When you call the Mayor’s office, chances are the friendly voice you hear on the other end is Mayor Velazquez’s assistant, Norma Laboy. Friends for 20 years, Norma and Mayor Velazquez met when Norma’s son was in grade school. From the start they made a great team; the Mayor was working to get the PTO active, as she was the PTO President and Norma her Vice-President. They cultivated a friendship and when the Mayor decided to run for Councilperson, Norma joined her campaign.
A Portage High School graduate, Norma has been a Portage resident since 1976. She has seen the city develop from “tumbleweeds rolling down the street,” to big businesses calling Portage home. Norma has spent her career life serving the people of Portage, by working in the school system as a Teachers Assistant and Recess Aide at Crisman Elementary to working for the Parks Department, to her role now as the Mayor’s assistant.
Her job working with the city’s leader keeps her on her toes. “There’s never a dull moment,” she states, “but it’s fun to interact with the people of Portage.” More than just serving the city through her position, Norma is Vice-Chair of the Pride in Portage committee, a group that puts on the 4th of July and Christmas parades, two events that unite the people of Portage in celebration.
Norma loves the city and the people she serves, and enjoys the “great group of department heads,” she works with. “Mayor Velazquez has a need to know what’s going on in the city,” she states, pointing out examples of how the Mayor has taken time to ride with the street department, collecting garbage, and how she spent 24 hours at the fire station, to experience what the people she serves experience in their daily lives. Through hands on experience, the Mayor and her team are able to gain perspective of their constituents and make the right choices that will ultimately improve their lives.