Some say that a year at San Bernardino City Hall could be counted in dog years, the situation is so fraught with political minefields, infighting and financial insecurity. At the very least, one should consider it municipal government boot camp. If that is the case, you could say that San Bernardino City Clerk Gigi Hanna is fire-tested and battleground proven. Twice elected citywide to her position, Hanna spent the past 6 years on the front line of local government. During that time San Bernardino has:
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Had five city managers;
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Filed for and exited from bankruptcy;
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Seen a ten-fold increase in public records requests;
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Endured a terrorist attack on public employees; and
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Survived a divisive Charter amendment campaign, recall election and three initiatives regarding marijuana dispensaries.
In the midst of this, she followed all of the discussions concerning bankruptcy, the charter, employee negotiations, consultant agreements and contracting options for city services. Despite the challenges, Hanna remained a stalwart champion for the community, cheerfully helping residents navigate the complexities of City Hall, and involving herself in those issues that helped bring a sense of normalcy to a chaotic situation. She:
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Revived the Fine Arts Commission, providing a means for local arts groups to survive and gave the community a sense of normalcy during bankruptcy;
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Used partnerships within the community to keep the 60-year-old Sister City program alive despite pressure to disband it;
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Made more than 100 years of documents, including campaign contributions and other information, available online and accessible without a public records request;
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Updated the Municipal Code for the first time since 2010 and made it searchable online;
Hanna is an open government and communications expert with 30 years’ experience in public relations, journalism and government affairs. She holds a B.A. in in Journalism with a minor in Political Science, completed her graduate work in Communications and is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB). She began her career as a reporter, working throughout California for 16 years before transitioning into public relations for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, where she trained its member agencies how to navigate media crises, and was the contract administrator for the agency's City Makeover program, which awarded grants to cities, public agencies and non-profit groups to switch out traditional landscapes to those that were water conserving.
She left MWD to spend her time and energy in her community, and took on the position as Associate Director for the Water Resources Institute at CSUSB. While at the WRI, Hanna served as the communication manager for the statewide Alluvial Fan Task Force, a coalition of developers, fire officials, flood control experts, policymakers, scientists and environmental concerns creating design guidelines and a toolkit for development along alluvial fans, in hopes of preventing the environmental disasters and flood damage caused by development along thee geologically and environmentally sensitive areas.
Seeking even greater connection with her community, Hanna successfully ran for election as City Clerk in 2011 and since has become a Certified Municipal Clerk who mentors several clerks throughout the state. As she has recorded all of the council meetings and most of the closed session discussions, the plight of San Bernardino and its people touched her heart, pushing her to run Mayor, willingly taking a substantial pay cut, to make sure the people of San Bernardino have a voice in their future. Hanna believes it is time to take the city back -- from darkness, from despair and from elements that seek to divide it. We are “SB Strong,” and the time to flex our muscles is now, she believes.