In his last article, our now imme-diate past p r e s i d e n t Jose Jasso said: I can’t believe it is time to transfer the gavel. Nei-ther can I. The past

two years serving in the vice president role have gone by much quicker than I imagined. While I am certainly excited to embark on this journey, I am equally as humbled by all the support I have received and the hard work of those presidents who have come before. They have set the bar high. The new board was sworn in at the League of California Cities Annual Confer-ence in Sacramento in September and they are busy planning for the year to come. You have elected excellent representatives who are already hard at work planning upcoming educational sessions and the 2018 annual conference. There have been a record number of attendees at Technical Training for Clerks (TTC), and many peo-ple have already registered for the upcom-ing League of California’s City Clerks New Law and Elections Seminar December 13-15, 2017. Sheryl Sandberg said that “the ability to learn is the most important quali-ty a leader can have.” I don’t believe truer

words have been spoken. I hope each of you will take part in as many learning op-portunities in the coming year as possible. Being a municipal clerk, I believe, is not for the faint of heart. Every person I know in this profession has a minimum work stand-ard that would be best described as “above and beyond.” We balance an im-mense work load under, sometimes, crazy timelines and expectations. In honor of the amazing balancing act done every day, by clerks around the world this year’s theme is “finding our balance.” There is balance in everything we do – how much energy we do or don’t expend with difficult people; what tasks we take on or which ones we abandon; and balance in when we say when or when we dig in and stay late. I don’t think there is a one-size fits all an-swer of what good balance looks like; it will be unique for each of us. My hope this year is that together through sharing, learning, and listening we will build new skills and find tools to help us stay in bal-ance.

CCAC President’s Message I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

President’s

Message 1

Pat Hammers

Spirit Award 2

Newly

Designated 2

CCAC Book

Store 2

Educational

Session 3

Region 10

Message 4

Region 12

Message 4

Region 15

Message 5

Member

Spotlight 6

CCAC 2017

Sponsors 7

Spirit Award

Nomination 10

Board of

Directors 12

OFFICIAL WORD O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1 0

Wendy Klock-Johnson, MMC

CCAC President

Save the Date

2018 CCAC Annual Conference

April 17-20, 2018

DoubleTree at the Marina

Berkeley, CA

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Pat Hammers Spirit Award The Board of the City Clerks Association of California estab-lished the Pat Hammers Spirit Award in memory of Cathedral City’s City Clerk Pat Hammers, MMC. The criterion was built around Pat’s spirit and her giv-ing nature. As Immediate Past President of the City Clerks Association of California, I am pleased to announce that nomi-

nations are now being accepted for the Pat Hammers Spirit Award. The purpose of the award is to recognize city clerk professionals who exemplify the giving spirit of Pat.

I encourage you to complete the enclosed nomination form to recognize a city clerk, assistant city clerk, deputy city clerk, special district clerk or another member of CCAC who may have exceeded the call in these are-as. All nominations and the award will remain confidential until it is presented in Newport Beach at the New Law and Elections Seminar Conference in December 2017. It will be a very exciting presentation, and it will be a great surprise for the recipient. Please take this opportunity to complete the nomination form and submit it by the deadline of November 10, 2017. If you have any questions, please contact me at (408) 615-2222 or jjasso@santaclaraca.gov.

Jose Jasso, MMC

Immediate Past President

Sylvia Bermudez, CMC Clerk of the Board, Coachella Valley Water District Miyuki J. Yokoyama, MMC City Clerk, Town of Hillsborough Holly Charléty, MMC District Clerk, Vallejo Sanitation & Flood Control District

Yvonne Quarker, CMC City Clerk, City of West Hollywood Arne Simonsen, CMC City Clerk, City of Antioch Amanda McVey, CMC Administrative Assistant, City of Pittsburg Anh Tran, CMC Deputy City Clerk, City of San Jose

Newly Designated

Have you heard about CCAC’s new book store? A book store made specifically for you, tailored with everything you need to be successful in the office and pro-vide relief from the stresses of our day to day routine all at a discounted price. If you enjoy Athenian Dialogues, or have kids you love to read to, or you’re back in school for your degree, CCAC Book Alley has it all. Visit the bookstore at https://ccacbookalley.mybooksandmore.com. The best thing about CCAC Book Alley is, revenue generated will go towards CCAC Scholarships. If you have any questions or would like to know more information about CCAC Book Alley, contact Marilyn Bonus at mbonus@SGCH.ORG.

