Dateline Carson – The new City Clerk of Carson, a familiar looking fella who was the Mayor of Carson for almost a dozen years, until last Tuesday, smoothly has transitioned from his roaming-about job to a slightly-more-tied-down position.
He is “somewhat” less mobile as the city clerk, says Jim Dear, who will increase his salary nearly fivefold to $117,000.
Not for long, though.
“I am the department head and policymaker,” he said. “I have a five-person staff, too, more of a staff than I had as mayor.
“The office can run when I step out,” said Mr. Dear, who defeated the incumbent city clerk, Donesia Gause, by 350 votes this month.
“I still can go to community events fairly regularly.”
The daily rhythms of Mr. Dear’s new office are starkly different from Hizzoner days.
“It’s like this,” he explained. “The city clerk is busy when things like elections are going on. Then the office is very, very busy.”
Another even busier task is occupying, if not monopolizing, the busy, packed-to-the-walls mind of Mr. Dear.
“Besides elections, petitions for a National Football League stadium was submitted on my first day in office.”
In the last few months, an ever so huge matter – a burning national spotlight – has crowded onto the city of Carson stage.
Talk is of the potential arrival—in ’16 –of the Chargers from San Diego and the Raiders from Oakland in instantly prominent Carson.
As Mr. Dear was trying out his new desk and chair last week, more than 15,000 petitions favoring an 80,000-seat stadium were delivered to his doorstep. If 8100 of them can be verified –probably a 30-day chore — Carson will have taken its biggest step toward growing into the home of one or two NFL franchises.
They still are a thousand figurative miles from achieving that goal, however.
(To be continued)
