After Jim Shimberg resigned to enter “the private sector” with the Tampa Bay Lightning (translation? A heluva lot more money), Mayor Bob Buckhorn took his time looking for a replacement. But the answer was already there in Mandell, who had initially been given the “interim” tag immediately after Shimberg’s departure. A nine-year veteran of the department, Mandell becomes just the second female city attorney in Tampa’s history. It’s not all work with Mandell; on weekends she can on occasion be seen frequenting Skipper’s Smokehouse getting her groove on to whatever genre of hippie music they’re showcasing.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2013.