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Retiring city recorder will leave big shoes to fill in Central Point By Buffy Pollock Nov 07, 2022 12:45 AM A A After more than a quarter century at City Hall, jam-packed with everything from administration duties and serving as the city elections clerk to keeping municipal meetings, council members and every other facet of day-to-day operations on track, Central Point City Recorder Deanna Casey is one election away from her last work week. Truth be told, she always knew she’d work for the city, and once hired, that it was where she’d stay until she retired. Casey, who will retire at the end of the 2022, moved to the Rogue Valley in the early 1980s and remembers driving past the old City Hall location. “I knew this was the place I wanted to be before I ever got the job. When I got out of college, and I was looking for an office job. I was going from retail to office work and was driving around Central Point, looking for a house to buy,” Casey said. “I drove past Central Point City Hall and I was like, ‘Oh, I love that building. That’s where I want to work.’” First sent to Central Point in 1993 through Kelly Temporary Services, Casey — in the only gig she ever got from the agency — would quickly shift from a two-week assignment to six months. “When I was here the first time, they had no permanent position for me, even though they really wanted me to stay. I went on to apply at the county and got a position in the admin office there but kept in touch with employees and kind of was hoping a position would be posted,” said Casey. “Finally, something popped up, but I didn’t get it at first. Then the person who did get the job didn’t last three months.” Former city administrator Jim Bennet offered Casey a permanent spot with the city in 1997, as a planning and administrative secretary. The job quickly evolved to “mostly administrative.” She became city recorder in 2002. Casey received her Master Municipal Clerk designation in 2008 to join a small group of city recorders from around the state with the distinction. Casey credits Bennett, now a city manager for Lisbon, Idaho, as her mentor in “all things” government. “He was my mentor, and he was wonderful to work for,” Casey said. “He taught me everything there was to know. As soon as I was back at City Hall, my plan was always to retire from here. I didn’t want to work anywhere else.” In 2013, Casey was recognized by her peers as Recorder of the Year for the Oregon Association of Municipal Recorders at their annual conference in North Bend. Reaching 25 years last month, Casey has seen a lot of changes in the city, from the size of the city’s footprint and range of services offered to its residents to the style of record-keeping and technology used. “When I first started keeping meeting minutes, I took them on a piece of paper in a notebook. Then we transferred to typewriter, and now everything I do is on the computer,” Casey said. “I definitely haven’t missed having to do things by hand.” Whether she was working low tech or adapting to new software and new governmental procedures, the 60-year-old has been a familiar and reliable force at City Hall. Longtime Mayor Hank Williams, who initiated Casey’s nomination for Recorder of the Year in 2013, has only known Casey as the city’s recorder since taking office in 2002. Williams said her absence would be felt for a long while. “The thing about Deanna, she just does things right the first time. She tells you how something is done, and what to do, and you just know it’s the right way to do things,” Williams said. “She knows what we have to do, what’s coming up. She gets packets to us a week ahead of time. I don’t know anyone else knows their stuff like Deanna does. She’ll be a tough act to follow.” Williams said Casey “sets the tone” and has been an “anchor” for the city for as long as he can remember. Casey is so heavily relied on by city staff, Williams remarked she “had to give us a whole six months’ notice to figure out how to be without her.” “We’re all there to work together and take care of business, even when we don’t all agree one way or the other. And Deanna has been kind of the anchor in the whole thing for a long time now,” said the mayor. “She’s been there to keep up on the straight and narrow, kept us outta trouble from doing stuff wrong. I know we’re all really gonna miss her.” Carol Weir, longtime city recorder for Rogue River, met Casey decades ago when Casey joined a statewide city recorders group. At her own post for nearing 40 years, Weir sympathized with Casey struggling to figure out when to say goodbye. “Deanna has been telling me for a couple years now that she was finally starting to think about it, so I knew she was ready,” Weir said. “It’s hard to know when to move on when you’ve been in this role for so long. You deal with utility customers every month, and when you hear an ambulance going to an address, you need to call and check on them. … There are conferences and events and the day-to-day stuff, but there’s a lot of things you become involved with in between, too.” Weir said Casey was always willing to step up and “lead the charge” in any situation. “Deanna is just so much fun, and she’s such a go-getter. She’s always the first to step up to say, ‘I’ll help with that!’ The city of Central Point has been very lucky to have her all these years.” Donna Torres, who hired Casey for her three-year stint “at county” all those years ago, said she looked forward to all the tales that come with Casey having more free time. Torres credited Casey with introducing some adventure into her own life. “We used to go on little motorcycle rides with our husbands. We both thought, ‘Why don’t we do a riding class and get our own motorcycles?’ We both thought that would be a lot of fun. Well, I crashed and burned and never wanted to get on a bike again,” Torres said with a laugh. “Deanna not only passed the class but went on to get her endorsement and bought a beautiful Honda motorcycle that she would ride to work and take on trips.” Torres wished Casey well with logging off her computer a final time. “We went to lunch and a movie recently. … Three or four times, she grabbed her phone and went out of the movie. I said, ‘Is everything OK? Was it the kids?’ She said, ‘No, it’s work,’” added Torres. “I teased her, ‘You’re gonna have to get a new phone number.’ I don’t think reality has set in for the city yet, that she’ll really be leaving.” Longtime finance department employee Rachel Neuenschwander will take Casey’s place at year’s end. “Replacing Deanna’s institutional knowledge will be difficult,” said City Administrator Chris Clayton. “She has been a mainstay for the city and community for over two and a half decades. Deanna’s strength has always been staffing/supporting the City Council and city manager’s office, and she will be missed tremendously in both areas.” Casey said she’d miss the familiar faces and the community connections even more than the job she’s loved for three decades but she’s excited to travel with her husband and spend more time with her kids and grandkids. “I know I’ll miss working with the people on the day-to-day. I’ve made a lot of friends, and I’ve worked closely with the council members and the mayor,” she said. “Central Point is the best-run city in Southern Oregon … and it’s been a wonderful place to work.” Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 541-776-8784 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.