Rollinger rolling on

Barbara Diamond

Verna Rollinger has begun to pack up personal belongings in the city

clerk’s office.

“I already have two big bags full of stuff sitting in my guest

room,” Rollinger said.

She will also be taking 29 years of memories with her when she

retires Dec. 7. Some of the memories are good -- even great -- some

not so good.

“My greatest accomplishment is taking the city clerk’s records

public, called on-line Trapeze,” Rollinger said. “I’ve been working

on it for five years and I intend to finish it in the next three

weeks.

“When it’s completed, folks can type in, say, “festival” and get

every reference in the data to the festival since June 29, 1927. It’s

called a full-text search.”

Actually the festival didn’t begin until a few years later, but

you get the idea -- Rollinger has loaded in the minutes of meetings,

ordinances, resolutions, contracts, deeds and subject files

incorporation in 1927 to the latest City Council meeting agenda.

High points also include the city’s acquisition of open space.

“But it’s not always government related,” Rollinger said. “I am

most proud of the community’s ability and desire to meet the needs of

everyone in town, whatever the need is -- as evidenced partly by the

way the community comes together in times of disaster.

The Bluebird Canyon landslide was the first disaster during her

career.

“The council had to take each property, one-by-one, and declare

them uninhabitable and to be demolished -- with the owners all

sitting there,” Rollinger said. “At that point we didn’t know what

options the owners would have.

“It was just horrible.”

Her personal low point came when she was accused of accepting an

appeal after the deadline.

“I filed it on time, but the counter [where people pay to file]

had closed for the day and the fee wasn’t registered until the next

day,” Rollinger said.

Compounding the confusion, Rollinger had already rolled the next

day’s date on official date stamp when the appeal was filed. She

noted and initialed the discrepancy.

“And I have never reset the date stamp ahead since,” Rollinger

said.

A full police investigation ordered by City Manager Ken Frank

exonerated Rollinger.

The city clerk and the city manager, who work together on a

day-to-day basis on a variety of city issues, have been know to butt

heads.

“In spite of our differences, both Ken and I are professionals and

we actually work well together,” Rollinger said. “I think Ken and I

respect one another’s abilities.

“Our problems stem from the fact that he believes the city manager

should have control over all city departments and he doesn’t have

control over elected officials.”

Rollinger believes that the city manager doesn’t need that

control- -- that an independent, elected city clerk is a benefit to

the city.

“I deal with the public on a more personal level,” Rollinger said.

For many, the city clerk is City Hall.

“I am accessible to the public who don’t always know where to go

to get what they need and don’t know who to ask,” Rollinger said.

Rollinger’s friendly smile and easy-going manner certainly have

helped.

“The great thing about Verna was she was always there,” Mayor

Cheryl Kinsman said. “You could walk into her office, tell her what

you needed and you got it.”

ROLLINGER’S LONGEVITY

Rollinger has been city clerk for almost half of her life. She was

30, a single mother of two children when she was sworn into office.

She first applied for a job at City Hall in 1975. The position was

a combination of information clerk and telephone operator. Seemed

like a good job for a person who had decided she wanted to work with

people.

She didn’t get that job, but was offered a position in the finance

department, the area of her expertise.

“My prior experience was in bookkeeping,” Rollinger said.

She declined and went to work instead as office manager of the UC

Irvine Bookstore.

Four months later, then-City Clerk Peggy Morreale called and said

that local papers would announce that two women were running for City

Clerk, but it wasn’t true.

“She said I should run and I probably would be unopposed,”

Rollinger said. “But by the time I got to the office, Dean Hughes,

the editor of Tides and Times [one of the two local newspapers in the

1970s] had filed.

The vote in March of 1976 was overwhelmingly in Rollinger’s favor,

2,797 to 1,811. Laguna switched to November elections to coincide

with state and national elections in 1986, which explains why

Rollinger’s career is not divisible by four -- the number of years

per city clerk term.

“Before I came here, I always thought I wanted to be a public

servant,” Rollinger said. “I was extremely fortunate to have found my

way to this job.”

Rollinger was most seriously challenged in 1992.

“Elaine Smith, who was then the wife of one of the city’s

firefighters, offered to do the job for half the salary I was

getting,” Rollinger said.

WHAT’S NEXT?

“I have always traveled and I always will, but retirement will

allow me to go camping in my tent trailer, which takes more time,”

Rollinger said.

She has 30 years of projects waiting for her.

“I have a mountain of stuff in my life that needs tending to,”

Rollinger said. “I am looking forward to getting my home life in

order.

“I want to take time to discover who I am, separate from City

Hall. I want to assess what I want to do for the rest of my life. I

am retiring while I am young enough and strong enough to do other

things.”

Rollinger has been invited to serve on several boards and

retirement certainly doesn’t mean she will turn her back on community

concerns.

Rollinger’s mother, Dorothy “Betty” Swenson, began her community

activism when she retired to Laguna Beach in 1979.

“She has been my role model in many things,” Rollinger said.

Mother and daughter have espoused many of the same causes. Both

are long-time members of Village Laguna.

One thing Rollinger doesn’t think she’ll be doing -- at least any

time soon -- is running for City Council.

“There was a lot of pressure on me to run for council [this

year],” Rollinger said. “It does concern me that a few individuals

with a lot of money can impact our local elections.

“I believe in one person, one vote. We can disagree about what is

in the best interests of the community, but we all have the same goal

to improve it. But people with lots of money have their opinions

unfairly weighted.”

Rollinger also has taken note of the dissension on the City

Council, but said it’s happened before.

“What I do see that is new is we have one side of the council with

two people who were the top vote-getters in the last two elections

and on the other side, we have three people who constitute the

council majority,” Rollinger said.

Rollinger said this presents an opportunity to have all sides

represented and for the representatives to find common ground on

issues where they are not so far apart: She believes that everyone

wants to improve parking and traffic, provide decent working

conditions and support to the arts.

“If they can agree about these issues, then I think reasonable

people should be able to meet those needs without causing harm to any

group’s goals,” Rollinger said.

She will miss working with those groups and individuals who make

up the populace.

“Being city clerk is a unique position,” Rollinger said. “You bump

into everyone. I have gotten to know so many people, being in City

Hall. We have more interesting people per square inch than any place

else.

“One thing that makes it easier to go on to my next life is

knowing that the service we have provided for the past three decades

will continue with Martha’s recent election,” Rollinger said.

City Clerk-elect Martha Anderson understudied the role for five

years as Deputy City Clerk, with experience before that in several

city departments.

“I am really going to miss Verna on a personal level as well as a

professional level,” Anderson said.

Rollinger’s last official act will be to swear in Anderson at the

Dec. 7 City Council meeting.

When Rollinger took the oath of office in 1976, a greenbelt did

not girdle Laguna Beach.

There was a resident ballet company, now gone, but no Arts

Commission.

Domestic Partnerships were unheard of -- Rollinger performed the

first one in Laguna -- which paired Dennis Amick and then City

Councilman Bob Gentry, the first openly gay elected official in

Orange County.

Aliso School was still open, but there was no Alta Laguna or

Moulton Meadows Parks.

There was no Laguna Beach Animal Shelter -- the city contracted

with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for

services and who had ever even heard of such a thing as a Bark Park.

In fact, the outer Laguna Canyon wasn’t a part of Laguna Beach

when Rollinger was elected City Clerk. Nor was South Laguna. Both

were annexed while she was in office.

Diamond Crestview litigation had yet to be filed. The city fought

construction in the rural area and lost.

The city’s population was around 15,000.

When Rollinger steps down from the dais Dec. 7, an era will end.