She served as an independent on her local council, drove for Meals on Wheels and for 10 years chaired a local club for disabled people.
In Costa Mesa, the budget battle was gladly taken up by a new city council, driven by Jim Righeimer, a backslapping real-estate developer whose burly physique and eagerness to scrap call to mind Friar Tuck.
On a recent afternoon, Rashid al-Shathir, the head of the local town council, drove from his office to his farm, bumping along a gravel road in his white sport utility vehicle.
Nestled in the trees, by a row of other boats, they have been moored on public land by the Thames for well over a year now, having moved downstream when another Greater London council drove them out.
The rest are massive brick carcasses, gutted and blackened, courtyards overrun with rust and weeds, ideal for squatting: migrants lived in them until the town council drove them out last year, packing them into the Jungle, where it was believed they would be less of a trouble to the locals.
According to O2, the Future Fund, launched in April, is intended to help local councils drive technology innovation, reduce costs and build closer social engagement within their local communities.
We launched, about a month ago, the largest council-driven affordable housing programme for a generation".
Just along the coast, Eastbourne council is looking to dispose of 3,000 acres of land in the Eastbourne Downs, both councils driven by the need to review "non-core assets".
Green, who was head of ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, promised that the year of culture was the start of a far bigger council-driven 30-year plan for Hull.
I am writing to urge Glendale voters on April 2 to vote "No" on Measure A. Glendale has always had an elected treasurer, and twice in the past voters turned down council-driven attempts to gain exclusive control of the city's chief investment officer.
