Over the past several weeks fires all over the state have ravaged our c o m m u n i -ties. There has been devastating loss of life, p r o p e r t y , and liveli-hoods. At

the risk of omitting anyone I am not provid-ing a list of the clerks affected, and those who lent their support from neighboring communities – but I have received calls from our membership and a couple of cities describing tales of a city clerk “stepping-up.” While that may be true in their eyes, my guess is that if you asked those clerks they would say they were just doing their jobs. While the first responders are returning to their regular assignments the cleanup and rebuilding work is just starting. During this time, as fire related and new building legisla-tion passes through your councils and public record requests for old building records increase the it is the City Clerk who will continue to be the calm in the storm. I had a personal connection to the fires in Santa Rosa, and on more than one occasion I di-rected people to the Clerk’s Office. It was a great comfort to be able to give my friends a sound recommendation for assistance.

We often look for the why of a tragedy or the “silver lining.” I am not sure we will ever know either in this case, but as we con-

tinue to hear the stories of harrowing evacu-ations and watch as people literally sift through the remains of their memories there is certainly a lesson to be learned – prepar-edness. I know of many Clerk’s Offices that are ready to go, and are the go to place in a disaster. Lots of offices have a “clerk in a box” all set and is updated regularly – can the same be said about your home? There are so many valuable resources available to help you get started: there is a session at TTC, the FEMA and Red Cross websites are a great resource for what you can do to be ready in an emergency. Several of my friends who lost their homes in the Santa Rosa fires had valuable documents and other small me-mentos survive all thanks to having a small fire safe. Don’t forget to set aside emergen-cy supplies for your pets, and the most valu-able tip I heard was put something special, comforting, and familiar in your disaster kit. It is the small things like a familiar fuzzy sweatshirt that can provide comfort in a most uncomfortable and unpredictable time.

As we roll into November and the official hustle and bustle of the holiday season, No-vember also often brings time spent reflect-ing on gratitude and thankfulness. While I know that there are things to be grateful for all year, it is especially on my mind right now. As the chaos of the holiday prepara-tions begin, don’t forget to carve out time to do something that makes you smile. It can be five minutes every day or 1 hour once a week. That restorative time is so invaluable. Mostly, I hope that you all will find your-selves spending the Thanksgiving holi-day with those you love the most.

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

I S S U E :

President’s

Message 1

Membership

Renewal 2

Newly

Designated 2

2018 Annual

Conference 2

Educational

Session 3

Region 1

Message 4

Region 14

Message 4

Region

Spotlight 5

CCAC Book

Store 5

IIMC

Foundation 5

IIMC Region IX

Update 6

Clerks Giving

Back 6

CCAC 2017

Sponsors 7

Board of

Directors 12

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

Wendy Klock-Johnson, MMC

CCAC President

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Revving Up for Renewed Membership Can you believe it’s almost that time of year again? Your CCAC Membership follows the calendar year, so be on the lookout in the coming weeks for an email with a special link to the membership renewal page. Primary members (typically the City or Agen-cy Clerk) can renew for themselves and all Associ-ate Members in one easy transaction. Associate Members can only renew for themselves, so double check with your staff to make sure everyone that needs continued membership is included. I will be doing some database cleanup over the next month, removing members that did not renew in

January 2016 or 2017. If for some reason you don’t receive a membership renewal email by January 2018, please follow up with me immediately so we can ensure your records and ours are completely up to date. Remember, members must be current with their dues in order to pay member rate at Regional Meetings and the Annual Conference, as well as run for leadership positions within CCAC. I look for-ward to a successful 2018 Membership Renewal season and working together to make CCAC an even more responsive member organization.

Patrice Olds, MMC

Second Vice-President

Victoria Popescu, CMC Deputy City Clerk / Records Coordinator, City of Cerritos Laura M. Nieto, MMC Chief Deputy City Clerk, City of Irwindale Yvonne Spence, MMC City Clerk, City of Fresno

Jessica Mejia, CMC Deputy City Clerk, City of Chino Hills Sheryl Garcia, CMC Chief Deputy City Clerk, City of La Puente Pamela C. Coleman, CMC Deputy City Clerk, City of Orange Priscilla Tam, CMC Deputy City Clerk, City of Foster City

Newly Designated

Our fearless leader, CCAC President Wendy Klock-Johnson, has chosen “Creating Balance” as her official 2018 Annual Conference Theme. The conference will take place in beautiful Berkeley, April 18-20, 2018 at the DoubleTree on the Marina. For those looking for extra CMC/MMC points, we are once again including an Academy session on Tues-day, April 17th, as well as an Athenian Dialogue at the same time. We’ve got exciting plans for our Wednesday, All-Conference Event out on the water, cruising the beautiful San Fran-cisco Bay, followed up by our “Tiaras and Tennies” Thursday night banquet highlighting Wendy’s creative side. We’ll also be honoring our Clerk of the Year at this banquet, so be

Creating Balance - CCAC Conference 2018

Stephanie Smith, MMC

First Vice-President

sure to attend this “star-studded” extravagan-za included with your conference registration. We are finalizing the exciting and informative educational program now, so look for the official conference webpage shortly before Thanksgiving. There you will find all the infor-mation you need to register, including the link to hotel for confer-ence pricing. In the meantime, I’m happy to answer any conference related questions. I can’t wait to see you in Berkeley.

