrounds and sporting facilities. We need to be providing those things for families and bringing business to Lake Macquarie. We need to grow, and we're growing fast."
In politics, no opinion is held lightly. And every four years, the guard changes.
"Every four years, I could have had someone different to work for," she said. "It's challenging and interesting when you get a new mayor, and you might not know who that's going to be sometimes.
"It's a role of helping. You have to get everything right so that they can get everything right, especially for an elected position and we need to make sure that they have all the information that they need."
"We're talking about thousands of people who would have come to various mayors over the years," Mr Piper said. "Sometimes they could be upset, angry, whatever, and Angela could manage that.
"She gives you confidence. Someone like Angela, who could know so many people and offend so few ... every mayor who came along, if they wanted to, could have asked for somebody else. Not one person would have thought about it."
On the road back from Queensland on Tuesday, incumbent mayor Kay Fraser described Ms O'Brien as the force behind her office.
"My husband would say he's the man behind the great woman," she said. "Angela is the great woman behind me. You always have someone - normally, it is your partner - but Angela has been my go-to person for me. On every occasion, on every issue, everything that I needed to know. If Angela doesn't know, no one does."
Ms O'Brien looks forward to skiing with her family, travel and reading the newspaper editorials without a pen to underline phrases. As she prepares to step away from her tenure, she is thinking about how to prepare the new guard and the inevitable adjustment to life without the ringing crisis phone.
"I'll be reading the paper for other reasons," she said. "It will be nice to be a little more laid back about those things ... The timing for this was right for me."
"Angela is what Lake Macquarie is all about," Cr Fraser said. "Her personality and nature, her goodwill and charm, and care, is what Lake Macquarie is."
