THE LABOR SUPERINTENDENT

Mary Ann Carbone
As labor superintendent for the Pavilions Project, Mary Ann Carbone gets to work at 7 a.m., unlocks the gate, instructs the men on what needs to be done, preps the tool boxes, then goes to work on the project herself.

Involved in construction since the late 1970s, Carbone began her career with John F. Otto, Inc., eight years ago when the company began building Community Hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. And she has stayed on-task throughout the construction of the underground parking garage, various remodels and renovations for the hospital, and now during the construction of the South and Forest pavilions.

In her spare time, she’s the vice mayor of Sand City.

“I’m always looking for ways to give back to the community,” says Carbone, who has also served on the city council for Sand City since 1992. “On the council, I found a way to participate. As vice mayor, there’s an element of seniority that enables me to operate on a different level, to help other council members, to have a voice and make a difference.”

Carbone comes by her compassion naturally. Her great grandmother owned a home cresting a hill overlooking Carmel Valley, where travelers could count on a hot cup of coffee, a warm tortilla, and a kind word, a hospitality that earned her home the legendary moniker, “Tortilla Flats.”

Her mother, a registered nurse, lived in one of the first settlements in the city of Seaside, her presence recorded there in perpetuity by Francis Street, which is named for her.

Sharing her mother’s interest in and commitment to helping people,  Carbone followed that path and became a certified nursing assistant and, later, a certified pharmacy technician. But they weren’t good fits. She found she needed a job she could do well, in which she could invest herself fully but could then abandon at the end of the day to return to the sanctity of her family.

She couldn’t do that with patients.  By the late 1970s and early ’80s, Carbone’s eight brothers were all working construction on Cannery Row, some on hotels, others on restaurants, and several on the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She decided to give it a try herself. She started as a secretary for the construction firm of record on the initial phase of the aquarium, during which she made the commitment to learn two new construction terms or techniques each day.

One year later, she had tired of sitting on the sidelines, so she rolled up her sleeves and worked as a laborer alongside her brothers until the aquarium was completed.  “I’m the last of all the siblings to remain in the trades,” she says. “The rest have all retired. I can’t even imagine that.”