New Hope’s Retiring Clerk Works Hand-In-Hand With Replacement During Busy Election Season
City staff at New Hope City Hall may not be seeing double, but for the time being, they do have two city clerks working to set up for a busy November general election.
Retiring New Hope City Clerk Valerie Leone, right, sets up voting booths with her replacement, Andrea Phinney, at city hall.
Valerie Leone will retire after 35 years as the city clerk, and she’s busy training in her replacement, Andrea Phinney, who worked for four years in finance.
“I’m very well aware of how lucky I am to have that opportunity to work with the existing clerk and prepare myself and ask ‘Why did you decided to do that, and what was the process?’ and to make sure when it’s just me, that it goes as smooth as it can because of how important it is,” said Phinney, who has had two elections (presidential primary in March and the state/local primary in August) to train with Leone on already.
“The first one, in March, my involvement was pretty minimal, but I did get to shadow,” Phinney said. “Then we just increased my role for the second and this one we’ll just increase it more so I am prepared as I can be.”
Leone said in all of the dozens of elections she’s managed for the city, one thing has changed the most.
“Technology has changed greatly since I came on board, and it just seems to be getting better and better,” she said. “But along with that is voter expectations and scrutiny of elections, so that goes with all of that testing requirements and things.”
Leone is phasing into her retirement, and she said she’ll miss working at city hall and with residents and business owners.
“Residents expect more of their local government,” she said. “We try to make sure that we’re prepared to answer–think in advance of what their issues might be.”
