Carson City Clerk Donesia Gause has announced she will step down from her elected position effective Sunday, April 11, after the Riverside City Council appointed her to the same post there earlier this week.
Gause, a former member of the Carson City Council, will make $180,000 a year in Riverside. Her first day is Monday, according to a press release from Riverside. She will replace former longtime City Clerk Colleen Nicol, who retired.
“The City Clerk’s Office plays a very important role in guaranteeing the public has access to information about issues facing our city and ensuring our local elections are conducted in a professional manner,” Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said. “I look forward to our residents benefitting from Donesia Gause’s leadership on these issues.”
The Carson City Council will discuss at its April 20 meeting whether to appoint a successor for the remainder of Gause’s term — she was reelected unopposed in 2018 — or hold an expensive special election.
Congrats to Donesia Gause-Aldana on taking her oath of office as Riverside’s new City Clerk! Read more about Gause and her role in the press release here: https://t.co/w93do6lSfr pic.twitter.com/G9YjgtfngB
— Erin Edwards (@ee_edwards12) April 6, 2021
Gause has more than two decades of experience in municipal government. She began her career as an analyst in the Long Beach City Clerk’s Office before serving as deputy city clerk in Compton for three years.
She was appointed as city clerk in Carson in 2012, but was ousted from office in March 2015 by voters in favor of former Mayor Jim Dear.
She was appointed to the City Council just a few months later, however, to serve the final 19 months of Al Robles’s unexpired council term after he was appointed mayor.
Gause reclaimed the city clerk’s seat in 2016 after voters recalled Dear and reinstated her, prompting her to relinquish the council seat.