Clerk salary cut; duties won’t include finance
BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Starke is now in the planning stages for its next election, which will take place in August and potentially include a race for city clerk.
While most commissioners supported removing the city clerk as an elected position in the city’s charter, they are respecting the outcome of the failed April 8 referendum, which means there will be a race on the Aug. 19 ballot if candidates decide to run.
Lisa Heeder, the administrative assistant who has worked in the clerk’s office for a number of years, has confirmed she would campaign to become the next clerk.
The other offices open for election this year and Seats 2 and 4 on the city commission. Those are the seats currently held by Janice Mortimer and Scott Roberts.
The races, if any, will be set during qualifying week, which is June 9–13. To qualify, candidates pay a percentage of the salary for the office they are seeking (5%). The starting commission salary as set by 2022 ordinance is $1,481 a month, or nearly $17,800 a year.
The base salary for city clerk was increased to $69,000 after Jimmy Crosby was elected to the office. Crosby resigned and is now serving as chief administrative officer. That post covers most of the city’s operations, including finance, which was once associated with the city clerk’s office.
Commissioners discussed the duties of a city clerk at their April 15 meeting, during which they also rolled back the clerk’s salary to its previous level — $45,000. The duties amount to the following as outlined in the city charter:
—attend commission meetings and keep accurate minutes of the proceedings.
—be custodian of the city seal, all ordinances, records, papers and files of the city, to include certain financial records provided by the finance department.
—serve as the city’s election supervisor.
—sign all bonds with the mayor.
—any additional duties assigned by the commission.
Commissioner Danny Nugent said he wanted to see all former duties returned to the clerk, including those that had been spread to other positions.
“I’m thinking we need to give responsibilities back to the clerk, because that’s what citizens want,” he said.
“I would only respectfully say this, Danny: I don’t know what they want. We only had 300 vote against it and 200 vote for it out of 3,600 ballots,” Commissioner Bob Milner said. The referendum results were 328 for removing the clerk from the charter and 212 against, which would place voter turnout for 3,600 ballots at 15%. “In my opinion, that’s not a commanding voice from the people. That’s 3,000 people that didn’t care enough to vote. But nonetheless, it failed,” he said.
Drawing upon his experience as city manager, Milner said the commission and its legal counsel have spent several years streamlining the duties of the city clerk to conform with the language of a 100-plus-year-old charter.
“How does that relate to today’s language? What does that mean? They don’t issue warrants, for example. We have invoices and things like that. So, some of it is semantics, but the semantics matter because you can still allow the clerk to do the things exactly as the charter says, such as the keeper of the minutes, OK, and the other five or six duties is outlined in there. But that, in my mind, does not require financial staff and other personnel. We’ve got those. We’ve got them in place.,” Milner said, adding they are qualified to do accounting work “We have qualified people doing our budget and giving us back every month, up-to-date, accurate information, which I can assure you did not happen in the past,” he continued, adding some clerks used their status as an elected official to resist cooperation with the city commission.
“So, I think that we go along with the people’s vote. We can have an elected clerk, and his or her duties will be narrowly and specifically tailored to those as outlined in the charter, perhaps requiring interpretation by all of us through the general counsel, what that means in today’s language. But just to be clear, Mr. Mayor, I’m not in favor of adding any staff to what we have right now. So that means the clerk, he or she, will function in their role, and they will do what that charter says they’ll do, and they’ll do it by themselves,” Milner said.
Commissioner Janice Mortimer agreed with Milner. That included the rollback of the base salary to $45,000, commensurate with the duties, she said. Commissioner Scott Roberts also agreed.
“They voted they want us to do like the charter says, and that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “It’s a 100-year-old charter. Part of what we were trying to do is clean up the charter, and they voted to keep it.”
Mayor Andy Redding called for a vote on the salary, and it was unanimous, although Nugent said he wanted more discussion on the scope of the clerk’s duties in the future.
Supervisor of Elections Amanda Seyfang will create a contract to oversee the election, which the commission will vote on during an upcoming meeting.
The commission decided early voting will take place during the week prior to the election at the supervisor of elections office, extending the office hours to 6:30 p.m. for those who work during the day. Those who vote by mail will be able to request a ballot once the agreement with the supervisor of elections is finalized. (Per the elections office, all vote-by-mail ballot requests expired at the end of 2024. A new request will cover all elections through the 2026 general election.)
Polls at city hall will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day Aug. 19. If a runoff election is required, it will take place on Nov. 4.
In other business, the commission:
—approved a resolution accepting a proposal from Woodward and Curran to begin engineering work on the water and wastewater service to an approximately 175-acre mixed use development proposed at the bypass interchange on S.R. 16. The total cost was $90,000.
—entered an agreement with Paul Stressing and Associations, which, in conjunction with KPI Engineering, will work on the planning and design of the Phase II modernization of the RJE Center. This phase includes restroom remodeling and ADA compatibility, HVAC installation, and electrical work. They will also explore adding a fire sprinkler system. Payment for the work, which includes construction administration, is $75,000.
—agreed to meet with Downtown Merchants and the Chamber of Commerce in a 4:30 p.m. workshop on Tuesday, May 20, to coordinate future events.
