Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead has paid tribute to retiring council committee secretary Janet Favel for her "enormous'' contribution.
Mrs Favel formally retires next week after 16 years at the council, and is being succeeded by Lauren McDonald.
Speaking at a recent event in Mrs Favel's honour, Mr Woodhead said a great deal of work was needed behind the scenes to ensure busy schedules were well co-ordinated and nothing was missed.
Her work was "always done extremely professionally'', and he praised her handling of a "huge amount of detail''.
Council chief executive Peter Bodeker also praised her work and integrity and wished her a "great retirement''.
Deputy chairwoman Gretchen Robertson recalled when she had first been elected to council and thanked Mrs Favel for her patient help, and also praised her lively sense of humour.
Mrs Favel said her duties were "really interesting'', enabling her to learn more about the council's "amazing staff'', who were doing "very important work''.
She has been committee secretary for 10 years and previously was executive secretary.
She planned to remain in Dunedin, and her "immediate interest'' was in renovating her house.
She had "no definite plans apart from that'', she said.
