THE ARTHUR A. OHNIMUS COLLECTION

The Career of Arthur A. Ohnimus

Arthur Allen Ohnimus (1893-1965) was the longest serving Assembly Chief Clerk in California history and the Assembly’s first full-time staff member. Mr. Ohnimus served as an Assembly employee for 45 years, 37 years as the Chief Clerk. In the California Assembly, the nonpartisan Chief Clerk is the chief parliamentarian, overseeing the legislative procedures and keeping the official records of the house. During his long career, Mr. Ohnimus helped guide the Assembly’s modernization in the 20th Century, overseeing the installation of electronic voting and public address systems, managing the transition from Robert’s Rules of Order to Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure, and establishing the modern legislative staff structure.

Mr. Ohnimus began his legislative service in 1915 as a committee clerk and was first elected as the Chief Clerk in 1923, a position he held until his retirement in 1963 (except for a brief hiatus from 1937 through 1940). Prior to 1957, the job of Chief Clerk was a part-time position, so Mr. Ohnimus held full-time employment from 1924 to 1944 as Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco, and from 1944 to 1957 as a Deputy Attorney General of California. In 1956, California voters adopted Proposition 14, which authorized the legislature to employ full-time personnel for the first time in history. In 1957, The Assembly Rules Committee appointed Ohnimus as its first Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) in addition to his ongoing role as Chief Clerk. In his years as CAO, Mr. Ohnimus laid the foundations for the Assembly’s staff organization and procedures. Mr. Ohnimus retired on October 4, 1963, after having served in a nonpartisan capacity for more than 40 years under four Democratic and eight Republican Speakers.

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