New Dana Point Clerk a Poor Hire, Critics Say

Critics charge that the new Dana Point city clerk, a friend of the mayor’s hired by the City Council without seeking other candidates, is not qualified for the job.

The council appointed Sharon Street to the job, which, pays about $90,000 a year, on a 3-2 vote at its Nov. 26 meeting. She was hired during the summer as an assistant city clerk and previously was a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

Supporters of her appointment say they believe she will do the job well. They also doubt that more-qualified candidates would be interested in the post, and that they prefer to hire someone who already lives in the city and therefore is likely to stay.

But Councilman Russ Chilton, who opposed hiring Street, said the decision “looks very bad to the public. If you talk to people about [the problem with] politics and politicians, one of the top things on their list is cronyism.”

Street, who also was named city spokeswoman, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The city apparently is not required to publicly post the position’s availability, said City Manager Douglas C. Chotkevys, who consulted with the city attorney.

Mayor William L. Ossenmacher said he has known Street for about 10 years and that they had a romantic relationship for about two years in the middle of that period. However, he said, that he played no role when Street was hired by Chotkevys to serve as an assistant city clerk. Another person in the office with greater seniority had served temporarily as city clerk, but after she decided she didn’t want the job permanently, the divided council promoted Street.

Chilton, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, and others say that while Street may do a good job, her appointment looks bad not just because she’s a friend of the mayor’s but because the city did not search for candidates, and her professional background does not meet the job’s minimum requirements. Those include knowledge of legal requirements for public meeting agendas and proceedings, and procedures for developing and maintaining city records.

“By not having a competitive recruitment, I think we’ve done her as well as the city a disservice,” said Councilman Wayne Rayfield, who also voted against the hire. “People will always suspect that she has the job because she’s a close friend of the mayor.”

Ossenmacher, a marketing consultant who has served for eight years on the council, said he believes the criticism has more to do with politics than with Street’s qualifications.

“You hate to see good people dragged through the mud because of politics,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that some people would stoop to that level to exact some revenge on their political enemies.”

Ossenmacher did not specify what political divisions he believes underlie the issue. Unlike many other city councils, Dana Point’s elected leaders are not known to be divided into factions and rarely disagree in public.

The city clerk keeps City Hall records and City Council minutes, signs city ordinances, resolutions and contracts, updates city laws, fulfills local requirements of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and conducts municipal elections.

The clerk is also the city’s primary liaison with federal, state and county governments and should be familiar with the administration of franchise contracts, such as with cable-television companies, according to the city’s job description.

Street graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with a major in sociology and minor in political science and history. She has an elementary and secondary education teaching credential and is fluent in Spanish, French and Russian.

She was a vocational counselor for 12 years, providing case management and guidance to rehabilitate workers in the state workers’ compensation and disability programs. She also is a director of the South Coast Water District. After becoming an interim assistant city clerk in August, Street completed a weeklong training program in record keeping, running elections and dealing with the public, according to the city announcement of her hire. She will also attend a seminar for city clerks on elections and new laws this month.

Ossenmacher and Chotkevys said that as a longtime resident of Dana Point, Street is more likely to stay than an outside candidate would. They say Dana Point has had trouble keeping city clerks -- 12 have served in 14 years. Ossenmacher said the city had to try a different hiring approach: “We’ve done recruitments many times before. It has not worked out for us.”

Chotkevys said that there is an “extremely limited recruitment pool of talented and qualified city clerks.”

Some city clerks in other Orange County cities disagree.

“There are a lot of people who are qualified,” said Newport Beach City Clerk LaVonne Harkless. “I encourage my deputies to go for city clerk positions, to advance themselves.”

Connie Brockway, Huntington Beach’s city clerk, said that with 34 cities in the county, “there are a lot of deputy city clerks out there. Every deputy I have here is qualified.”

Chotkevys acknowledged that “there were a number of assistants and deputies in Orange County” who applied the last time the city sought candidates a year ago. But, he said, “Frankly, I would never hire [them ... because] they were not that good.”