Monday afternoon's council meeting marked the last one in Ron Mattiussi's career.
Kelowna's City Manager will officially retire from the job on Thursday, after working for the city for 22 years.
Many of the city's employees packed council chambers, and delivered a standing ovation to kick off the meeting.
Mayor Colin Basran led a tribute, and talked about how he sees Mattiussi's legacy.
"You did treat everyone as an equal. And you did whatever you could, and did the best you could, to go out of your way to make sure that you felt that everybody was an important part of this organization," he said.
"I think that the fact that we have some of the best staff in the country leading this organization, is a testament to the foundation that you have helped create."
Following Basran, Mattiussi addressed council and his staff on hand.
"It's been an honour to serve and work with all of you. It's great to work with council, and it's great to lead a truly wonderful staff that I think are the best in the business," he said.
"I probably will be a stranger, I'll let you guys move on and somebody else can pick up the torch. But thank you."
Starting next week, Deputy Manager Joe Creron will pick up the torch on an interim basis.
At meeting's end, councillor Brad Sieben talked about what it was like to sit one seat over from Mattiussi in council chambers.
"I've had a really great privilege of sitting in this seat here beside Ron for the last three years. You may not see it, but you may see from time to time, that we can whisper back and forth every once in awhile. I've been privy to extra information, extra knowledge, wisdom. Quite often I get explanations that some of you don't."
The city hired a recruitment firm to find his permanent replacement, which began that process last month.
After the nearly four hour meeting, Mattiussi ended on a light note.
"I really enjoy local government, and there's great democracy. Whenever in future I'm missing the job, I'll go back and replay today. And remind me of some of the reasons why it's good to be retired."