Just one day in April requires months of planning for Malibu City Clerk Lisa Pope. For six months, she enlists extra help for her staff of one, arranges polling locations, makes sure the key players are up to date on their paperwork and at the end of the day makes sure all the votes are counted correctly so that the candidates with the most votes end up on the Malibu City Council.
For those six months, Pope is in charge of overseeing Malibu’s general municipal elections.
“It’s like planning a wedding,” she said, “and every two years I get to plan another wedding.”
As city clerk, Pope, who first began working in Malibu in 1995, oversees nearly every aspect of what goes into the biennial elections. Beginning in October, she’s in charge of making sure candidates file all necessary paperwork and follow campaign guidelines. On election day, she’s responsible for making sure polling stations are up and running and counting ballots at the end of the day.
“It’s a big job. It’s really exciting being a part of the process,” she said.
And while Pope is running an election, she continues the regular duties of the city clerk’s office, of which there are many.
Pope is the city’s official record keeper, in charge of responding to public records requests from the public. She’s also the municipal officer, responsible for the seal of the city in what amounts to a notary role. Any contract signed by City Manager Jim Thorsen and City Attorney Christi Hogin must last be signed by Pope, which proves the legitimacy of Thorsen and Hogin’s signatures and announces that the agreement is fully executed on behalf of the city.
When the City Council passes a new ordinance, Hogin and her assistant, Heather Glaser, update the city’s municipal code to reflect the change and send it to legal libraries.
She or Fraser attend all of the City Council and Planning Commission meetings, recording what happens. What many do not see is the behind-the-scenes work the clerk’s office does, such as handling council members’ mail, making sure they have agenda packets and assisting the mayor with proclamations and a host of other duties.
Pope, who has two sons ages 18 and 14, is used to wearing a lot of hats. But she admits it surprised her when she first found herself working in city government almost 20 years ago.
She had just graduated with a degree in kinesiology from the University of Southern California, where she played soccer. She planned to go to medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon, but was coaching a volleyball team in Northridge when her plans changed. Dave Carmany, the city manager at the time, offered her a job as deputy city clerk.
“At first it was a lot different,” she said. “I had never worn shoes to work before. I thought I was going to go to med school. It wasn’t something I ever saw in my future.”
The job was entirely new to Pope when she began in 1995, and much of it included legal guidelines she knew nothing about, so she had to teach herself along the way.
“I learned it as I went along. I learned from more seasoned city clerks,” she said. “I read a lot and I learned a lot from the city attorney.”
She briefly left Malibu to work as a contract recording secretary in Moorpark, where she lives with her family, but returned to Malibu in 2001. She has been the city clerk here ever since.
“It’s a great place to work,” she said. “There are so many interested and involved citizens. They fight for what they want.”
During her time in Malibu she has introduced an intern program at the city, created another program to hire Malibu High students as poll workers, and helped increase election transparency by keeping ballot counting open to the public and using social media to quickly spread results.
What’s next?
“I’d like to see the city go more paper-free,” she said. “We’re kicking off a project now to put records online. It will take up less staff time. It’s just a matter of scanning everything in.”
While clerking is a full-time job, Pope hasn’t completely forgotten her athletic roots. She still plays soccer, and spends plenty of time taking her sons to practices and games of their own.
“I always try to get there,” she said. “I’m a team mom. I’m involved in their sports organizations. And I run the Moorpark High School football website.”