What do you call a person who works all day, and then twice a month reads several hundred pages of detailed information to prepare for an after-hours meeting?
Oh, and who takes detailed notes on who’s present at the meeting, and how they vote on each issue on the agenda.
Not forgetting she’s actually the person who puts together the agenda, taking into consideration the needs of taxpayers, city council members, consultants, suppliers and city employees affected by the outcome of the meeting?
These people are known as city clerks, and they’re among the hardest-working employees in any municipal government, large or small.
For the last 14 and a half years, that’s been Karyl Bonjour’s world.
But on January 1, 2025, she’ll say goodbye to all that and begin a well-deserved retirement from her work with the City of Webster City.
Born in Clarion, Bonjour grew up in Dows, graduating from Dows High School in 1979. She attended the University of Northern Iowa for a semester and there met her future husband, Chuck Bonjour. Both were planning a career in education.
The two were married in 1982, and shortly afterward began the inevitable tour of Iowa school districts that typifies the career path of educators and administrators like Chuck Bonjour.
The journey took them first to Murray, where Chuck Bonjour was a classroom teacher for eight years. Next stop was Dumont, where he was promoted to his first job in administration — that of elementary school principal. Bigger districts mean more responsibility, and he followed such opportunities to West Branch for three years, then took a transfer to Webster City Community School District in 2001. He retired in 2015 after 14 years as principal at Sunset Heights Elementary School.
Educational careers tend to run in some families and that’s certainly the case with the Bonjours. Daughter Paige is a special education teacher in Jackson, Minnesota. Son Caleb is presently superintendent of Gladbrook-Reinbeck Schools in Reinbeck.
In addition to being wife and mom, Karyl Bonjour worked in a number of positions before beginning a career in local government. Her first job, in 1980, was at The Dows Advocate, her hometown newspaper. Her responsibilities were the same as those of many small-town newspaper employees of the era: typesetting with a linotype machine that produced “hot type,” laying out advertising, and helping patrons who came in to place wedding or death announcements, purchase classified or display advertising, or start, suspend or end subscriptions.
Papers like The Advocate were delivered by kids on bicycles or on foot, and were as much a part of small-town life as dollar movies and penny candy. It was the era when newspapers were made of newsprint and ink; there was no talk of “online editions” in the land.
A series of successively more responsible positions in banks and medical clinics prepared her for the careful, detailed demeanor demanded by the work of city clerks. After moving to Webster City, she took a job at Osweiler’s before being hired as utility clerk by the City of Webster City in December 2003.
She worked in this capacity, learning the various positions and responsibilities in the utility office, until she was named city clerk in June 2010.
People aren’t born to be city clerks, so one of Karyl Bonjour’s first actions after her promotion was to enroll in the Iowa Municipal Professionals Academy, held each summer in Ames. Attended by city clerks and finance officers from across Iowa, the Academy teaches essential skills for the specialized work of city clerks, and provides an efficient way of staying current with changes in budgeting and reporting requirements.
Never content to simply meet minimum standards, she made the decision — and a major commitment of her personal time and energy — to become a certified city clerk, a process requiring three years of study. To reach this objective, she joined the Iowa Municipal Finance Officers Association. An important aspect of IMFOA training and certification is its municipal officer code of ethics. City clerks are entrusted with a great measure of public trust in their work, and the code guides them in ethical methods and decision-making. The tenets of the code are peer-enforced.
She was appointed to the IMFOA board of directors in 2017, and has served on the board continuously since then. She’s currently board president.
To what or whom do city clerks report to and what do they do?
“I answer to the city council, but work more closely with the city manager and staff,” she said.
This is common in cities like Webster City, which are run on the council-manager at-large form of government.
As to their duties, city clerks are a city’s official record-keeper, and there’s no shortage of records to keep. The most common ones include minutes of city council meetings, including ordinances, resolutions, roll call votes, agreements, abstracts, deeds, easements, proceedings for bondings and official publications. There are also reports that must be filed with the State of Iowa, and accounts payable records.
Bonjour points out a critical separation of powers at City Hall.
“You can’t have the same person sending invoices, and writing and signing checks,” she said.
The city clerk works hand in hand with the finance director to ensure the city’s financial business gets done.
She is proud of her attendance record during her tenure; she only remembers missing work for personal or family emergencies such as the arrival of grand babies, illness or a death in the family.
Karyl Bonjour took her responsibilities in city government seriously, and sought ever-higher levels of achievement through continuing education, and professional certification. She made her work look easy when you observed her in action at city council meetings, quietly keeping the council on track and ensuring it followed required rules of order.
Her boss for less than a year, John Harrenstein, is a man who’s worked with a number of city clerks in several cities before being appointed city manager in Webster City in January, 2024.
He knows what makes a good city clerk.
“She’s a model of professionalism and service,” Harrenstein said. “On her own initiative, she took on a difficult job, took additional training and developed her skills over time. Her attention to detail, and focus on service to citizens is exemplary.”
View this article as it originally appeared in the Daily Freeman-Journal.
Last modified: December 31, 2024