30 Years with Yucca Valley: An interview with Lesley Copeland

If you have been in Yucca Valley Town Hall or Town Council meetings you probably know Lesley Copeland. For over twelve years she has served as the Town Clerk, but her career in local government began almost two decades earlier. Lesley is retiring after 30 years with the Town, and she came into the Z107.7 Newsroom to talk about what has changed in that time, her plans for retirement, and what she likes the most about living in Yucca Valley.

Listen to the interview here:

Lesley Copeland
I’m Lesley Copeland. I grew up here in Yucca Valley. My parents moved myself with them out here in the late 60s and we came from Long Beach.

We just wanted to get out of the rat race. My dad worked for Douglas Aircraft and so he commuted for another six months while we lived out here and family thought we were crazy for moving out to the middle of nowhere. I grew up here, went to school in Yucca Valley and all the local schools, married a high school sweetheart and he lived next door.

His name’s Tyler and we have two sons and they’re grown and doing their thing as an adult so they’re doing well.

Robert Haydon
Since you’ve lived out here for this long, do you ever say that Long Beach is your hometown?

Growing up a “desert kid”

Lesley Copeland
No, it’s always here. I mean, I always kind of placed that I wasn’t born here but starting here so young and it’s, I really don’t know a whole lot anywhere else.

It was fun growing up a desert kid.

We never learned how to roller skate or anything like that because we didn’t have sidewalks but you know, I could say “I know how to ride a horse and a mini bike” and I don’t know, it was good. I think we did well in the fresh air with our animals and things. We had chickens and rabbits and lizards and all sorts of stuff at the house.

Robert Haydon
When you went back to Long Beach, did anybody ever ask you questions about what it was like living out in the desert and that kind of stuff?

Lesley Copeland
We always would be compared with, oh, “you’re from the desert.” We didn’t have the same kind of clothes as they did or and my brother and I, we spoke recently about this and we kind of both had the same feeling that we were a little bit different and I don’t think we appreciated the desert as we did until now that we’re older.

Once we moved out and kind of established ourselves here, we found that more and more people were coming out to visit. They brought their motorcycles and enjoyed the outdoors and free and easy lifestyle we kind of had here that was pretty liberating. And now a lot of my uncles and that side of the family live here as well and they’ve raised their families and it’s been a good move.

Now when we see other people coming out to the area and then doing basically the same thing, starting to enjoy not having neighbors an arm lengths away and things like that, that it’s great to see people blossom with that.

Robert Haydon
Yeah, that’s an interesting way of putting it. I think the desert is a place that seems to be ripe for that type of growth from people.

You’ve lived here for a long time, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the changes you’ve seen from when you’re growing up here to now?

Lesley Copeland
One of the biggest things, of course, is we have a lot more traffic now but when we first moved up, the main signal in town was there at Highway 247 and 62 and it was just one flashing red light with wires strung across to each corner.

So that’s probably the biggest change and, you know, just little mom-and-pop grocery stores. Everybody kind of knew you when you went into our favorite hangout on payday which was The Trail Burger. We went to, that was a big thing, you know, being able to go out to eat on payday night and then from there, then we’d go over to the grocery store and get had a list that we would use for the next two weeks and it was pretty, pretty simple life.

Beginning Public Service

My dad he worked for Hi-Desert Water District as a meter reader and he started that position at the late 60’s. He ended up working his way through to General Manager. So public service is kind of in my background there.

Robert Haydon
Is that where you got your introduction into municipal work or public service as you said it?

Lesley Copeland
Yeah, I kind of knew that. It was nice to see that there was something steady but then there was also that commitment of needing to be where you’re supposed to be and say what you’re going to do and follow up with that and I feel like I have a hard work ethic and I did get that mostly from my parents, of course.

Robert Haydon
Do you want to talk a little bit about your journey into your position now, which is the Town Clerk, but did you start as a Town Clerk or how did you start in government in general?

Lesley Copeland
I had just left one of my jobs that I had while my kids were growing up and a friend of mine said, “Hey, if you have an extra set of hands, can you come help us? We’re migrating our finance system from one system to another and you’re such a whiz bang at 10 key and can you help us with a data entry?”

So I went there and helped out for a couple months and then a position opened up, was able to apply, got the position that was in the finance department in 1996 and then I worked in finance for about four years, transferred then over to community services and recreation, got introduced to community relations and that’s where I did a lot of training, crisis communication, disaster planning.

