S.R. 6
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SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 6–SENATORS CANNIZZARO, SEEVERS
GANSERT; BUCK, DALY, DONATE, DONDERO LOOP,
FLORES, GOICOECHEA, HAMMOND, HANSEN, D. HARRIS,
KRASNER, LANGE, NEAL, NGUYEN, OHRENSCHALL,
PAZINA, SCHEIBLE, SPEARMAN, STONE AND TITUS
MAY 11, 2023
____________
Read and Adopted
SUMMARY—Inducts Claire Jesse Clift as an honorary member
into the Senate Hall of Fame. (BDR R-1197)
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EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.
SENATE RESOLUTION—Inducting Claire Jesse Clift as an
honorary member into the Senate Hall of Fame.
WHEREAS, Claire J. Clift was born in Reno and raised in Carson 1
City, where she graduated from Carson High School and Western 2
Nevada College and afterward worked for 11 seasons for the United 3
States Forest Service in North Fork, Idaho, where she met her 4
husband Jim, a whitewater rafting guide, and learned that one’s 5
survival depends on self-reliance and the ability to make tough 6
decisions; and 7
WHEREAS, As a fifth-generation Nevadan, her ancestry includes 8
great-great-grandfathers who were pioneer settlers, one of whom, 9
Daniel Clark Simpson, established a trading post and served as an 10
Assemblyman in 1871, another, William George Harris, who was a 11
miner who helped build the Sutro Tunnel, and her great uncle, 12
Forest Lovelock, and uncle, Coe Swobe, who both served in the 13
Senate and her grandfather, Hugo Quilici, who was mayor of Reno; 14
and 15
WHEREAS, Claire’s state service began in the Nevada Senate as 16
a Committee Secretary for the Senate Committee on Natural 17
Resources in 1987 and 1989, where she learned the legislative 18
process and experienced the in-depth vetting of bills through 19
testimony, discussion and amendments, and after a brief time away, 20
she returned to the Senate as the Media Clerk under the tutelage of 21
then-Secretary of the Senate, Jan Thomas, and in this position 22
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helped develop and improve computer programs as the liaison for 1
information systems to assist the Legislature as it entered the 21st 2
century; and 3
WHEREAS, Upon the retirement of her predecessor, Claire Clift 4
was appointed as the Secretary of the Senate, continuing a long-5
standing tradition of holding an elected position of public service in 6
her family, served as Secretary of the Senate during 9 regular 7
sessions and 15 special sessions, which included the Senate’s first 8
impeachment proceeding against a state constitutional officer, and 9
with the support of legislative leadership, helped effect statutory 10
changes to employment practices of session staff that affected 11
salaries, retirement vestment and opportunities for legislative staff to 12
transfer employment to the state’s classified service; and 13
WHEREAS, Claire’s public service extended beyond Nevada, 14
serving on two Mason’s Manual Commissions with the National 15
Conference of State Legislatures, as co-chair and chair, shepherding 16
the manual to its decennial revision with the 2020 edition of 17
Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure, as well as being active in 18
the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries where 19
she chaired multiple committees and served two terms on the 20
ASLCS Executive Committee; and 21
WHEREAS, Claire Clift is remembered for her poise, 22
professionalism and confidence, was well-respected by all who 23
worked with her, and always kept the interests of the Senate and 24
Legislature at heart; and 25
WHEREAS, The Senate of the Legislature of the State of Nevada 26
wishes to recognize Claire J. Clift for her dedicated service and vast 27
knowledge of parliamentary procedure; now, therefore, be it 28
RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, That, 29
Claire Jesse Clift, for her decades of devoted service to the State of 30
Nevada as Secretary of the Senate, is hereby inducted as an 31
honorary member into the Senate Hall of Fame of the Legislature of 32
the State of Nevada; and be it further 33
RESOLVED, That this resolution becomes effective upon 34
adoption. 35
H