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Published on 12/08/1999 All articles from this issue

Pat Dowd celebrates 20 years as clerk of the Hills

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By Leslie K. Martin / Town Crier Staff Writer

As of last week, Pat Dowd had served 20 years as city clerk for Los Altos Hills. That means that Dowd has taken minutes through approximately 480 city council meetings, and has broken in eight city managers. She is dedicated to her job and town staff.

In a town where residents and councilmembers take distinct sides on issues, she remains amazingly nonpartisan.

Dowd, 54, was born in Washington, D.C. She attended Wheeling College, a small Jesuit school in West Virginia. In the summers she worked on the Hill, once for a New York congresswoman, and later for the senior Senator Gore.

In 1971 she moved to California with her former husband, a Navy pilot who was stationed at Moffet Field. Since, Dowd said, "California was too pretty to move back," she took a job in the Development Office at Stanford. "I enjoyed everything about the job, the people, working on the campus, everything." But after seven years, she felt it was time to move on.

Dowd responded to an ad, and joined Los Altos Hills' staff in 1979. She's been there ever since. "It's been a lot of fun. Fun councils, nice people, great staff. It's gone by really fast." About her love for the job, Dowd said, "In larger cities, one clerk may do nothing but agendas. I get to deal a little bit with everything. I get to know the people in town, I've seen their kids grow up. It's kind of fun, it's like family."

Does she like politics? Her response is a tight-lipped shake of the head. How does she remain neutral?

"You just keep it at a certain level that you don't get involved. It's just bad policy to do it any other way. I don't like it when it gets nasty. This is a real team effort, we're way too small for a prima donna."

About Dowd's commitment to the job, Mayor Elayne Dauber said, "Everyone gives Pat work. All the work of the town gets dumped on her. You never see her do it, it always gets done, her desk is always clear. She rarely has files on her desk, but no matter what you ask her for, without getting out of her chair, she has it. No one can figure out how she does it." Dauber jokingly pleads with Dowd to come and organize her home. "She's a phenomenon," Dauber said. "We have massive staff changes and she is the one who knows where everything is. She has been the solid glue that has held the town together."

"It's a wonderful life," Dowd said. But, she said with a laugh, "it's getting so bad, people come in and look and say, 'You're still here?' The one thing I know - I won't do another 20 years."

But residents remain grateful for whatever time she does give.