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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

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

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

Nomination Process from Beginning to End; California Voter’s Choice Act November 17, 2017, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Hosted by City of Roseville (Region 2 - Sacramento Valley) Click here for more information and to register online by November 7th

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

Save the Date

2018 CCAC Annual Conference

April 17-20, 2018

DoubleTree at the Marina

Berkeley, CA

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Region 1 Director’s Message - April Sousa

Hello from the Bay Area! As we begin our second year in the new CCAC structure, I am excited to take over the reins from the won-derful Deborah Padovan who served both the NCCCA and Region 14 so well over the past two years. First a little about myself. My husband Dan and have two children, Madison (4 ½, and she won’t let you forget the ½) and Jackson (2), and we live in the South Bay. I’ve been in the local government field for about nine

years and the last four as a District Clerk. I love being a clerk because I feel we can have one of the biggest impacts on the public process by promoting transparency and public access to government. In August, Region 14 hosted its second regional meeting at Google headquarters in Mountain View where we had the al-ways-fabulous Pamela Miller sharing with us ideas about in-creasing our political astuteness. As we have focused this year on being agents of change, it is important to learn about how we as clerks can work to effect change while we must often-times remain neutral in an increasingly political culture. When it comes to political savviness and astuteness for our own organizations, it is helpful to look at the values of each organization and its elected body. Most decisions made by or-ganizations and its representatives are based in the following values: efficiency, representation, individual rights, and social

equity. As we learned more about these four values, Pamela helped us analyze how they can influence decision makers. We can increase our political astuteness by understanding these values and framing decision points to support the principles held to be most valuable to the organization and its community. Finally, Pamela encouraged the group to build our networks and to fully utilize those in our networks. Relationships with others may have different purposes but all are im-portant, and we must value, culti-vate, and use those relationships where needed. As a clerk, I am continually impressed by the willing-ness of clerks to share their knowledge and experience with their peers. This is most often seen through our active listserv and mentor program. Pamela taught us to work to build our individual networks, rely on them when needed, and be sure to reciprocate for others when they may need our assistance. I look forward to representing Region 14 and the entire state’s membership as I serve on the Board over the next two years. Thank you for this opportunity to serve.

Region 14 Director’s Message - Jennifer Woodworth, MMC

Over the past couple of weeks, for some reason, I’ve noticed internet memes that show the size of Califor-nia in relation to the entire east coast of the United States. It really puts into perspective the size of our state, and how sometimes we don’t think about the areas to the far north, far south, or far east of the state. Region 1 is in the most western and northern area of our state. We encompass cities in

Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties. For those who have visited the area, you know that getting here is full of twisting highways through mountainous areas that are susceptible to rock slides and often cut off Cities from the out-side world at least once a year.

Though we are small, we are mighty, and our problems are simi-lar, if not the same, to other, bigger cities. In May, we held our most successful Regional Workshop on Records Retention, held in Clearlake and led by Helen Streck from Kaizen. It was in-formative, and gave many of the tools to work on Records Re-tention policies with our limited resources. What was absolutely fabulous about this workshop was the participation across the regional lines. We had so many clerks from Region 1, 2, and 16 attend, just to name a few. Our last regional workshop was cancelled due to lack of regis-tration, however many of our Cities were dealing with natural disasters, and it just proved to be the wrong time to host a workshop. We hope to try again in the New Year. It’s been a pleasure serving Region 1 for the past year, and I look forward to what the upcoming year has in store.

