Overview: The Mayor and Council of San Bernardino have approved an employment agreement with Lopez, who has served as Interim City Clerk since April 2021. Lopez began her career with the city in 2003 and has worked in the City Clerk’s Office for the past 20 years. The City Clerk serves as the City’s filing officer for various documents, keeps records, and attends all meetings of the Mayor and City Council. Lopez stated that she is honored to be in the position and that her goal is to make people feel comfortable coming to the office for assistance.
Alyssah Hall
The City of San Bernardino announced Telicia Lopez as city clerk in October. The mayor and city council approved an employment agreement with Lopez, who had served as interim city clerk since April 2025. The city clerk role is one of three positions that is hired directly by the mayor and city council who voted 6-1 in favor of approving Lopez’ contract with Councilmember Treasure Ortiz voting no and Sandra Ibarra absent.
Lopez has served as Chief Deputy City Clerk since 2021. She began her career with San Bernardino in 2003, including the past 20 years in the city clerk’s office. The city clerk serves as the city’s filing officer for campaign statements, statements of economic interest, appeals, and as a passport acceptance facility. The City Clerk also keeps all records, papers, books, and other documents, attends all meetings of the Mayor and City Council, and keeps minutes of all Council meetings.
“It is surreal and it’s exciting because I didn’t expect to be here…When I applied for the job in business registration, I came from being a parking enforcement officer, and so I knew as an inspector that was something that it seemed like would be an easy transition for me, because it was enforcement,” Lopez said.
“It’s nice to look at where I came from…I grew up in San Bernardino and went to school here. I feel honored to be in the position,” Lopez continued.
Lopez started at the clerk’s office in 2005 and was onboarded as a part-time inspector, before becoming full time around 2006. In 2012, before the city filed for bankruptcy, many of the staff knew that the bankruptcy was coming and a majority of them left. At the time, the city had recently hired Gigi Hanna as their new city clerk, and Lopez had applied for the business registration manager position; she was selected in May of 2012.
The city clerk lost her assistant clerk around the time of the bankruptcy in 2012, and because of the city’s financial situation the position wasn’t filled until about 2017. During this time Lopez wasn’t focused on clerk functions, but through working with Hanna, Lopez started to enjoy learning about different government procedures such as how resolutions and ordinances worked. Lopez had asked Hanna if she could start training to go in the direction of becoming a clerk. In 2013, Lopez was sent to basic clerk training which further sparked her interest in clerk work. In 2016, Lopez began technical training for clerks which is about 120 hours focusing on elections, records and other facets of the clerk’s office. Lopez completed her training in March 2017 and received her certified municipal clerk license in June of 2022.
“To see myself having come in and not really saying, ‘hey, one day, I want to be the clerk’, and at this point, being selected as a clerk, I’m truly honored. It’s just exciting to know that you can work hard and have it pay off,” Lopez shared.
Lopez said that often the city clerk’s office is many citizens’ first stop for information and a lot of the job includes directing them and helping them to find the information they need. Lopez said it has always been a goal of hers to make people feel comfortable to come in and ask questions in order to get the assistance that they need.
Lopez has always been a natural problem solver and a person who enjoys helping and serving others. She really liked working for the city and having the ability to alleviate people’s stress by helping them with situations such as a death in the family and helping them get different documents taken care of.
With the special election coming up on Nov. 4, Lopez stated that the City of San Bernardino still has their voting box in front of the city clerk office. The box is located in front of their entrance at 201 North E street building A.
This is something that they have ongoing with San Bernardino County, and is helpful for voters. Lopez said that before, they used to have the voting box in their office, which made voting a bit more difficult and inaccessible.
“The city clerk, for one, we’re impartial, because we are the elections official. We’re the record keeper. We’re facilitating communication and information between the public, internal customers and our council.”
Lopez stressed how important it is for the clerk’s office to provide information and be a resource for the public. “The role is really being there to facilitate transparency, facilitate the work getting done and helping people to find what they need in government agencies,” Lopez continued.