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City Clerk Sharyl Honstein 

 E-mail: shonstein@cityofbisbee.com  

 Phone: (520) 432-6012   

Deputy City Clerk Gloria Gonzalez
E-mail: ggonzalez@cityofbisbee.com
Phone: (520) 432-6000 ext: 100

Office Assistant Adel Lewis

E-mail: alewis@cityofbisbee.com

Phone:  (520) 432-6000 ext:  111

How do I obtain a copy of a public record?

Copies of public records are available through Records Requests in the City Clerk's office. Depending on your intended use, you may also need to complete an Affidavit of Commercial Purpose. Once a citizen has filled out a Records Request, the Clerk's office routes the request to the proper department. Upon receiving the information requested by the citizen, the Clerk's office will inform the citizen when the record is ready to be picked up. The Clerk's office charges twenty cents per sheet for copying and may charge for research. Payment is upon receipt of the records. For further information about Records Requests, please contact the Clerk's office at (520) 432-6000.

 

When does the City Council meet?

The Bisbee City Council meets every first and third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 118 Arizona Street , Bisbee , Arizona .

 

How can I find out what is on the agenda for council meetings?

The agenda for each regularly scheduled Council meeting, or any special session at which an ordinance is to be considered, are available at City Hall at least 96 hours prior to the meeting. Agendas for other sessions of the Council require posting at City Hall at least twenty-four hours before the meeting. Agendas are also posted here, as well as via e-mail from the Clerk's office. To obtain a copy of Council agendas via e-mail, call 432-6000 and ask for the Deputy City Clerk. The agenda is also placed on the city's new government Channel 5 for Bisbee's television audience.

 

Are the Council meetings televised?

Regular sessions, special sessions, and work sessions of the Bisbee City Council are broadcast live on the new government channel, Channel 5. A video tape of the Regular session is shown at 10:00 a.m. the day after a Council meeting (first and third Wednesdays), also on Channel 5.

 

What kind of government does the City of Bisbee have?

The City of Bisbee has a council/manager form of government with a directly elected mayor and six council members, two from each of three wards.

 

How often are the Mayor and Council elected?

The mayor of Bisbee is elected every two years, in even numbered years. The council members are elected for four-year terms, one from each ward every two years.

 

How do I register to vote? Where do I vote?

Voter registration forms are available at City Hall, the Copper Queen Library, the County Recorder's Office and the County Elections Office.

 

Bisbee residents are the only voters eligible to vote in City of Bisbee elections. As the city contracts with Cochise County for election services and equipment, polling places may vary depending on when the election is held. Contact the Cochise County Recorder's office for information about your polling place for a specific election.

 

What is the Bisbee City Charter? Does every city have one?

Article XIII of the Arizona Constitution and the Arizona Revised Statutes provide the guidelines for a Charter government. Any city with a population of more than three thousand five hundred persons may frame a charter for its own government as long as it is consistent with the Constitution and the laws of the state. Once a charter is written by a group of citizens, called freeholders, an election must be held to approve the Charter. Bisbee became a Charter city in 1988. Changes to the Charter can only be made by submitting an amendment to the qualified electors of the city during a general or special election.

 

Where can I look at a copy of the City Code?

Copies of city documents, such as the City Code , the City Charter and the Zoning Code are available for reference purposes in the Information Center, located on the first floor of City Hall. Interested parties may either read a hard copy of the document or access the document on the Laser Fiche system. Copies are also available at the Copper Queen Library.

 

City Clerk's Office

The Office of the City Clerk includes City Clerk Sharyl Honstein, Deputy City Clerk Gloria Gonzalez and Office Assistant Adel Lewis.

The City of Bisbee has had a City Clerk since it was first incorporated in 1902. After the Mayor and Council were selected, it was the job of the 1902 Council to select a City Clerk. Today, under the Bisbee City Charter, the City Clerk is appointed by the City Manager with the approval of the City Council and is responsible to the Mayor and Council. Back in the early 1900's, the City Clerk was responsible for the records of the city and also for city elections just like the City Clerk of today. While the records of yesterday were handwritten and later typewritten, today's agendas and minutes, ordinances and resolutions are prepared on computers and, while paper records are still maintained, records are now scanned and available for staff and the public in the City's Information Center.

The City Clerk's Office is the information hub for the city by being the custodian of city records. The City Clerk is responsible for the minutes of all the meetings of the Mayor and Council. The City Clerk's Office responds in a timely manner to requests for records from the public.

The posting of notices of all city meetings is a function of the City Clerk's Office as well as the posting and publishing of city ordinances in three locations within the city: City Hall, outside the Post Office in Old Bisbee, and inside the Post Office in San Jose. Members of the public who have electronic mailing may be placed on the mailing list to receive notices and agendas of meetings on their e-mail.

The Information Center is maintained by the City Clerk's Office and provides a personal computer program that allows one to research and gain access to city records much quicker and more efficiently than paging through paper documents. The public may also watch video tapes of council meetings or listen to audio tapes of meetings in the Information Center. For those who still like to thumb through documents, copies of the Bisbee City Charter, the City Code, the Zoning Code and the Bisbee Police Department Policy Manual are among the materials available in the Information Center.

The City Clerk's Office is responsible for the coordination of all city elections and promotes voter registration so that all citizens may have a voice in their municipal government. Voting registration forms may be obtained in the City Clerk's Office.

The City Clerk's Office, in keeping with its position of neutrality and impartiality, receives and distributes to the proper department any citizen petitions, complaints and requests for service.

Other services provided by the City Clerk's Office are: making of photocopies for the public, Notary Public services, and telephone and reception duties for City Hall.

While the main function of the City Clerk's Office is to store and maintain the records of the Mayor and Council, the electronic age we live in has provided us with the ability to distribute information to the public in virtually seconds. No longer is the City Clerk nailing a notice to the side of a building that serves as a community bulletin board. Keeping this in mind, the City Clerk's Office hopes to develop a more timely system for disseminating information that includes the organization and scanning of documents for use in the Information Center and a file location system for original documents.