Debbie Van Saun’s job touches everything from the sewer pipes that run beneath your feet to the airplanes that fly over your head.

Van Saun has been one of Lawrence’s two assistant city managers since 2000. The past year proved especially busy for her. She oversaw renovations to Bowersock Dam, continuing improvements to the city’s water and sewer treatment systems, and improvements at Lawrence Municipal Airport.

“You have to be detail-oriented to keep on top of all that stuff,” said City Manager Mike Wildgen.

Van Saun said she’s had to learn a lot about the technical aspects of running a city since taking the job.

“Administrators need those kinds of challenges to keep their skills fresh, to hone them,” she said.

Van Saun came to Lawrence from Wichita as a Kansas University student, graduating in 1973 with a degree in education.

“I never taught a day in my life,” she said. “I started working for a property management company. And I did property management most of the time until I joined the city in 1979.”

She started as collections supervisor in the finance department, overseeing billing, meter readers and customer service representatives. She became the assistant finance director in the mid-1980s, then became assistant utilities director in 1989.

By her own admission, Van Saun’s technical knowledge about utilities was somewhat limited. During her time in utilities, however, she helped raise qualifications for department employees and helped oversee the restructuring of the pay scale to attract better employees the city started to offer financial incentives to utilities employees who gained certification in their respective fields.

“We did a lot of reorganization,” she said.

When then-Assistant City Manager Rod Bremby took a job at KU in spring 2000, Van Saun was named the interim assistant.

“I got to jump feet first into the budget process and the negotiating (over police salaries) process,” she said. “It was a baptism by fire.”

A few months later, Wildgen came up with a novel solution to replace Bremby: Van Saun and Dave Corliss would split the job.

Corliss became assistant city manager for administrative services, including human relations/human resources, finance, administrative services, legal services and information systems.

Van Saun, meanwhile, became assistant city manager for development services, including Parks and Recreation, planning, Public Works, Neighborhood Resources and utilities. She also became the airport manager.

After two years on the job, Van Saun said one of her biggest efforts has been to increase communication with neighborhoods where big projects are planned.

“That seems so natural now, but it wasn’t always that way,” she said. “We need to talk to the people who will ultimately benefit from these projects, but who also will be temporarily inconvenienced by them.”

Rick Bryant, chairman of the city’s Aviation Advisory Board, has been impressed.

“When she started, she didn’t know that much about airplanes,” he said. “She really turned a lot of dirt to understand everything she needed to.”

That helped, Bryant said, when the Federal Aviation Administration started putting obstacles in the way of planned improvements at the airport.

“She worked quietly behind the scenes while I was out there yelling,” he said. “She’s a real pro.”