City clerk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the United States, a City Clerk is an elected or appointed official who is responsible as the official keeper of the municipal records. In some places, the Clerk may be known as the "Village Clerk" or "Town Clerk". In Boroughs, Parishes, and Counties they are often known as the "County Clerk." If the Clerk's Office is limited to just performing the agenda and minutes for the legislative and committee meetings, the office may be called "Clerk of the Legislature." A City Clerk Office usually publishes agendas for legislative bodies, such as the City Assembly, City Council, or Alderman meetings, and is responsible for recording all council- and city mayor-related actions.

The staff of the Office of the City Clerk usually edits, compiles and publishes the minutes of City Council meetings. Vital attributes for all staff associated with this Office include being extremely diplomatic, unflappable, and maintaining an apolitical demeanor.

The Clerk's Office is essentially the hub of all the records for the municipality. Archiving and record retention has historically been done by storing documents in vaults. In recent years, scanned documents and electronic storage systems, which require vastly reduced physical spaces, are becoming more prevalent...but perhaps as a result, more kinds and types of documents seem to be consequently generated and stored, as well.

Official meetings of municipalities can become a serious chore as the activity in the town increases from population increases. The task of assembling the agenda packets with supporting documents can take several days for a single meeting. It becomes more complicated due to the input and iterative modification by numerous departments and agencies both within and external to the organization. Software applications that can easily assemble agendas, minutes and even automatically transcribe the meetings are now becoming more common. Often, these agendas and meeting minutes are downloadable by interested citizens by hitting the organization's website.