Cloverdale is the only one of Sonoma County's nine cities where voters directly elect a city clerk and a city treasurer. But that could change in November.
The City Council wants to make both those positions subject to appointment by the city manager, and has decided to put the proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot.
"It's considered outdated to have an elected city clerk," said Mayor Carol Russell, noting that the vast majority of California cities do not elect clerks.
At one time, she said, the clerk and treasurer jobs were relatively simple, sometimes held by people working part-time.
But these days, the clerk, especially, is a more complicated job, demanding administrative, technical and legal knowledge.
The job has not been without controversy.
The most recent elected Cloverdale city clerk resigned last year, then sued the city saying she was not compensated properly. She received a $40,000 settlement.
As far as the city treasurer, those job responsibilities have largely been supplanted by city finance officials who oversee the budget.
But the current treasurer, retired Cloverdale Police Chief Rob Dailey, is opposed to doing away with his elected position, saying it provides a needed layer of oversight, particularly in light of the recent salary scandal in the City of Bell in Southern California.
Residents there were outraged to discover their city manager was making an annual salary close to $800,000 and City Council members were being paid $100,000.
"People in Cloverdale City Hall are good, honest people. But look at what happened in Bell, when nobody was paying attention to what was going on," Dailey said.
As the elected treasurer, Dailey gets only $50 a month and acknowledges most of his duties amount to nominal tasks, such as signing subdivision maps after verifying developers have paid their fees.
"I still have the authority to step in and review city books and investments, and question them," Dailey said.
He said that's an important role, especially when city staff is spread so thinly.
"We have people now who have about four or five titles. In the 1990s, during the last big downturn, the city got sideways and didn't pay payroll taxes on time," he said.
The accounting snafu left the city's books in a mess and cost Cloverdale more than $100,000 in penalties levied by the Internal Revenue Service.
"Part of that was because the department head had five different titles," Dailey said.
When it comes to the city clerk position, Mayor Russell jokingly points out that just about anyone can run for the office.
"The irony is that state law only requires — the last I checked — that elected city clerks be over the age of 18, be citizens and registered voters in the city where they serve," Russell said. "It says nothing about being sober, or being an ex-felon."
Terri Cook, the elected city clerk in Belmont, said "there have been instances in some cities because of popular votes, that basically a very unqualified person was elected to city clerk. They get to office and say, &‘What do I do now?'"
But in general, she said, an elected city clerk provides some checks and balances, because their job is not beholden to the city manager.
"If there's an issue going on at City Hall, they can be in a position to bring it forward to the community, or the council," she said.
But she also recognizes many believe the city clerk should be appointed because the job requires administrative skills beyond the ability of voters to decide.
Mayor Russell, one of the council members assigned to write a ballot argument in favor of making the clerk an appointed position, counters that politics could also get in the way if the city clerk is worried about getting re-elected.
But everyone agrees the job is critical to a city. Typically, city clerks generate and maintain a wide variety of records, including City Council minutes and resolutions. They are responsible for posting agendas, managing and distributing council meeting packets, and responding to requests for public information.
They post notices, process claims and lawsuits. And they serve as filing officer for campaign expenditure statements and other documents required of City Council candidates.
In Cloverdale, the city clerk position pays $500 a month.
But the last city clerk, Michele Winterbottom, elected five times since 1992, was also a salaried legislative records manager.
When her job as records manager was eliminated in a round of budgetary layoffs, she claims she was left to do an overwhelming job for only $500 a month, with no access to city computers or records.
She filed a claim and sued the city in Sonoma County Superior Court. The lawsuit was resolved after the city's insurance carrier agreed to pay her $40,000.
Since then, City Manager Nina Regor took on the title of city clerk, but has designated most of those duties to a deputy clerk.
With the city's current staffing level and workload — and slow pace of development — spreading the clerk duties out among administrative staff and planning staff is working, Regor said.
You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com
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