Newberry City Commission holds Special Meeting to set parameters for City Clerk search

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

NEWBERRY, Fla. – At a May 5 Special Meeting, the Newberry City Commission discussed their strategy for hiring a new City Clerk to replace Judy Rice, who will be retiring in September after approximately 30 years of service with the City. They decided to begin their search internally, with a one-week email advertisement to be sent on Monday, May 12, and to proceed with external advertising if no suitable internal candidate is found.

Former Mayor Jordan Marlowe will not be sworn in as the new City Manager until June 9. In the meantime, he has been hired as a contracted Managerial Consultant to assist with finding a new City Clerk and other important matters.

Speaking at the podium, City Clerk Judy Rice said, “We are here tonight to discuss the City Clerk’s succession plan. As you all know, I will be retiring in September, and this has been a collaborative effort with the Human Resources Department, Former Mayor Marlowe – he was with us when we initially started this, and the City Clerk’s Office. So what we’re going to do tonight is, I am asking for clarification and direction on how to proceed with this process. The primary current functions of the City Clerk are the City Commission meetings, Clerk for the City Commission meetings, Clerk for the Board of Adjustment meetings, Custodian of Municipal Records, Administrator of Public Records Requests, and Supervisor of Municipal Elections. I have provided a job description, and at this time I would ask, if you were able to review it, if there are any functions that you would like to add to the description or remove.”

Job description

Marlowe mentioned other duties that could be added to the job description: Clerk for Planning and Zoning, Clerk for Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB), and Clerk for the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). Marlowe said that “now is the time to put it in the job description” so that applicants will understand the full nature of the job.

Commissioner Rick Coleman said, “I am totally against adding anything to that position.” Responding to Coleman, Rice said she hasn’t added any additional job functions, but the Commission can.

Responding to Commissioner Tony Mazon, Rice said the Planning and Zoning Assistant has always performed Planning and Zoning Clerk and HARB Clerk duties. Mayor Tim Marden said, “So you’re potentially adding a whole ‘nother set of meetings to the Clerk position, if you wanted the Clerk to do this part.”

Marlowe said the CRA does not technically have a Clerk, so that should be decided. Commissioners decided that it should be part of the Clerk’s duties, since CRA meetings and City Commission meetings are both held on Monday nights (either on different weeks of the month or back-to-back).

Qualifications and pay

Turning to the topic of qualifications for the position, Rice asked if an Associate’s Degree in Business or Public Administration should be required. Commissioner Mark Clark said he thought experience was more important than requiring a degree, and “more than anything, it’s knowing how to deal with people in the public.” He added that having an education is “good.”

Commissioner Donald Long agreed, “Experience is everything.” 

In addition to requiring an AS Degree and/or five years of experience, Rice asked if they should require Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) or Master Municipal Clerk (MMC) certifications. Responding to Commissioner Monty Farnsworth, Rice said she completed her CMC after approximately 10 years of service, but she would recommend that the new Clerk begin working on their CMC certification as soon as possible since it teaches valuable skills. She explained that it takes three years of progressively-difficult courses, but each year’s courses only last one week. Rice added that annual conferences help to keep up with technology advances once the certification is earned.

Referring to a slide in the presentation (see below), Marden said, “Not needing a degree, that will certainly translate to an entry-level salary in that first pay band.” 

Coleman said he didn’t think government experience was necessarily more valuable than some other type of administrative experience. Marden clarified that a candidate with no degree and five years of administrative experience would correspond to the first pay band ($60k to $70k).

After some discussion, Marden said the second pay band ($70k to $80k) should require a Bachelor’s or Associate’s Degree in Business Administration and five years of experience; the third band ($80k+) would be for those who exceed those qualifications, such as having additional experience, an advanced degree, or certifications like CMC/MMC.

Application process and search

Referring to the next slide (see below), Rice said, “We’re at the application process.” She read the slide word-for-word. Marlowe clarified, “Let’s say you get 100 applications. I would maybe ask Miss Judy and the Clerk’s Department to narrow it down to the top 10, and then maybe do some introductory interviews and then bring you guys the top three out of that 10. If you get 10, you only have 10 applications, well, that’s a different situation than having to go through 100. I think that also plays into the timeline, because it’s going to take Miss Judy ‘x’ amount of time to go through 100. If it’s 10, that obviously is much less time, so it’s just how many people do you guys want to dedicate, that you’re going to sit down if you go with this process.”

Coleman said he didn’t want to advertise the position nationally. Marden asked if that was agreeable to everyone, and everyone seemed to agree. Marden asked, “What do you perceive is your idea of advertising?” 

Coleman asked, “Do y’all have internal email here? So why not advertise just to all employees?”

Marlowe said, “The general [process] would be – we put it on Indeed, we put it on Florida League of Cities, we put it on our social media, and we put it on our website. Those would be our general form… All four of those are free.”

Coleman continued, “We’re hiring from within – ” and Farnsworth interrupted, “You keep saying we’re hiring from within. How do you know that?” After some back-and-forth, Coleman said he would prefer to hire from within. Farnsworth answered, “I think that should be a consideration. I don’t know that that should be the ultimate decision.” 

Coleman said, “I will vote against any of that, because [giving opportunities to current employees is] what I ran on… I’ll walk off the dais if we say we’re going somewhere else.”

Clark said, “There is a very easy way to do this. The government does it all the time. You hire internal. You put the application process out there for three to five days. We get our little internal stuff. If there’s nobody qualified, then we have to go out. It’s that simple.” 

Farnsworth said, “I think hiring internally is fine. But also, if there’s somebody that’s more qualified at the same price, at the same cost, then I don’t see why there’s no reason to go for that.” 

Long raised the question of having consistent hiring practices and sticking to a standard. 

Rice said they have tried to hire internally in the past and reminded everyone that the Clerk is a charter officer who must take an oath. 

After some discussion, it was decided to proceed with advertising internally first, for one week, and then proceed with outside advertising, if necessary, after interviewing the internal candidates.

Records and Administrative Coordinator Jeannene Mironack spoke at the podium and stated that she was formerly known as the Assistant Clerk, but her title was changed several years back. Mironack suggested allowing seven days for responses to the internal email advertisement, to give employees time over the weekend to complete their applications. 

Timeline

Rice showed a slide with a proposed timeline for the hiring process (see below). Marden said they can send out the internal email advertisement on May 12 instead of waiting until May 19. 

Clark asked Rice how long the candidate would be on board before Rice’s last day, and Marden said it will depend on how everything goes in the hiring process. Marlowe added, “I would wait until you have the applicants. Because the applicant, depending on their level of experience, may need a different amount of onboarding.”

There was some discussion about the possibility of sending the internal email advertisement earlier, on Wednesday, May 7, but everyone agreed that waiting until Monday, May 12, was a better idea.

Rice said, “I believe I have the direction that I need to begin the process.”

The final minimum qualifications, as Marden read them, were “a high school degree and five years of administrative experience,” and CRA Clerk was added to the job description shown above.

A motion to send the internal email advertisement as described was made and seconded. It passed unanimously.