For a better part of three decades, Donna Norris has torn each page off her calendar waiting for the year 2017 to arrive.
The year is not a milestone birthday for her, nor is it an anniversary of some sort.
It’s the year she has chosen to retire as Chula Vista’s city clerk.
“I’ve known for probably 30 years that I was going to retire this year,” Norris said.
Norris said she remembers when her dying mother told her to live her life.
Norris said her mother never got to enjoy retirement, so Norris said she knew she had to do so herself.
“From the time I started working at the city of San Diego I knew if I could get to age 55, I could retire at 55,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing.”
Norris turns 55 on Oct. 3, a day before her official retirement date, but she is using all of her vacation time and is leaving the city June 23.
She will spend the next month and a half camping her way up to Seattle, then take an Alaskan cruise and, lastly, spend time in Canada.
“I don’t know how to pack for that long of a vacation,” she said.
Norris has been Chula Vista’s city clerk for the past 10 years, working a total of 18 years in the City Clerk’s Office and 32 years in a career that started in the city of San Diego.
She said as the liaison between the public and the government, she hopes to leave with a reputation of good customer service.
“I went in (government) not knowing, not understanding that there was this negative perception of government,” she said. “It just became my goal to change that perception, one customer at a time for 32 years. I don’t know that I succeeded but truthfully that has been a driver of mine for all these years.
“I think we’ve surprised a lot of people. I wish I can say that I’ve made an impact.”
She said her career as a city clerk came out of nowhere, an opportunity she did not expect but fully enjoyed.
Norris started her governmental career working in the water department in the city of San Diego. It was there she said her love of public service grew. After a short stay there she worked in the finance department in the city of La Mesa.
She then got hired as a secretary in the Chula Vista City Clerk’s Office.
She was thrown into the fire a month into her job because the deputy city clerk at that time had passed away. She immediately had to learn how to write agendas, and learn how to do the minutes and help the city clerk.
She then became more interested in the job, attended classes and took any training that was available. When the city clerk job opened up, she went for it.
