Oct. 15 was a somber night for Grover Beach City Council members, who reluctantly approved putting Grover H2O’s measure to elect the city clerk position on the 2026 ballot.
“Electing the city clerk places decision-making in the hands of the voters,” Grover H2O member Lesley Marr said during public comment at the meeting. “This means the clerk would be accountable to the community, rather than the City Council or the city manager, promoting greater transparency and independenceāqualities essential for upholding election laws and public trust.”
While Grover Beach currently has an appointed city clerk, Wendi Sims, and has had appointed clerks since the city’s incorporation in 1959, Grover H2O gathered 783 valid voter signatures on its petition to change that.
Grover Beach isn’t the only city that appoints a city clerk. According to the city staff report, out of California’s 483 cities, 338 appoint their city clerks, including every other city in SLO County.
Appointing city clerks “enables cities to openly recruit individuals who have the technical qualifications and skills necessary for this appointed role to best serve the needs of the city,” according to the staff report.
The initiative aims to make the position a four-year term and reduce the required qualifications from five pages of duties, qualifications, and experience, according to City Manager Matthew Bronson, to only needing to be 18 years old, a registered voter, and a resident of the city.
According to the city’s website, the city clerk serves as an executive assistant to the city manager and secretary to the City Council while administering democratic processes such as elections, access to city records, local legislative activity, and ensuring transparency to the public.
The city clerk also acts as a compliance officer for federal, state, and local statutes including the Political Reform Act, the Brown Act, and the Public Records Act while managing public inquiries and relationships and arranging ceremonial and official functions.
Grover Beach’s city clerk is expected to conduct regular and special municipal elections; prepare and ensure public access to City Council meeting agendas; record meeting minutes and keep legislative records for the council; manage and provide access to city records; recruit and train advisory body members, accept claims and service of other legal documents; curate the Grover Beach Municipal Code; manage Fair Political Practices Commission filings; establish systems for preserving, protecting, and destroying public records in accordance with law; and administer ceremonial oaths of office, according to the city’s website.
During public comment, former Mayor and retired Five Cities Fire Authority Fire Chief Steve Lieberman told residents to look at what’s happening in Atascadero and use that as a marker before casting their votes in 2026.
“Atascadero has had a city treasurerāelected city treasurerāsince their incorporation 1979, and they have a ballot measure to eliminate it and make it an appointed responsibility,” he said. “The position isn’t accomplishing what the community expects, and there’s a ballot measure to potentially eliminate it.”
Also using Atascadero as an example, Mayor Karen Bright cautioned that it might be hard to find an unbiased person every four years to take on the city clerk position.
“They [Atascadero] did away with their elected city clerk once their city clerk retired, and the justification here was that it was not only difficult to attract residents interested in the job, but also to attract qualified and politically objective candidates in a community the size of Atascadero,” Bright said. “It’s over two times the size of our city, and I think that would be very difficult for us to go forward in this manner.” Ī
This article appears in Oct 17-27, 2024.