It was just interesting working with the public and everything and then I realized once my kids ended up in college and away from the house, it’s like, okay, well, did I miss anything? What should I do? So I decided to go to school online full-time, graduated with a Bachelors in Public Administration while I was working full time.

Partway through that, I was actually was with Councilmember (Jim) Schooler who was my Director/Supervisor at the time in Community Services. He and I sat down and he kind of walked me through that whole process of where I see myself and that’s where the thought of City Clerk or Town Clerk came. So I decided to go to clerk school. That was another couple of years of two week sessions. It wasn’t full-time but it was and that was through UC Riverside.

In 2013, our clerk retired. I was already serving as a Deputy Clerk at that time and then just kind of moved into this clerk position and it’s been fantastic. And also it was fun to kind of be in the hub in the middle of everything.

What does a Town Clerk do?

Robert Haydon
Well, if you could briefly describe what a Town Clerk does, you know, I’m sure a lot of people hear about it but don’t know exactly what happens day to day.

Lesley Copeland
So a Town Clerk is often misthought of as “I’m the person sitting behind the desk answering the phone” type of thing. And it’s partly there but mostly what a Town Clerk does is the scribe. It’s like an old – maybe not the oldest profession but one of the oldest – being a scribe of what is happening and what’s going on in the community at that time. You record-keep, you take notes, you see what’s going on, you keep track of the laws.

So any ordinances that have been passed in the city that has to be done in a certain way. So there’s elections, it’s also we want to make sure that whatever the city does for their government, their policy, their business meetings, everything is done and decisions are made in a transparent manner. Whether it’s record keeping, minutes, agendas, the Brown Act, Public Records Act, all that kind of legislation that lends towards transparency is ran through the clerk’s office.

There’s something in government where you have a triangle. You have a set triangle where you have the town council or city council, they provide the policy and they set that policy. You have the town manager or city manager that puts that policy into place.

That third side of the triangle is the clerk to make sure that that’s all done legally and in a transparent manner. So I’m also the records manager and a lot of people come to the clerk’s office and say, can you find what happened regarding a certain topic? Can you find a contract?

I mean, there’s just all sorts of things. It’s not just the meetings. There’s other things.

Of course, we have our ordinances, resolutions, we have whatever action it is. And there could be things where maybe they want information, but that really isn’t public. I mean, each case is different.

Each request is different. Not everything is cut and dry.

Robert Haydon
It sounds a little like you’re a detective or a journalist, you know, having to dig into some things and try to find, you know, like the truth of what people are looking for. Do you find that stuff interesting or fun to do?

Lesley Copeland
Very much so. You want to try to dispel some of the misinformation. You know, I heard that this and everybody, they kind of get uptight about that and irritated.

Well, hopefully if they come in and they ask questions and hopefully my goal is to obviously help them say, no, let me walk you through that and give them that correct information with the backup to say, rest assured, this is going to be okay for you. You do have to listen a lot. And I think that’s the biggest part is just to listen, see what they’re looking for, help if you can.

Sometimes you can’t. And hopefully the information that you do give them will at least let them know that they’ve been heard.

How has Yucca Valley changed?

Robert Haydon
We talked a little bit about how the city’s changed. How’s the government? How’s Yucca Valley or the city government’s changed a little bit since you’ve been working in it?

I know you’ve had a lot of different roles in there. Is there something that’s striking to you in the last few years?

Lesley Copeland
You know, in a big picture, we still have the council manager organization as far as how the governance is created. That has not changed since incorporation. You know, along the way, of course, the council does listen to the public on what they’re requesting and what they feel is important in the community.

Hopefully that the policy, the direction between that and the guidance that is on law, sometimes the town can’t do something because maybe there’s something at the state level that’s keeping that from happening. So there’s just that fine line of trying to make sure that we’re taking consideration on what the public is looking for and guide that the best we can to kind of get a good balance between their request and what can be done with in the local laws.

Robert Haydon
I’ve only been here for six or seven years. And so I came here right when the Airbnb thing was happening. And so that’s been really dominant in my time here of knowing that a lot of ordinances and change and other things are coming in through that.

Is there something like that that’s happened in the last couple decades that you can think of that are sort of like those “bellwether” style changes?

A new energy in Yucca Valley

Lesley Copeland
You know, you hit on something there with the, when we had people during the shutdown, they’re coming out to have fresh air and getting away from people. Let’s work where it’s beautiful if we can work remotely. And I think we ended up with a lot of creative artists, musicians, professional developers, everything, everybody that kind of came out here brought a new vibrance to the area.