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Hello! Last week I was appointed as Region Director for Region 5. I’m excited about this opportunity to contribute and promote the City Clerk profession alongside all of you. I want to thank Ricca Charlon from the City of Ridgecrest, for her enthusiasm, encouragement and passion for the City Clerk pro-fession while serving as the Region 5 Director last year. Ricca did an awesome job and the example she provided led to my interest in participating on the CCAC Board this year. Region 5 covers an expansive area and includes Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Bishop, California City, Hesperia, Lancaster, Mam-moth Lakes, Needles, Palmdale, Ridgecrest, Twen-tynine Palms, Victorville and Yucca Valley. The dis-tance between many of these cities can lend itself to logistical challenges with bringing members together for networking and educational opportunities. My goal while serving as Region 5 Director is to facilitate networking and educational opportunities that will encourage participation, professional fel-lowship and a strong professional support system, especially for members in remote areas who find it difficult to attend meetings and trainings. A little bit about Hesperia and the City Clerk’s Office

Melina Sayre, CMC, MPA

I’d also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the City of Hesperia and the City Clerk’s Office where I’ve been since 2006. Hesperia is lo-cated in Southern California just minutes from the Cajon Pass in the high desert, right off of the 15 freeway. The City covers over 75 square miles and has approximately 93,000 residents. In June of this year, the City completed the transi-tion from at-large to district-based elections in response to two California Voter’s Right Act com-plaints received in late 2015. The City’s first district-based election will be held in November 2018 with three open seats. Like most City Clerk Offices we operate with a lean staff which has driven our focus on delivering City Clerk services to our internal and external customers through the use of technology. The Hes-peria City Clerk’s Office uses a variety of software programs to live stream, archive and take minutes for City Council Meetings, automate the agenda process, process 700 forms, receive and process public record requests, archive the City’s social media records, facilitate online booking of the City’s Community Room, receive online requests for proclamations and electronically store permanent City records. Our current technology project is the implementation of online campaign filing that we hope to have up and running soon!

REGION 5

SPOT LIGHT

The CCAC Book Store is tailored specifically for you, with everything you need to be success-ful in the office and provide relief from the stresses of your day to day routine all at a dis-counted price. If you enjoy Athenian Dialogues, have kids who love books, 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

IIMC Foundation Fundraisers How would you like to win a trip for two to Hawaii? Or maybe you’d like five pounds of Alaska King Crab legs delivered straight to your door? Don’t miss out on this year’s IIMC Foundation Fundraisers. Raffle tickets are on sale now! See pages 10-12 for details.

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IIMC Region IX Update Happy Fall, CCAC! The IIMC Board of Directors will meet for their mid-year Board meeting on November 17th and 18th in Riverside, California. The agenda packet has been posted on the IIMC website. The link to the packet is http://www.iimc.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/525 . If you have any comments on any of the agenda items or a comment on an item not on the agenda, please drop us a note. Please remember, we are YOUR representatives on the IIMC Board of Directors. Applications for IIMC scholarships to attend the 2018 Profes-sional Development programs are now being accepted. The application and scholarship criteria can be found under the Edu-cation tab of the IIMC website. The deadline is March 1, 2018.

Tracy Davis, MMC Region IX Director davist@keizer.org (503)856-3412

Sheri Pierce, MMC Region IX Director spierce@ci.valdez.ak.us (907) 834-3408

These scholarship dollars can be used in conjunction with any other scholarships you might receive. The next annual IIMC Conference will be held in Norfolk, Vir-ginia beginning with Academy and Athenian Dialogue sessions on Saturday, May 19th, 2018. The conference program and other conference information will be released mid November. Appli-cations for an IIMC grant for conference attendance will also open mid November. Check out the IIMC website – www.iimc.org for more information. If you have questions or need any information on IIMC, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Clerks Giving Back - Terri Cook, CMC A few clerks in San Mateo County partici-pated in our second annual “Clerks Giving Back” event. We spend a few hours helping out at the Second Harvest Food Bank, which serves more than a quarter of a million people monthly in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. One in ten residents in those counties needs food assistance. We spent the morning with partner volun-teers from Oracle Corporation’s Environ-mental Services Division. We so enjoyed a brief time giving back to those in need in our community. Second Harvest is an awe-some organization, and we were pleased to make a small difference. Thanks to Dora Wong Seamans for organizing. Clerks rock! Participating this year were: Patrice Olds, San Mateo Dora Wong Seamans, Woodside Terri Cook, Belmont Priscilla Tam, Foster City Caitlin Corey, Colma

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

CCAC Diamond Sponsor

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

CCAC Diamond Sponsor

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

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

VACANT, Region 3 Director

Yvonne Spence, CRM, MMC, Region 4 Director City Clerk, Fresno (559) 621-7650, yvonne.spence@fresno.gov

Melinda Sayre, CMC, MPA, Region 5 Director City Clerk, Hesperia (760) 947-1007, msayre@cityofhesperia.us

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

Kelly Lore, CMC, Region 10 Director Clerk of the Board, Orange County Sanitation District (714) 593-7433, klore@ocsd.com

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

Patricia Barajas, CMC, Region 13 Director City Clerk, City of Salinas (831) 758-7383, patricib@ci.salinas.ca.us

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