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Longtime Apache Junction City Clerk Kathy Connelly dies
Posted
If the men that started the United States are considered the Founding Fathers, then in the history of Apache Junction, Ms. Connelly would be considered a founding Mother.”
Apache Junction Mayor Jeff Serdy
Independent Newsmedia
Kathy Connelly, who worked at the City of Apache Junction for nearly four decades, mostly as city clerk, has died after a long illness. She was 68.
Ms. Connelly, who spent 37 years as city clerk, died April 25. Services are pending.
She started with the city in April 1980, not long after the city incorporated, before leaving Apache Junction last summer.
“If the men that started the United States are considered the Founding Fathers, then in the history of Apache Junction, Ms. Connelly would be considered a founding Mother,” Apache Junction Mayor Jeff Serdy said in a release. “Her irreplaceable memory was filled with amazing facts and statistics.”
One of the city’s first employees after incorporating in 1978, Ms. Connelly began her career in Apache Junction as secretary to the planning director and a little more than a year later was appointed deputy city clerk. She became acting city clerk later that year and was appointed city clerk permanently in March 1982.
Over the next 37 years Ms. Connelly served as acting city manager and assistant city manager on different occasions. She was a member of the Arizona Municipal Clerks Association since 1982.
Former City Manager George Hoffman recalls working with her.
“As city clerk, Kathy managed such responsibilities as the city’s elections, minutes of City Council meetings, the city’s records and public records requests. She was highly competent at those things and I never had to worry about her areas of responsibility," he said in the release.
“What set it apart for me --- and I think for dozens of city councilmembers and city managers over the decades --- was her ability and willingness to offer counsel and perspective,” said Mr. Hoffman, who oversaw the city from 2002 to 2015.
“At the management level, she had among the longest tenures with the organization and was able to help me and others consider issues with that long-term perspective in mind. She always had the best interests of the community at heart," he said.
