Rebekah Barr on the job as new Sonoma City Clerk

A city clerk is one of those almost-invisible people who makes a city government run: handling papers, making sure the agenda and minutes are recorded, assuring that whatever actions the City Council takes – resolutions, ordinances or other regulation – is recorded and put into place.

For the past 15 years that job has been handled by Gay Johann, who recently announced her retirement. But starting last week, on Aug. 29, Rebekah Barr stepped into the role for the City of Sonoma.

“I love it here,” she said from the second floor offices at the City Hall. “It’s a very different type of town, but has that same community feeling that I like.”

This isn’t her first rodeo. The Madera County native also worked as assistant to the city administrator in her home town, Chowchilla, before moving to Napa in 2010 and becoming city clerk in nearby American Canyon, where she served until 2015. Barr resigned her position in American Canyon following a DUI arrest in February 2015, which occurred well after office hours and in her personal car.

“I was embarrassed,” she said. “I’ve gone through all of the steps needed to do to get past it, as far as legally and personally. I am ready to put my skills back to work and become part of the community.”

For the past year she’s been working as an account executive with iCompass Technologies, a Canadian company that specializes in meeting and records management for city governments. Though the City of Sonoma has no such program at present, Barr’s familiarity with that type of technology may prove valuable should the city move toward more sophisticated organization management.

One of the benefits of such a platform is that city meetings can be recorded, and specific agenda items “bookmarked” so a user can click a link and see what, for example, the council had to say about Agenda Item 6B. A similar technology, Granicus, handles records for the County of Sonoma.

But for the time being, Barr expects things will stay the way they are now. “The style will be a little bit different but the minutes will be the same until such time as a change is made. I can’t foresee that coming anything soon.”

“We did a full recruitment process for the position,” said City Manager Carol Giovanatto. “There were 15 applicants, and we narrowed down the field to five for the full interview process.” After the interviews, there were references and credentials checks, and a background check of the leading candidates.

Mayor Laurie Gallian said that she found Barr an exceptional candidate in the interviews. “She is extremely knowledgeable, very personable, with high marks on service of her particular job. I was very impressed with her qualifications.”

“I think she’s going to be really good for the city and look forward to working with her,” said Councilmember David Cook. “She’s highly qualified, which makes it easier not to have to train someone.”

Barr, 47, will continue to live in Napa with her husband, Derek. Her daughter Austin is just starting college at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and she also has a step-daughter Bailey and a step-son Christopher.

“I really hope I can be part of the community. I have a lot of knowledge and experience that I bring with me; I hope I get the opportunity to show everyone that,” said Sonoma’s new City Clerk, Rebekah Barr.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.