CCAC Book Store

P A G E 3

Register now for

these upcoming

educational

opportunities.

Upcoming CCAC Educational Sessions

O F F I C I A L W O R D

Athenian Dialogues

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman Facilitated by Cynthia Lewis, Ed.D Friday, October 27, 2017 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Hosted by City of Escondido Limited to 30 participants Click here for more information and to register online.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Facilitated by Wandzia Rose Saturday, November 4, 2017 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Hosted by City of Atascadero Limited to 30 participants Click here for more information and to register online.

Toto’s Reflections by Kevin Fickenscher Facilitated by Susan Domen, MMC Friday, December 8, 2017 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Hosted by Three Valleys Municipal Water District Limited to 30 participants Click here for more information and to register online.

Dawn Abrahamson, MMC

Professional Development

Director

CCAC Education Workshops

Keeping Your City in Line and Out of Trouble: Public Noticing, CEQA, the Brown Act, and the Public Records Act November 8, 2017, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Hosted by City of San Bernardino (Regions 6 & 7 - Inland Empire & Riverside County) Click here for more information and to register online by November 1st

Public Records Practices after the San Jose Decision & Doing More with Less: Business Process Improvement November 16, 2017, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Hosted by San Diego Regional Airport Authority (Region 9 - San Diego County) Click here for more information and to register online by November 9th

The Public Records Act after the San Jose Decision & Building the Administrative Record November 29, 2017, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Hosted by City of Watsonville (Region 13 - Monterey Bay) Click here for more information and to register online by November 20th

2018 Educational Workshops will be announced soon!!

New Law & Elections Seminar

December 13-15, 2017 Located at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel Click here for more information and to register by November 14th

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Hello to everyone from Region 10 (Orange County). We held our second CCAC Re-gional Training on Wednesday, Sep-tember 13, 2017 in the City of Brea. Thanks so much to City Clerk Lilli-an Harris-Neal and her amazing staff, Gabby Monzon and Karen O’Leary, for their generosity in hosting our event. I would also like to thank our workshop sponsors

American Legal, Netfile, and JustFOIA. The topic of the work-shop was “Leaders GROW: Becoming a Leader for Life” pre-sented by Rex Osborn. The interactive work-shop focused on the qualities of a good lead-er and the importance of communication and team work. One exer-cise required groups,

Region 10 Director’s Message - Denise Basham, MMC using only newspaper and masking tape, to create a structure as tall as possible…without talking through most of the exercise! The group learned that good leadership in-volves not only lifelong learning but also being a teacher and mentor. To reach our highest potential we must GROW – Gain Knowledge; Reach Out to Others; Open Your World; Walk Toward Wisdom. Thanks so much to Rex for his outstanding presentation and all the

information he shared with us. I think everyone in the room left with great tools to help them become better leaders. And most of all, I would like to thank everyone who attended. Your participation and support contin-ues to strengthen our amazing profession. Clerks are the best!! On a final note, this workshop was my last serving as Region 10 Director. I have enjoyed by time serving on the CCAC Board and would like to thank everyone for their support during my term.

