44 people applied to become SLO County clerk-recorder. Only 4 have election experience
A five-person committee on Monday will begin narrowing a field of 44 candidates vying to become San Luis Obispo County’s next top elections official.
Of the dozens of applicants for the clerk-recorder job, only four have direct experience running elections.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors appointed the members of the clerk-recorder selection committee to help with the process of picking someone to replace former Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong, who departed in July to take a new job in the Bay Area.
The committee will narrow the list of candidates to a group of seven or fewer people, and supervisors will then select a clerk-recorder who will serve the rest of Gong’s term, which ends in 2023.
The board decided in mid-July to open the application to all candidates instead of appointing interim clerk-recorder Helen Nolan to fill the position.
The supervisors had only three minimum qualifications for candidates: They must be at least 18, must be California residents and must live in San Luis Obispo County and be registered to vote in the area at the time of the appointment.
The committee first met on Sept. 8, but the Monday meeting will be the first time members discuss the clerk-recorder applicants.
Who is on SLO County clerk-recorder selection committee?
Each of the five supervisors picked one member to serve on the selection committee.
District 1: Vicki Janssen, Supervisor John Peschong’s legislative aide
District 2: Lee Price, former San Luis Obispo city clerk
District 3: Ken Hampian, former San Luis Obispo city manager
District 4: Chuck Bell, an attorney who represented Supervisor Lynn Compton in her 2018 lawsuit against Gong over signature irregularities on ballots cast during her re-election bid
District 5: Marcia Torgerson, former Atascadero city clerk
Tami Douglas-Schatz, San Luis Obispo County human resources director, led the committee’s Sept. 8 meeting.
During the meeting, Schatz gave committee members an overview of the selection process and answered questions alongside county counsel Rita Neal and county administrative officer Wade Horton.
Who are the clerk-recorder candidates?
The Tribune reviewed all 44 clerk-recorder applications and found only four candidates have experience in a similar role.
Nolan, the current interim clerk-recorder, is among the applicants. She was working as deputy director clerk-recorder before Gong’s departure and previously served as assistant clerk-recorder in Mono County.
Another applicant, Jeffrey Barry, was previously chief deputy clerk-recorder for Yolo County.
Other candidates include Lena Legge, currently the assistant city clerk for Bakersfield, and Elaina Cano, the elections division manager for Santa Barbara County. Cano previously served as assistant clerk-recorder in San Luis Obispo County.
Most other candidates had no relevant on-the-job experience, and their professional backgrounds included roles in hotel management, police work, customer service and office administration.
Several applicants live outside San Luis Obispo County, in places including Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento.
One candidate, attorney Stewart Jenkins, previously helped Bell and Compton sue Gong over ballot signatures during her 2018 race against current Arroyo Grande Councilmember Jimmy Paulding.
What qualities should a clerk-recorder have?
In spite of the low qualification threshold for applicants, Horton and others made it clear that the finalists must be ready to jump into a challenging job that’s been heavily politicized with little training.
San Luis Obispo County’s clerk-recorder leads a department that oversees officially recorded documents, such as marriage licenses, and runs the county’s elections, along with other duties.
That job has gotten more difficult recently.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump have continually perpetuated false allegations of voter fraud since he lost the 2020 presidential election. They’ve frequently directed their anger at local election officials.
Gong left San Luis Obispo County following racist attacks after he declined to allow a forensic audit of the county’s voting system.
Horton described the ideal candidate for county clerk-recorder as someone with the “utmost integrity.”
“(The person) has a strong moral compass and will do the right thing, particularly in the face of intense scrutiny and public pressure,” Horton said. “In this role, it’s absolutely necessary this person has strong convictions and will do the right thing.”
Horton also said the future clerk-recorder needs to have strong leadership and communication skills and must “be seen as somebody that the public has trust in.”
“This is not a position for somebody to have their first experience with leadership,” Horton said. “I think it’s very important that whoever the board selects has a proven track record of leading a team.”
“I also think it’s important that this person has established experience in a clerk-recorder’s office,” he added. “This isn’t a time to learn on the job; this should be a subject matter expert. It’s a working department head. It’s down in the trenches with their team. And in order to be successful in this role, experience in the subject matter expertise and also leadership is absolutely essential.”
Price agreed with Horton.
She said the committee needs to appoint someone with experience, who can “hit the ground running, (who) needs no training in election law, who has direct experience in California election law.”
“This is a working department head,” Price said. “It’s someone who has to know how to do every single job, as it relates to conducting the election. And I always said that I’d be willing to do anything. If it’s running the copier at 2 a.m. — OK. If it’s sitting down and helping a tired employee finish the task — yeah, that’s what it takes. So the person that is going to hold this job needs to know all aspects of it.”
The clerk-recorder selection committee will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday in room D161/162 in the county Government Center at 1055 Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo. For more information, visit bit.ly/3zhSZPQ.
This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
