Jack of all trades

QUINCY — Stephanie Boorman said the city clerk’s job in Quincy is slightly different than other cities Quincy’s size. 

“There are many people that will tell you that we are a small city with big city (challenges). tasks and projects that you would see at the big city level. Not many cities, for example, have their own industrial (wastewater) treatment facility, definitely not a (water) reuse facility, either. There are a lot of things that smaller cities don’t typically see that we encounter,” Boorman said. 

Boorman is the new Quincy city clerk, replacing longtime Clerk-Treasurer Nancy Schanze in one of those roles. Schanze retired earlier this summer, and city officials made some changes to administration to adapt to what City Administrator Pat Haley said are changing times. 

“As the city has grown so have the responsibilities of the two positions, which made it burdensome for one person,” Haley wrote in response to a Columbia Basin Herald email. “The finance department has a lot of responsibilities managing the growing customer base, along with our water and wastewater utilities that need upgrades and improvements. The clerk’s responsibilities include a growing number of public record requests that take a lot of time.” 

The city also has a contract to administer the Quincy Valley Regional Parks District, approved by voters in 2023. Haley wrote that that would add to both the finance and clerk jobs.  

“This gave us all the more reason to divide the positions into two separate duties,” he wrote.  

Boorman said part of the clerk’s job is ensuring there’s a clear paper trail when it comes to city business.  

“The clerk essentially is the record keeper, ensuring the accuracy of records, preserving records for the city. So, ordinances resolutions, agreements, contracts, the council meeting agendas and minutes, public records,” she said. “A lot of the time they’re a support role for the council, the mayor, the administrator, as well as the liaison to the public. Bridging that gap between the public and local government.” 

The clerk is responsible for fulfilling public record requests, Boorman said. 

“It covers law enforcement to finance all the way to public works, across the board,” she said. “So we stay pretty busy with those.” 

The clerk makes sure an ordinance is properly filed after it’s approved by the city council, ensures the legal notification meets state guidelines, files and records annexations and other city business. The parks district is an entirely different organization with its own agenda and recordkeeping requirements, and Boorman is responsible for those too. 

“Kind of a jack of all trades,” she said. “The clerk wears many hats.” 

Boorman is a Quincy native who’s worked for the city for more than a decade. 

“I started as a temporary employee 13 years ago this month. And about five months later I was hired on full-time,” she said. “I started as a receptionist and handled the front counter, greeted the public when they came in, assisted with taking payments. I oversaw the utility billing, and other billing as well, in that role.” 

Boorman assisted then-clerk-treasurer Sue Miller when she needed support, she said. When Miller retired in 2014 city officials made some changes, Boorman said, and she worked as administrative assistant for then-mayor Jim Hemberry and then-city administrator Tim Snead.  

Boorman said she wasn’t sure she was going to stay in city government, but that Miller and Snead encouraged her to pursue continuing education.  

She’s familiar with city government, she said, but moving into a new job brought some surprises. 

“There are still things that surprise me, for sure. There’s always something that comes up, somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, how do we do this?’ Or ‘How do we go about that?’ And trying to help them navigate, and trying to help guide them,” she said.  

Working at city hall has given her the chance to reconnect with the community where she grew up, she said, and over time her role has evolved. 

“It’s a pretty rewarding experience working for the city,” she said.