The word used most by people talking about Wendy McCambridge and her time as city clerk in Aurora is professional.
Mayor Richard Irvin mentioned it at this week’s City Council meeting as he presented her with a Mayor’s Award for her four years as city clerk. Clayton Muhammad, the city’s director of communications, said it in announcing she had “revised the standards” for the office in the city.
Ald. Robert O’Connor, at large, said she had a “level of professionalism – par excellence.”
“You leave amazingly big shoes to fill,” Irvin told her.
McCambridge is leaving the city after four years to take a job as the director of Legislative Affairs Special Assistant to the President at the College of DuPage. She will work with the city’s former finance director, Brian Caputo, who is the college’s president.
McCambridge said she “wasn’t looking” for the job, “but it came up.”
“I enjoyed my tenure as city clerk, and I will deeply miss the people I’ve worked with,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the next chapter.”
McCambridge said as city clerk, she realized that there were many things her office had to do that “other people needed or depended on to do their jobs.”
“It might have been a signature, or a seal or a stamp …” she said. “We had to make sure everything is in line so they can do their work.”
One of the areas McCambridge was most visible to the public was as the administrator of the city’s liquor licenses. The mayor is the liquor commissioner who approves new licenses, but the city clerk actually issues the license.
McCambridge often met with applicants early and explained the process to them, even shepherding them through the City Council process. But she said actually coming and getting the license was often the last thing people did, often days or hours before opening.
“I was sometimes the first person (they saw at City Hall), but I was often the last person they saw,” she said.
The city has posted the city clerk position and its requirements on the city’s website.
slord@tribpub.com
