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Senior Secretary To County Commissioners To Retire

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: December 7, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL - NEW PORT RICHEY, FL - Some days Freda Abrams might swear her office phone is attached to her ear.

The busy, senior secretary to Pasco County Commissioners won't miss the constant ring of the phone at the West Pasco office, but she will miss her bosses and co-workers upon her retirement Dec. 21.

"Sometimes the phones, it's just one (call) right after another," Abrams remarked with her trademark chuckle and smile.

The volume of e-mail messages for commissioners also has doubled during her 11 years as the right arm of many commissioners, past and present.

"I don't know how I'm going to survive without her," Commissioner Pat Mulieri said about Abrams. "She's been my right hand, my left hand and my brain."

It's almost like the two women share a psychic connection, Mulieri explained – the commissioner thinks of something and Abrams does it automatically almost before the words are out of Mulieri's mouth.

Abrams, 62, has seen commissioners come go, including Hap Clark, Steve Simon and Ed Collins. She assists the current crop of commissioners based in West Pasco – Mulieri, Ann Hildebrand, Michael Cox and Jack Mariano.

"I've had all good bosses," Abrams remarked. "Ann is one in a million."

Abrams reflects on her long career with the county and her 32 years in Florida. Both the county and Florida have changed considerably.

Her first county job paid a whopping $3.53 an hour, she laughed.

"Sam Steffey was my first boss," Abrams recalled, referring to Samuel P. Steffey II, the county's growth management administrator.

After short stints in planning and administration, she then settled into personnel for more than 8 years.
Along the way she helped with the county newsletter and started a flu shot program.

In 1994, she earned an associate degree in business administration from Pasco Hernando Community College.

"Life is a learning experience," Abrams observed.

The constant barrage of questions that bombard the commissioners' office provides its own education. She has to know a lot about the inner workings of the county to be able to direct callers and visitors to the right place for help.

As if on cue, the interview is interrupted while she fields a phone call about how to pay off a county SHIP loan.

How many know what the acronym SHIP stands for? Abrams can rattle off the answer – State Housing Initiatives Partnership. What department handles SHIP in Pasco? Why, the Community Development Division, of course!

Dealing with the public can be stressful. People often are unaware of the tremendous workload from a county of more than 400,000.

Some indignant callers can become abusive. Not long ago, Abrams was forced to hang up six times on one man who spewed obscenities.

But there's no escaping the telephone, the one constant in Abrams' life even before marriage.
She and husband Joe first met working for the phone company in Washington, D.C.

"I was a Lily Tomlin of the phone company," Abrams laughed, doing her impersonation of the comedian impersonating an operator.

The couple knew each other a whole two weeks before getting married. She then stayed at Delaware in 1975.

Joe retired nine years ago, so he fixes breakfast and packs lunch for his wife before she heads off to work in the morning.

Upon retirement, she hopes to have more time to spoil granddaughter Alyssa, 8. One of Alyssa's Halloween art masterpieces hangs over her office desk.

She and Joe can visit more often with their three sons, all of whom live in the West Pasco area.

Then she and Joe hope to hit the open road. "Just get in the car and go." Longer trips might include stops at Branson, Mo., the Grand Canyon and perhaps even Alaska. She'd like to take train rides to anywhere.

Back home, Abrams jokes she might have to take a class in the online auction site eBay to deal with her many collections.

"I've got one cabinet full of 'Gone with the Wind' stuff," Abrams said about her memorabilia based on the best- selling book and movie.

She inherited her brother's carnival glass collection.

Collector plates are one of her passions, with about 500 of them.

Some of her teacups are more than 100 years old.

One room is practically devoted to memorabilia based on Norman Rockwell, the artist who painted scenes of Americana.

So, even after she departs county government, Abrams expects to remain as busy as ever.

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