WATERLOO - Call him the great negotiator.

Those who know him best say for nearly 30 years, Mark Linda led the environmental health division of the Black Hawk County Health Department with grace and diplomacy.

Under his guidance, Linda's department expanded its influence from strictly rural Black Hawk County to all of Northeast Iowa and across the state.

"He's a superb arbitrator, and peacemaker and problem-solver," said health department director Tom O'Rourke. "He's always been my right arm, the top lieutenant in the health department."

Linda, 62, will leave the only office he's ever occupied - on the fifth floor of the Pinecrest building on Independence Avenue - at the end of the month. But don't call it retirement. Linda, a Vietnam War veteran who saw combat, has been offered a sanitation consulting job in Iraq that would last several months. If he and his family decide against the move, he plans on doing little besides playing bass in his band, at least for the time being.

"At this point I plan on doing nothing for awhile, because I haven't been able to do nothing for awhile," he said.

As environmental health manager for the county, Linda used all the political diplomatic skills at his disposal as he oversaw his division's expansion into much of Northeast Iowa, something which at times required stepping on other people's toes.

"If you've ever read about turf protection in government, it's very true…I'm the same way," he said.

Linda helped lead the merger of the Waterloo and Black Hawk County health departments in the 1980s. He also expanded food inspections from rural Black Hawk County to more than 1,000 establishments in a nine-county area. His department now conducts other inspections, like swimming pools and tanning beds, to a 10-county area.

As the only environmental health representative to ever serve on the board of the Iowa State Association of Counties, Linda influenced statewide policies ranging from air and water quality to food safety.

Bob Mulqueen, policy director for Gov. Chet Culver, used to serve in the association. He said before Linda arrived in the early 1990s as its first environmental health board member, the association paid little attention to those issues.

"In a broad sense, Mark has been instrumental in raising the profile of what environmental health in the field of public health is," Mulqueen said.

In addition, Linda pushed several food safety reforms in the 1990s to update state code and fees, which ensured a reliable source of funding for the service.

Many diseases have made their debut since Linda, whose department also oversaw disease control, began his tenure. They include Lyme disease, West Nile Virus and Legionnaire's disease. By far the most devastating, though, was the advent of AIDS in the 1980s.

His skills, of course, extend beyond the political. Linda proved a quick study on the job. Speaking from his office, where a "I'm E. coli free" button and a "1983 Iowa Environmental Health Association Sanitarian of the Year" plaque hang from the walls, Linda reflected on the unlikely course his career took. After all, his master's degree in geography from the University of Northern Iowa didn't exactly prepare him for inspecting restaurants.

He remembers calling his mom when he first landed the job and telling her he'd be inspecting food establishments. Her response: "What do you know about food?"

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.