Measure would end Clerk races
City Clerk Elaine Doerfling, center, will retire when her term concludes at the end of this year. The council plans to introduce a ballot measure to make the position appointed, rather than elected. File photo
Following the announcement that long-time City Clerk Elaine Doerfling will retire when her term concludes this year, the Hermosa Beach City Council agreed Tuesday night to put a measure on November’s ballot that would make the position appointed, rather than elected, for future terms.
Staff recommended introducing a ballot measure to switch the position to appoint due to “increasing complexities within the field of city clerkship,” said Nico De Anda-Scaia, assistant to the City Manager. Both Doerfling and a unanimous council backed putting the measure on the ballot.
Doerfling, who got her first job with the city in 1972, ran unopposed in 2015, and has been re-elected each term since 1989. Her husband Hank served on the City Council in the 1970s, and she has been a resident for 53 years — “with no plans to ever leave,” she said.
“This was not an easy thing. When I first started thinking about it, I thought, ‘Oh god what am I going to do?’ But I’m getting used to it now,” Doerfling said.
Doerfling said that, at recent statewide city clerk conferences she has attended, she has encountered fewer and fewer elected clerks. This impression echoes data offered by De Anda-Scaia: more than 70 percent of California cities now have appointed city clerks, and that figure is closer to 80 percent nationally.
Clerks are traditionally responsible for collecting minutes of public meetings, overseeing elections, swearing in new officials and employees, and a variety of other functions. But staff said that clerks’ duties have greatly increased in recent years because clerks are also responsible for maintaining public records, which have expanded exponentially with the advent of email, and campaign finance reports, the state and federal laws for which have grown more complicated in the last decade.
Doerfling’s clerk experience in Hermosa and other cities before that has meant she was up to the task, De Anda-Scaia said, but staff urged the ballot measure to switch to an appointed clerk because there is no guarantee that voters’ choice to replace her would be similarly qualified. State law requires that, if the position is elected, cities can impose few limitations on candidates other than age and residency requirements.
If the ballot measure passes, the clerk would be appointed by the City Manager. But the November election creates an odd arrangement: the measure to make the office an appointed one will appear alongside any candidates wishing to run for City Clerk. The city is obligated to hold the election, but will alert residents about the ballot measure well in advance of the filing date for the office.
“We’re hoping to bring this measure back to you as soon as possible, well before the filing deadline, so that the community will know what they are getting into,” De Anda-Scaia said.