Anna Lopez Brosche knew in the 11th grade she wanted to be an accountant.
Monopoly was her favorite game and she always was the banker.
When Mom went to write checks, Brosche always liked to fill them out.
Her favorite class was accounting, the one where the teacher provided everyone with envelopes to keep track of revenue and expenses.
“It’s the balancing,” she said. “Everything has to work. It’s a puzzle … and I love finding things.”
Brosche, a second-year City Council member, should have a blast this year as head of the council Finance Committee.
Her affinity for balancing will be a valued trait when the annual puzzle known as the city’s budget is pored over by the committee starting next week.
After a year of serving — and learning — as vice chair, Brosche said she’s better prepared.
The analytical side took over last year, when she spent two to three weeks crafting spreadsheets and questions about the city’s spending plan.
Now more familiar, this year it took her just a few days to review Mayor Lenny Curry’s plan.
“I feel ready,” she said.
Brosche is prepared. She’s always prepared, really, purposely maintaining strict structure and time management to ensure balance.
Between City Hall and her CPA firm of Ennis, Pellum & Associates, she works 60 hours each week. Of that, she estimates 60 percent is Downtown in her council capacity.
Without knowing it until later, she was like her parents in a lot of ways.
The two had met really by chance. After emigrating from the Philippines, her father entered Navy boot camp. His English wasn’t very good, so a buddy asked a girl in his class to help out. It ended up being Brosche’s mother.
Yet, the two didn’t meet right away. Instead, they were pen pals for four years before meeting in Montreal.
Later in his career, Brosche’s father did payroll in the Navy. Her mother was a bookkeeper.
Both were introverts, just like their daughter. Or, as she puts it, she’s a “recovering over-thinker.”
As a child, she said she was an “off-the-charts introvert” who hated the consistent moving, including once to Jacksonville, that comes with being in a Navy family.
Five times in all, but she said the kind of disruption helped later in life.
“I do know now it made me a stronger person,” she said.
The family maintained roots in Jacksonville despite the moves and when Brosche graduated from high school in Pensacola, she went to the University of North Florida in the early 1990s.
“I was grateful to be in one place,” she said. “I didn’t have to move anymore.”
She pursued the accounting degree she always knew she wanted and stayed in Jacksonville post-college, working first at Ernst & Young before joining Ennis, Pellum & Associates.
With that career and being a firm partner came engaging the community. It was part of the job, even if it involved what she calls the “dreaded networking” that’s commonplace in business circles.
As an introvert, it was even more difficult.
So she made a commitment to push herself. Maybe it was leading a hospitality committee to make people feel welcome. Or joining the JAX Chamber Women’s Business Center to be a mentor. Maybe serving as chair of the local United Way.
Eventually, people started asking Brosche about expanding her community efforts. What about running for office? That drew a sharp response.
“I said never to politics,” she said. “I said never to running.”
Running for office was definitely not something an introvert would do — putting yourself out there for all the world to see as part of a campaign.
Eventually, she agreed to join Leadership Jacksonville. And when people suggested she try the Political Leadership Institute, she said OK — just to see what it was like to help others get elected behind the scenes.
The experience resulted in even stronger feelings against running.
“Not only never, but super never,” she said with a laugh.
But, Brosche said, saying never meant thinking small. And she already was in the spotlight with assisting so many different causes. Why not?
Her council race in 2015 had more publicity than normal. She challenged an incumbent, Kimberly Daniels, for an at-large spot.
Brosche said representing more than just a district always suited her better. She won by 11 percentage points.
Those who saw Brosche's work during her first year picked up on her personality. She never became angry. She spoke sparingly when the situation called for it, but was prepared when she did. She continued that learning process to get better for this year.
Many times, she said, her colleagues have said the same thing or brought up the points she wanted to address. So instead of repeating the information, she just observes and takes notes.
Learning more about the content as well as the people, the two sides of being a council member.
When the council budget review begins next week, Brosche will be at home.
As chair, she isn’t expected to be at the forefront of debate and argument. Typically, chairs let everyone else share their thoughts and comments before taking the microphone.
It’s a perfect fit for her personality, that of a “recovering over-thinker.”
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466