Retiring City Clerk Joan Flynn helped steer H.B.’s digital revolution

When Joan Flynn became Huntington Beach city clerk 12 years ago, the office had not yet been digitized.

Paper files and documents filled the room. City Council meetings were viewable after the fact — on videotape.

“Everything was done by hand,” recalled Flynn, who is retiring June 6. “Everything was in paper packets.”

Flynn, 64, and her team have since implemented new technologies and automation. Now, most documents are available online or by email. City Council meetings are broadcast live and archived on the municipal website.

Assistant City Clerk Robin Estanislau, who has been in her current job since 2005, will serve as interim clerk until the November election. So far, Estanislau is the only declared candidate seeking to follow Flynn.

Estanislau said she has “very big shoes to fill.”

“Joan encourages professional growth, and I would guess that many of her colleagues and subordinates would classify her as a mentor, myself included,” Estanislau said. “She is ethical and trustworthy, demonstrates integrity and has created a warm, yet professional, work environment that attracts both internal and external visitors. Joan never fails to recognize the accomplishments of her employees, an action that has helped build positive working relationships.”

In her time in the office, three of Flynn’s employees became city clerks in other cities, while others were promoted to managerial roles within the Huntington Beach government ranks.

“I wanted to create an environment where people were nurtured and grew in their professions,” she said. “We are considered one of the best departments to work for in the city.”

Flynn became city clerk in 2004, after six years in various city roles.

Ongoing health issues and “quality-of-life concerns” prompted her retirement.

“I love this job, but physically, I’m just exhausted,” the Huntington Beach resident said.

She said she seldom takes a day off and is consistently on call. She has missed a couple of council meetings because of her health, she said.

“The last thing I do before I go to bed is check my emails, and I’ll also check them throughout the night,” she said. “Do they expect us to be that responsive? Probably not. But I think, as an elected official and a department head, there’s also this expectation of being responsible all the time.”

Her main responsibilities include attending council meetings, preparing meeting agendas and minutes, keeping legislative records, contracts and official bonds, serving as custodian of the city seal, overseeing elections, managing public records and certifying records.

Mayor Jim Katapodis said Flynn is wonderful at instructing candidates for office on how to fill out paperwork and assisting constituents who are “not so tech savvy how to use the web.”

“She’s been talking about retiring for a couple years now,” he said. “She’s going to have fun. She works hard and deserves to have a great retirement.”

In 2008, after Flynn saw her fellow city employees affected by the economic downturn, she created the HEART Pantry, an employee-to-employee service, where food and other household items, such as toiletries and pet supplies, could be shared. HEART, discontinued at the employees’ request in 2014, stood for Huntington Employees Are Really Terrific.

“While our employees were still working, many of their spouses lost jobs, as did parents and adult children, so one paycheck was being stretched to support multigenerations,” Flynn said. “In my family, a few lost their homes and jobs.

“My kids and grandchild moved back home with me. I knew having a job didn’t mean that our employees were necessarily A-OK, due to all of the other economic factors.”

The city clerk said she tried to maintain service levels during the recession, even with a 55% reduction in staff.

Mayor Pro Tem Dave Sullivan said Flynn’s office has “been one of integrity and responsiveness.”

Flynn said some of the biggest city issues to come through her office have been the consideration to make spaying and neutering of pets mandatory, the plastic bag ban and the proposed desalination plant.

“Those meetings just went on and on and on,” she said. “There were scores and scores of letters that we had to manage.”

In retirement, she is looking forward to marrying her fiance of 17 years.

“He’s been retired for a few years now,” she said of the former city employee. “He’s been waiting for me.”

The couple plan to travel the United States, which will be easier to do now that she’s not spending so many Monday evenings in City Council meetings.

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Brittany Woolsey, brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey