She's had her fingerprints on every board of supervisors agenda for the last 12 years, and she's been tinkering with the agenda in some way for more than 26 years.

Perez-Sorensen is no political gadfly; she's the clerk of the board of supervisors and it's her job to fuss with the agenda.

"Basically, the clerk takes care of the board in many ways that are transparent," says District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage. "From a practical point of view, she sets up the chambers, prepares the agenda and does all the things for us that we need done in order to do our jobs."

The board voted March 1 to recognize the month as Women's History Month; however, Perez-Sorensen has been holding a sort of ongoing celebration of women on her own for years. She served as president of Next Door Solutions, a nonprofit organization dedicated to solving domestic violence, between 1991 and 1998.

And in 1988 she worked with an Almaden neighbor and county employee, Bob Farnquist, to establish an academy for clerical and other support staff, called Training for Office Professionals. The series of workshops, which began in 1988 and is ongoing, deals with topics such as empowerment, balancing home and work, improving organizational skills and learning more about county operations.

"These women—and they are primarily women who hold these jobs—wear the title but do not recognize or see pride in their roles, and they should," she says.

She has a staff of 31 who assist her in supporting the five county supervisors as well as 30 boards and commissions, recording all the actions of the boards, and accepting and processing assessment appeals applications.

Perez-Sorensen, who uses her "stage name" of Perez at work, sees her role in the board meetings as a pivotal one that helps to keep the meetings moving. Seated at a table with a member of her staff who is taking notes, she sits just below the dais where the supervisors and other county executives are positioned during the public meetings, reading aloud the updates on the consent calendar.

As the meeting continues, Perez-Sorensen is occasionally called upon by members of the board—who typically address her as "Madame Clerk." She moves about between the members as they need her and collects and delivers the speaker cards as they appear.

Her actions during the meeting are visible, but the public largely does not see or know what it is that she and her staff are responsible for behind the scenes.

"I am the eyes and the ears of the public," she says. It is a position she is very proud to hold.

"You couldn't find a better ambassador for the county than Phyllis," Gage says.

She loves her job, and as seriously as she takes her job and her duties, she is just as serious about making the workplace an enjoyable and comfortable environment.

Toys, gifts and memorabilia are piled up in her 10th-floor office, which features big windows offering a view of the airport on one end and hills on the other.

"Some are gifts, some [were given out of] kindness, some are souvenirs," she says of her bounty. Scattered about on her desk and credenza, mingling with the singing dog, mama piggy and piglets, and shark cookie jar, and splashed all over the outer offices among the cubicles, are fish. Big fish, little fish, fish of all colors, fish made of paper, clay and glass. While Perez-Sorensen is a San Jose Sharks hockey fan, that has nothing to do with the fins found everywhere you look.

The fish are reminders that represent a philosophy that Perez-Sorensen and her staff have embraced wholeheartedly, a philosophy adopted from the management and employees of Pike's Fish Market in Seattle. The market employs basic work themes that remind employees to treat one another with respect and courtesy, offer up something positive to the job and co-workers, and work hard but have fun.

"She's the salt-of-the-earth kind of person," says Gage. "She is very service-ßoriented and wants to make sure things are perfect."

It is her focus on service that inspired her to work with the county's information technology office in developing an online agenda system that acts as a public portal while streamlining progression within course of the document and record management process.

Not one to rest upon her laurels, she is venturing into an archival project that will one day provide county residents with access to historical documents in a research-lab-like setting. Working on her 40th year as a county employee, she is well-suited for the challenge.

"Because she has been there so long she has a wealth of history of the county, and she is very valuable to anyone to new to the board," Gage says.