Since I’ve lived in Yucca, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such energy that is in the area right now. We have new business owners coming in, opening up small businesses in our community, bringing new ideas. And I think it’s just only going to continue.

So that’s a good thing.

Rediscovering a creative side

Robert Haydon
Well, that leads me to my next question. I know that you are here chatting with me because you announced your retirement. Congratulations.

What are you looking forward to post retirement?

Lesley Copeland
I’m actually looking to revisit my creative side. I think being a clerk for as long as I have and working in government, you get to a point where, especially as a city clerk, you have to be on the straight and narrow as far as following laws, following what needs to happen and how it needs to happen. You stay close to the process every time.

And before that, I had a more creative side. And I think I kind of squelched that and put that to the side. So I’m looking forward to, I have an art studio.

I’d like to get going in that again. Being outdoors, music, all sorts of, can’t wait.

Robert Haydon
Are we going to see your studio on the Highway 62 art tours here in the next couple years?

Lesley Copeland
I got a lot of work to do before that. But no, you never know. Maybe.

Robert Haydon
Can I ask what your medium is or what you like to dabble in?

Lesley Copeland
I like to watercolor. That’s probably my main thing. As of right now, I usually have a crocheting project near me most all the time.

So that’s kind of what I kind of do, but it’s not super creative, really. It’s just something to keep my hands busy. But I don’t know.

I’ve been looking at different things and something triggers and says, oh, I can try that. The lino art, that sounds really interesting to me. I love henna design.

So maybe if I can put something in that in the middle of art or watercolor, put it together, that would be interesting to try to find that.

Robert Haydon
I know you’ll be out of government, but where would you like to see Yucca? And I’m assuming you’re going to be spending your time here in retirement. How would you like to see Yucca grow or what do you expect to see?

Looking to the Future of Yucca Valley

Lesley Copeland
If I could wiggle my nose and have, you know, that perfect community, I would like to continue to have a lot of new businesses in town, small, maybe not all restaurants, but yet that does seem to be the big gathering areas, eating establishments. But I do, I love the little small shops and things that tend to pop up. I wish, I think one of my gripes in town, and it’s just not in town, it’s everywhere, is trash.

I just, I don’t like seeing the trash on the side of the road. So I don’t know. You might see me out there with my orange vest on when my picking up trash along the road.

Robert Haydon
I really appreciate you coming in and chatting with me about this. Is there anything that I hadn’t touched on in questions you want to sort of talk about as far as Yucca Valley or even the position of town clerk or government or anything you’ve been involved with here?

Lesley Copeland
Well, just in general, it’d be nice to maybe get the word out on what is a town clerk or city clerk. Every city needs to have an official city clerk. It’s in the California Government Code.

So in that California Government Code, there’s responsibilities that the clerk is required to do. And it’s interesting because, like I said, when you say you’re a city clerk, it doesn’t resonate on really what it is. So the California Municipal Clerks Association, it’s like 400 of your best friends.

Because you’re in a unique position, sometimes you’re alone. You have ethical questions. You are asked certain things that you’re always wondering, like, wow, where does this fall in which regulation are you needing to follow in this?

And so you have a good outreach in California on being able to give that service to the community. I would suggest if anyone is looking for a high customer service type of job, but is also a critical component of that organization, clerking is just a great career.

Robert Haydon
Well, I’m going to put you on the spot one last time here on this. And I’m going to ask, what’s your favorite thing in Yucca Valley? What’s your favorite part of Yucca Valley?

Lesley Copeland
I love how the community comes together whenever it’s needed. We’ve had some disasters. We’ve had some unfortunate things that happen in our community.

But it just seems like everyone rallies together. And you don’t always see that in a bigger city. And I think that’s good.

I think we tend to get away from that at times. We get in our own little world, our little social media world. But I think once you start really looking at the humanity of what we have in our community and how we are unique and close to our environment, just it brings out the good in people.

So maybe the good they didn’t even realize they had.

Robert Haydon
Well, Lesley Copeland, thanks so much for coming in and chatting with me. And real quick, how many years have you been with the Town of Yucca Valley in total?

Lesley Copeland
I am just shy of 30 years.

Robert Haydon
Congratulations!

Lesley Copeland
Thank you.

The post 30 Years with Yucca Valley: An interview with Lesley Copeland appeared first on Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree.