Caleb Zimmerschied Valadez is a freelance writer. He can be reached at calzimval@gmail.com. 

Carolyn Steffan had to be talked into becoming Tehama’s city clerk. At the time, she had moved back to the city to help her family. Eventually, she relented, working nights and weekends for the city and full-time as a teacher at a four-teacher school.

Today, Steffan is the longest-serving city clerk in state history — and maybe even the U.S.  

Mayor Robert Mitchell calls Steffan the “heart and soul of Tehama.” But the role in 1965 was a bit more modest. For one of her first tasks, the city council handed her a brown paper bag full of the prior year’s mail, most of it unopened. It was her job to read and sort the mail.

At the time, typical clerk duties included taking minutes and attending council meetings. Steffan also sent out 150 water bills every three months — usually $4 per month — and stopped by city hall in the morning to turn on the air conditioning or heat if there was a meeting that night. By her count, Steffan has missed about three meetings during her six-decade tenure.

But over time, being a city clerk — and the city’s only office employee — became more complex. “That’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about this job is learning new information and staying up with things,” she said.

Steffan has become Tehama’s primary grant writer and a certified municipal city clerk. (She had to travel to Los Angeles for the training.) When cities were required to have a licensed water operator, it was Steffan who acquired the necessary training and license.

But her first major challenge was when the city had to join the National Flood Insurance Program. Tehama sits entirely within a flood zone. Steffan flew to Virginia and became a certified flood plain manager. Then, she helped manage two federal grants that raised several homes above the 100-year flood level.

Later, she traveled to Sacramento to meet with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She secured another $3 million in funding to elevate and renovate 38 more homes. It was the first such project west of the Mississippi River for the Army Corps of Engineers — one that required many more trips to Sacramento. Two-thirds of the homes in Tehama are now elevated above the 100-year flood level thanks to her efforts.

“We were able to hold our own with their high-powered attorneys to create a project that would work for both them and us. Our project became a model for other projects in the West.”

When a group of cities’ insurance was canceled, it was Steffan who flew to LA to testify on behalf of Tehama. After that failed, Steffan worked with other cities across the state to create a joint powers authority. They decided to meet in Sacramento so they could be near an airport.

Latch on to somebody who can answer your questions

Technology has changed the job more than anything else. Computers made parts of Steffan’s job easier, but with that came more complex problems and reports. “The state can require so much more reporting from us that they wouldn’t have wanted in big stacks of paper. So, it has ended up requiring a lot more work on our part.”

Cell phones altered the job, too. For years, any calls that came in while she was out went to the answering machine. If she went to a conference, listening and responding to the missed calls would take days. “Now, no matter where I am, I’m available 24/7, and it just helps things move along so much smoother.”

As if to underscore that fact, Steffan briefly took a call during the interview.

But there is one change that has unequivocally made her life easier. “I really appreciate the fact that we can get our trainings on Zoom now.”

So how has Steffan managed to wear so many hats for so long? “One of the most important things I would stress for any city clerk in a small area where they’re on their own is to latch on to somebody who can answer their questions.” (For her, it was the Corning city clerk, who had “been there forever.”)

It’s a lesson she’s still practicing, as she thinks about what Tehama will look like without her. For the past five or six years, she’s written down procedures for routine tasks, like reading meters or sending water bills.

“I know that the city won’t be able to find one person to take over all the things that I do, and so I’m trying to make it more feasible for somebody to be able to do this job. I had the opportunity to learn the job one part at a time, but I don’t think anybody would want to take on all the hats that I wear right now.”

Steffan’s advice for city staff and council members? “Be available to people, listen to their concerns, and try to make them feel like their opinions are valued. I stress that with my council, so that if somebody contacts them, they take [the concern] seriously, even though it may not be serious to them.”

Steffan debated retiring in the early 1990s, when her husband John became terminally ill. She had already left the school district to spend more time with him. He insisted she keep the position.

“He was always my biggest supporter and a tremendous help — an unpaid city worker. He said, ‘You need to keep doing this. You’ll need it just to keep your mind occupied.’ And he was right; it was kind of a salvation for me that helped me get through [his death].”

Another reason Steffan has remained a city clerk for so long is that she’s good at it. And it helps that she has a good working relationship with the city. “I’ve always said, if I have a council that doesn’t listen to me and takes my direction, I’m gone. But that’s never happened. They don’t get paid. They’re here because they love the city, and they want it to stay the way it is.”