Clerks bring harmony to cities’ history

Westlake Clerk of Council Denise Rosenbaum surpised Bay Village clerk Joan Kemper with a booklet listing the names of every government official in Bay's history, dating back to 1811.

Who says two cities can’t come together for the common good even though they separated more than 100 years ago? A recent exchange between the clerks of council for Bay Village and Westlake proves they can.

In February 2010, a year before Westlake’s Bicentennial, Clerk of Council Denise Rosenbaum began a quest to find every elected official in the city’s 200-year history. As part of her project to pay tribute to the leaders that helped shape the city, Ms. Rosenbaum pored over archived records, newspapers, plat maps and census forms, adding all the names she found to a master spreadsheet.

Shortly after she began, Ms. Rosenbaum showed the unfinished spreadsheet to someone she knew would share her enthusiasm, fellow clerk Joan Kemper of Bay Village. Since both cities share a common beginning as the township of Dover, the officials on Ms. Rosenbaum’s list between 1811 and 1902 belong not just to the history of Westlake, but to Bay Village as well.

Ms. Kemper expressed an interest in obtaining the spreadsheet once Ms. Rosenbaum finished her research, in order to insert her own compilation of the officials that took office after Bay Village split from Dover in 1903.

At the time, the Westlake project was still a work in progress, and the layout of the list was far from final. However, the request did not go unnoted.

Ms. Rosenbaum continued her research throughout 2010 and much of 2011. Once the spreadsheet was completed, the list of Westlake’s government officials was reproduced on a granite plaque and in a corresponding booklet. The plaque was ceremoniously unveiled in the city hall rotunda on Nov. 3, 2011, and after the city’s bicentennial year came to a close, Ms. Rosenbaum recalled the request of Ms. Kemper and took it one step further.

“I thought it would be great to surprise Joan not only with the spreadsheet itself, but with all the Bay Village names already inserted for her,” Ms. Rosenbaum told the Observer. “She works very hard and may not have the time to do it. And since I knew the names were already compiled, it didn’t take long for me to do.”

With the help of some connections at Bay Village City Hall, she obtained the list of government officials from the clerk of council’s office, but without Ms. Kemper’s knowing for whom the information really was needed. Ms. Rosenbaum then inserted the names of the Bay Village Council members, mayors and clerks from the year they seceded, 1903, to the present into the same spreadsheet used for the Westlake project and created a similar booklet to the one published for Westlake.

On Feb. 23, 2012, she, along with members of the Bay Village administration, gathered in the council chambers to surprise Ms. Kemper with the booklet. At first, Ms. Kemper was apprehensive, wondering why all these people had approached her unexpectedly. But that changed to shock and then surprise as Ms. Rosenbaum presented the booklet to her. 

"I was shocked to see Denise walk in because we were due to go to a Northeast Ohio Municipal Clerks Association meeting together that day,” Ms. Kemper recalled, “but I had to cancel due to a busy work schedule.

“Then the story unfolded with the audience of Bay officials Denise picked up along her way to the chambers. It was delightful. I am not surprised, though, because Denise is an extraordinary clerk of council and the type of giving person who would go to the lengths she did to accommodate a fellow clerk.”

Ms. Kemper added that she was truly grateful and appreciative of Ms. Rosenbaum’s gesture, as were Mayor Sutherland and her administration.

While some fine tuning and relevant historical facts will need to be added to the list, Ms. Kemper’s request from almost a year before had been granted and then some.

But the tale of friendship and kindness doesn't end there. While Ms. Rosenbaum secretly prepared the booklet, Ms. Kemper was working on a surprise of her own.

In January of this year, Ms. Kemper gathered materials to nominate Ms. Rosenbaum for the Ohio Municipal Clerks Association “Clerk of the Year” award. The winner will be announced in April.

“Denise has done a terrific job for the past, present and future of the city of Westlake,” Ms. Kemper said. “She could have taken last summer off when council was in recess, but she plugged away to provide something very special for her community.”

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Volume 4, Issue 5, Posted 1:29 PM, 03.06.2012