A quiet and efficient presence at the weekly Edgartown selectmen’s meetings, Margaret Serpa has spent a long career scrutinizing municipal budgets on the Vineyard.

Born and raised in Edgartown, Mrs. Serpa was a member of the last class to graduate from the old Edgartown High School. She started to work at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in 1972 and took over as administrative assistant in 1979, a position she kept until 2006.

“I got as far as Oak Bluffs!” she joked in an interview with the Gazette this week. Beyond such vocationally required forays, the selectman has stuck to Edgartown her whole life. She has four children and seven grandchildren and can regularly be seen on her daily walks around town in almost any weather conditions. “I also read and putter at various things,” she said.

Mrs. Serpa is reluctant to weigh in on changes to the town landscape from several recent upscale property developments. “I’ve seen a lot of change in this town but it’s one person’s opinion,” she said. “I heard more about developments as a zoning board person than as a selectman,” she added, referring to her former role on the town zoning board of appeals.

Similarly, she is philosophical about the changes to the town’s historic properties. “Some have been built to what was there previously and some have made improvements,” she said. “It’s a question of taste.”

She began her life in public service as a member of the board of appeals and was elected selectman in 1999. For her, being a good selectman comes down to numbers. She congratulates the work of town administrator Pamela Dolby and the members of the financial advisory committee in bringing in the 2009 proposed budget under last year’s total, and she sees cautious spending as the key issue for the town.

“My job has been watching the bottom line, managing people’s money,” she said. “You’re dealing with money that belongs to the public. I think I have the financial background dealing with people’s money and I have the interests of the town at heart.” She cites communication and working well with others as another asset.

“You need to be able to correspond and understand other people and understand you’re not working with your own money, it’s the town’s. Trying to look out for their pocketbook as well as your own. It’s about experience and your people skills and I think I have them. Mine are proven,” she said.

Mrs. Serpa was working at the high school when rival candidate Robert Fynbo attended as a student. She rebuffs a claim made on Mr. Fynbo’s Web site that the selectmen are aloof and difficult to reach on issues.

“I don’t agree with that,” she said. “My number’s in the book. And the selectmen have an office phone.”

Ms. Serpa, who does not have a Web site, has stuck to traditional methods of town election canvassing. “I’ve been meeting new voters at the post office or the supermarket,” she said. “If you’re around town you hear things as they come up. Ninety five per cent of what I hear is good.”

The incumbent selectman is quietly sanguine about her reelection chances. “Some days, I’m worried some days I’m not,” she said, “I think I’m known. But you can’t take anything for granted.”

Echoing the concerns of the Edgartown financial committee detailed in a letter in this year’s annual town meeting warrant, she warned of tough times ahead.

“It’s going to be a tight budget season for us,” she said, “It’s appearing that we’re not gong to be able to depend on rising state level grants, so we have to keep trying to keep the budget down. And I have a lot of experience in working with that. That’s why I’m still there.”