It's Municipal Clerks Week in South Carolina! The General Assembly deemed it so with resolutions recently passed by the House and Senate. Goose Creek Rep. Joe Daning (former city councilmember) and Manning Senator Kevin Johnson (former mayor and former president of the Municipal Association) introduced the resolutions.
There's also an article in this month's Columbia and Greenville Business Monthly magazines touting the good work of municipal clerks.
The position of city clerk is the only municipal staff role that is required by state law, regardless of a municipality’s size or form of government. All 271 cities and towns in the state are required to have a clerk. Read this Uptown article for more background on the role of a city clerk.
And while the title “clerk” may conjure up an outdated vision of an old style secretary, nothing could be further from the reality in today’s complex world of local government. Municipal clerks play a critical and varied role to support the mayor, city council, and city manager or administrator.
The clerk’s responsibilities under state law include giving notice of meetings to council members and the public, keeping minutes of its proceedings, and performing other duties as assigned by council. A combined municipal clerk and finance officer role, referred as clerk/treasurer, is common in small to midsize cities. In larger cities, a standalone municipal clerk position usually exists.
Regardless of city size, clerks have seen their roles and responsibilities keep pace with changing times. The state’s only professional organization serving city clerks has played a critical training role as the clerk role has expanded over the years. The South Carolina Municipal Finance Officers and Clerk Treasurers Association, an affiliate organization of the Municipal Association of SC, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
With more than 250 members statewide, MFOCTA trains clerks and clerk/treasurers on the complexities of running a local government.
A number of cities have passed resolutions in honor of their city clerk.
More
than 40 newly elected mayors and councilmembers gathered at the
Municipal Association of South Carolina this week for an orientation class
on local government issues.
Officials
from 33 cities representing diverse sizes and locations participated in the class. Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie represented
the largest city and Govan Mayor Wilma Edmonds represented the smallest. Plus, the entire council from the Town of Pelzer participated.
“People often run for office on a specific issue. But when campaigning turns to governing, things are different,” said Wayne George,
executive director of the Municipal Association. Wayne is a former
mayor and councilmember in Mullins, S.C. “Most newly elected officials
don’t come to the office with a deep knowledge of municipal budgets,
forms of government and general city administration. Today’s session
helped get them off to the right start.”
The
session that got the most questions was on the topic of the Freedom of
Information Act and ethics. “Typically these topics draw a lot of
questions during Association training sessions,” said Tiger Wells, who led the session. Tiger is the Association’s government affairs liaison and staff expert on FOIA and ethics issues.
Tiger supplied the meeting participants with resources available on the Association’s website to help answer questions about FOIA and ethics, including the S.C. Press Association’s FOIA handbook.
Tiger
noted that the executive director of the State Ethics Commission,
Meghan Walker, recently met with Association staff to discuss ethics
questions often posed by local officials. Tiger passed on Meghan’s
advice about contacting the Ethics Commission with questions: “Always
ask first when you have questions about a certain activity.” She
strongly encouraged local officials to ask questions and assured the
Association staff that the commission’s staff will be responsive.
Other
issues covered in the orientation class included leadership,
advocacy, risk management, budgeting, forms of government and general
city administration.
Local officials also learned about participating in the Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The institute offers both in-person and online training. Mayors and councilmembers can enroll in the classes immediately upon election. The next MEOI session is on May 18 covering the Freedom of Information Act and Municipal Governance/Policy.
At
the conclusion of the training, Wayne left the group with some sound
advice from his years as mayor in Mullins: "Invite your legislators to
visit your city so they understand the challenges you face before you
need to ask them for a vote" and "Hold regular council retreats to
establish your priorities and take time to understand each other's
perspectives."
A copy of the Power Point presentations and all of the resources shared during the session are here.
More than 40 newly elected mayors and councilmembers gathered at the Municipal Association of South Carolina today for an orientation class on local government issues.
Officials from 33 cities from all over the state and from all population sizes participated in the class. Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie represented the largest city and Govan Mayor Wilma Edmonds represented the smallest.
“People often run for office on a specific issue. But when campaigning turns to governing, things are different,” said Wayne George, executive director of the Municipal Association. George is a former mayor and councilmember in Mullins, S.C. “Most newly elected officials don’t come to the office with a deep knowledge of municipal budgets, forms of government and general city administration. Today’s session helped get them off to the right start.”
The session that got the most questions was on the topic of the Freedom of Information Act and ethics. “Typically these topics draw a lot of questions during Association training sessions,” said Tiger Wells, who led the session. Tiger is the Association’s government affairs liaison and staff expert on FOIA and ethics issues.
Tiger supplied the meeting participants with resources available on the Association’s website to help answer questions about FOIA and ethics, including the S.C. Press Association’s FOIA handbook.
Tiger noted that the executive director of the State Ethics Commission, Meghan Walker, recently met with Association staff to discuss ethics questions often posed by local officials. Tiger passed on Meghan’s advice about contacting the Ethics Commission with questions: “Always ask first when you have questions about a certain activity.” She strongly encouraged local officials to ask questions and assured the Association staff that the commission’s staff will be responsive.
Local officials also learned about participating in the Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government that includes in-person and online training. Mayors and councilmembers can enroll in the classes immediately upon election.
Other issues covered in today’s orientation class included leadership, advocacy, risk management, budgeting, forms of government and general city administration.
At the conclusion of the training, Wayne left the group with some sound advice from his years as mayor in Mullins: "Invite your legislators to visit your city so they understand the challenges you face before you need to ask them for a vote" and "Hold regular council retreats to establish your priorities and take time to understand each other's perspectives."
A copy of the Power Point presentations and all of the resources shared during the session are here.
It's Municipal Clerks Week in South Carolina! The General Assembly deemed it so with resolutions recently passed by the House and Senate. Goose Creek Rep. Joe Daning (former city councilmember) and Manning Senator Kevin Johnson (former mayor and former president of the Municipal Association) introduced the resolutions.