Region 12 Director’s Message - Michelle Ascencion, CMC Region 12 held its second educa-tional workshop of the year in Santa Barbara on September 28th. Rex Osborn led an enlight-ening session on “The Im-portance of Emotional Intelli-gence in the Workplace” for 14 participants from Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Ventura, Ojai, Santa Maria, and Santa Bar-bara. As “Emotional Intelligence is not taught, it is caught,” Rex

skillfully “threw down” valuable information on the four areas of Emotional Intelligence: 1. Self Knowledge, 2. Self Manage-ment, 3. Social Awareness, and 4. Relationship Management. Everyone came away with relevant information to help them relate better to others at work and beyond. Besides our recent workshop, Region 12 members have many hot topics and projects brewing in their respective cities: Michelle Ascencion, City Clerk of Oxnard, is facing the potential recall of four City Councilmembers, onboarding a

new Assistant City Clerk, and researching a new agenda man-agement software system. Never a dull moment! Antoinette Mann, City Clerk of Ventura received the dreaded California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) letter from attorney Robert Rubin on Sept. 6. This is the first CVRA let-ter received by a Ventura County city, kicking off the 135-day timeline to transition to District Elections, with the deadline to adopt a new ordinance by January 19, 2018. “Thank you CCAC for offering sessions on this topic and for all the City Clerks that have gone through this process with posting so much information on the list serve and on your websites – they have assisted me tremendously,” Antoinette said. “I encourage all that haven’t yet received a letter, to learn about the process. Knowing the process greatly enhanced my credi-bility with the City Attorney and the City Council. Seven Council Districts … here we come!” Sarah Gorman, City Clerk Services Manager of Santa Barbara reports that Santa Barbara is preparing for its Citywide stand-alone 2017 General Municipal Election. There are five candidates for Mayor, and 13 candidates for three

(Continued on page 5)

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O F F I C I A L W O R D

Procrastination (pro·cras·ti·na·tion) noun: the action of delaying or postponing something. I’ll admit it, I’d delayed preparing this article, I pre-pared a draft, and did nothing with it. I thought I’d have plenty of free time today, and then normal life happened. I had a morning visit to my granddaughter’s school for family day, a noon employee awards luncheon, a couple of unex-pected visitors applying for a vacancy on our City Council. I was finally going to sit down and finish my article and BOOM, computer failure. Doom!

I turned it off and back on again, and frantically called IT. I’m up and running now. The bright side to this, I didn’t lose any files, I took 25 minutes to back up all of the files on my C Drive, and my ar-chived e-mail folders, which is something I have been meaning to do since our August Region 15 meeting.

The Region 15 meeting was hosted by the City of Pittsburg in August. The session was held at their new Elks Lodge near the marina. (The location, interestingly enough, is just blocks away from where my grandparents had their business in the late 1930s and 1940s.) The topic of the meeting

Region 15 Director’s Message

Margaret Wimberly, MMC

was E-Records, E-Mail, Trustworthy Electronic Records, Retention, Document Imaging and & Other Leadership Opportunities, presented by Diane R. Gladwell, MMC, President of Gladwell

Governmental Services. There was a lot of lively discussion about best prac-tices; it is always interesting to hear from other at-tendees on how their cities/agencies handle common issues, especially these is-sues that are presenting

new unforeseen challenges. A huge “Thank You” to Pittsburg City Clerk Alice Evenson, and her staff. In addition to hosting they provided each attendee with a fan, that says “I’m a City Clerk fan!” on them. I am a huge fan of all of my fellow City Clerk’s and our amazing trainers!

I almost learned a lesson the hard way today (and kept wondering what would Diane Gladwell say if she were here!), but will definitely be taking some steps Citywide to put some best practices in place regarding the storage of e-mail archives on our local hard drives!

new district Council seats, with no incumbents for the races. There’s also an infrastructure tax meas-ure on the ballot.

