by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
On Shirley Dasher’s first day as City Council member Suzanne Jenkins executive assistant, she found herself in the middle of a Monday morning Finance Committee meeting.
“I figured, what better way to get her started than in the meatiest committee of all,” said Jenkins. “But I’m sure she’s going to do very well.”
A Jacksonville native and a graduate of Andrew Jackson High School, Dasher and Jenkins — they’re godmothers to each other’s children — have been close for nearly 30 years.
They met as co-workers at the downtown law firm of Mahoney, Hadlow & Adams in the 1970s.
“It was the largest in the state at the time and we were both there for about three years,” said Dasher, a mother of two. “We’ve kept in touch ever since and that has a lot to do with why I came to work for her. Plus, she knows where I live.”
Prior to her current position, Dasher helped start, and eventually became director for JaxPride, a local non-profit organization. She remains active in the group and still serves on its executive board.
“I still very much believe in the work they do,” she said. “But actually, I think what I’ll be doing now will be very similar to what I was doing before. I’ll still be assisting people in a variety of ways. It’s just that I’ll be a little more focused on one particular well-defined area rather than on the entire city.”
It took a year’s worth of schedule juggling, but Jenkins said she’s happy to finally have Dasher on board to help serve constituents.
“I’m so excited to have her working with me and I’ll know we’ll make a great team,” she said. “She’s a very intelligent and hard working woman. She’s a lot like me.”