Gail Davis, Deputy City Clerk/Records Man-ager of Ojai and new to the Clerk profession, is working on revising her Council’s protocols and e-mail policy in light of the San Jose case. The cur-rent protocols had not been updated in many years, so they don’t address matters such as elec-tronic communication, social media, or the new elected mayoral office, following the passage of a ballot measure in 2014. This project, while low-key, is important for modernizing how the City serves the public. Cynthia Rodriguez, City Clerk of Thousand Oaks, reports that following the successful launch of iLegislate (electronic packets)/VoteCast (electronic voting) for the City Council and Plan-ning Commission, the City is moving forward with implementing the electronic system for other

Boards and Commissions. They are also working on the implementation of Granicus’ electronic application process for Boards/Commission re-cruitments. The City will be hosting Mock City Council meetings for 5thgraders on Oct. 23rd where the Mayor, Councilmembers and City staff will shadow the student Councilmembers, public speakers, and members of the audience as the student Councilmembers deliberate/vote on relevant topics. A future Councilmember may be in the group! From the educa-tional and engag-ing, to the practi-cal and purpose-ful, CLERKS DO IT ALL! See you at New Law in Decem-ber!

Region 12 Director’s Message Cont.

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While Gigi Hanna is a rela-tive newcomer to the City Clerk world, she is not unfamiliar with the workings of local government. Gigi is currently the full-time elected City Clerk for the City of San Ber-nardino, a position she has held since March, 2012, but she has had brushes with

public agencies for over thirty years. Georgeann “Gigi” Hanna is a native of Blue Mound, Illinois, who after a three year stint in Samoa, living at times in a thatched roof hut with no walls, electricity or running water, moved to California when she was nine years old. The youngest of four children, she graduated from high school in Pasadena. Gigi be-lieves that three years in Samoa may be the single reason she is particularly flexible, unflappable and open to adventure. Gigi’s educational endeavors include a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Political Science from Humboldt State University, Masters Studies in Communications at California State University, Fullerton and her cur-rent work as an M.P.A. student at Cal State San Ber-nardino which she anticipates completing in the Win-ter of 2018. She received her CMC in June of 2015 and is actively pursuing her MMC, which she expects to attain by December of this year. Gigi’s early career was as a daily news reporter, cov-ering county government, water, medicine, social ser-vices, crime and city councils for the North County Times in Escondido, The Fresno Bee, the San Bernar-dino County Sun, the Pasadena Star News and the Arcata Union. That work gained her several local, regional and international awards for investigative and feature reporting. In about 2000, Gigi began to transition from the me-dia side to the public agency side when she became a Senior Public Affairs Representative for Metropolitan Water District, overseeing their public information projects, including speeches, legislative materials and water conservation materials. From there she be-came the Associate Director with the Water Re-sources institute, at Cal State San Bernardino, devel-

oping a state-wide communications plan, and outreach program for community presentations, and in-depth research and analysis for water resource education programs In March, 2012, Gigi was elected to her current posi-tion as City Clerk for the City of San Bernardino. Her time as City Clerk has been tumultuous to say the least. She has survived five City Managers; the City filing for and exiting from bankruptcy; two prima-ry, two general and one special election; a ten-fold increase in public records requests; two terrorist at-tacks on public employees; had two sitting Council Members arrested and convicted; seen the recall of one councilmember and the 27 year City Attorney; and survived a Charter amendment and three initia-tives regarding marijuana dispensaries. Not to men-tion an unsuccessful recall attempt against her. For-tunately, 2015 was a little easier as she was unop-posed for her seat, and able to cancel that portion of the election. Gigi’s service to the community does not stop at be-ing the City Clerk. She is currently mentoring three of her peers in the City Clerk profession, helping to coach and guide them toward Certification. She also began this Fall presenting a portion of the training for the Technical Track for Clerks at University of Cali-fornia Riverside. Gig is the Immediate Past President of the San Bernar-dino Sunset Rotary, the Board Vice President of Habi-tat for Humanity – San Bernardino Area, A Board member for the San Bernardino Symphony, Board Vice President for the Boys and Girls Club of San Ber-nardino, and a member of the League of Women Vot-ers. Sher served on the League of California Cities Environmental Quality Policy Committee in 2013. She was the Winner of the George E. Brown Peace Award from the San Bernardino Democratic Lunch-eon Club in 2016, and Assemblyman Mike Morrell named her the 2013 Woman of Distinction. In her spare time, if she has any, Gigi enjoys travel writing, music cooking, gardening, blacksmithing, river rafting, and the Governing Council of the Clan Hannay Society from Sorbie, Scotland. She is currently build-ing a non-profit public glassblowing studio in San Ber-nardino to provide studio space for glass artists, occu-pational therapy programs for disabled veterans, and workshops for the curious.

REGION 6

P A G E 7

O F F I C I A L W O R D

CCAC Diamond Sponsor

P A G E 8 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1 0 CCAC Diamond Sponsor

P A G E 9

O F F I C I A L W O R D

CCAC Diamond Sponsor

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P A G E 1 1

O F F I C I A L W O R D

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Wendy Klock-Johnson, MMC, President Assistant City Clerk, Sacramento (916) 808-7509, wkjohnson@cityofsacramento.org

Stephanie Smith, MMC, First Vice-President City Clerk, Lake Forest (949) 461-3421, sdsmith@lakeforestca.gov

Patrice M. Olds, MMC, Second Vice-President City Clerk, San Mateo (650) 522-7042, polds@cityofsanmateo.org

Britt Avrit, MMC, Recording Secretary City Clerk, Lancaster (661) 723-6020, bavrit@cityoflancasterca.org

Randi Johl-Olson, JD, MMC, Legislative Director City Clerk, Temecula (951) 694-6421, randi.johl@cityoftemecula.org

Mitzi Ortiz, MMC, Communications Director City Clerk, Aliso Viejo (949) 425-2506, mortiz@cityofalisoviejo.com

Susan Domen, MMC, Treasurer City Clerk, Lake Elsinore (951) 674-3124 x262, sdomen@lake-elsinore.org

Dawn Abrahamson, MMC, Professional Dev Director City Clerk, Vallejo (707) 648-4528, dawn.abrahamson@cityofvallejo.net

April Sousa, Region 1 Director City Clerk, Blue Lake (707) 668-5655, cityclerk@bluelake.ca.gov

Donna Settles, CMC, Region 2 Director City Clerk, Galt (209) 366-7130, dsettles@ci.galt.ca.us

Nora Pimentel, CMC, Region 3 Director City Clerk, Tracy (209) 831-6105, nora.pimentel@ci.tracy.ca.us

VACANT, Region 4 Director

VACANT, Region 5 Director

Vicki Kasad, MMC, Region 6 Director Assistant City Clerk, Ontario (909) 395-2166, vkasad@ontarioca.gov

Jerryl Soriano, CMC, Region 7 Director City Clerk, Desert Hot Springs (760) 329-6411 x107, jsoriano@cityofdhs.org

Diane Caldwell, CMC, Region 8 Director City Clerk, El Centro (760) 337-4515, dcaldwell@cityofelcentro.org

Kerry Bigelow, MMC, Region 9 Director City Clerk, Chula Vista (619) 407-3590, kbigelow@chulavistaca.gov

VACANT, Region 10 Director

Anthony Mejia, MMC, Region 11 Director Chief City Clerk, South Pasadena (626) 403-7232, amejia@southpasadenaca.gov

Michelle Ascencion, CMC, Region 12 Director City Clerk, City of Oxnard (805) 385-7805, michelle.ascencion@oxnard.org

Tom Graves, MMC, Region 13 Director City Clerk, Hollister (831) 636-4300 x16, tom.graves@hollister.ca.gov

Jennifer Woodworth, MMC, Region 14 Director District Clerk, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (650) 691-1200, jwoodworth@openspace.org

Margaret Wimberly, MMC, Region 15 Director City Clerk, Brentwood (925) 516-5182, mwimberly@brentwoodca.gov

Kathy Flamson, CMC, Region 16 Director City Clerk, Calistoga (707) 942-2807, kflamson@ci.calistoga.ca.us

Jose Jasso, MMC, Immediate Past President Assistant City Clerk, Santa Clara (408) 615-2222, jjasso@santaclaraca.gov

2017-18 CCAC Board of Directors