--------- The time I call the Monday, June 8th, 2026 Special Search Committee for the City Clerk meeting to order. Uh I will call the roll. Councillor Tyros present. Councillor Mack? >> Present. >> Councillor Kuzmeskus? >> Present. >> All committee members present. Announcement of open meeting recording.
Does anyone recording today's meeting? Hearing none, we'll enter our first order of business, which is conduct scheduled interviews. Welcome. Today we have our candidate with us, Jen.
Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for your interest in serving our community. I would just like to begin by introducing everyone around the table, George Tyros, Council President. >> Councillor Judy Mack. >> Councillor Judy Benca. >> Megan Graves. >> Thank you.
Jen, just to make the process clear from the start, the mandate of this Special Search Committee is strictly to evaluate candidates and make a formal recommendation to the full City Council. The actual election to fill this vacancy will occur at a later date by a vote of the full council. To give you a quick overview of the
governmental framework of Gardner, the City Clerk is one of three municipal positions in our city that is directly elected and reports to the City Council. The other two being the City Auditor and the City Treasurer Collector. While the City Clerk's office works closely with the mayor on a daily basis,
with other city departments, and the public, the role is fundamentally neutral, independent municipal officer. The Clerk acts as our official keeper of the record, the chief election official, and the clerk to the council. Both of which, the last two, require often working long hours after normal
business hours. This role ensures absolute transparency and compliance with the Massachusetts General Laws, including the Open Meeting and Public Records Act. To ensure equity and fairness across the search, we have a set of pre-set questions that we are asking every
single candidate. We'll provide you with a copy. Unless we need to make one. Richard Housewright Mack. Thank you. All right. Present you with a copy of the questions as we are providing every single candidate. You can reference these questions as we
go. We have a lot of 45 minutes for this interview, so please consider that in your response. I will kick things off with our first question. What most excites you about the opportunity to serve the public, specifically in the role as city clerk?
>> Um well, obviously currently I am serving the public in one way as a school committee member and through that process with the school building committee and the charter committee, I was able to have you know, be able to see different ways
that you can contribute as a citizen to the to the government and I feel like it's an important role and I in city clerk I feel like it's a very vital role for the city. Um as you noted all of the different roles that they fulfill and I think it's
important um to have somebody who's wanting to it's a public service piece that I I feel is important and having that and having someone who really wants to serve. I think that's a big piece of it and for me um I live here, my kids are growing up
here, like it's very important to me how this city moves forward in the next couple of years and and onward um and so I feel like in this role that's something I can contribute to. >> Thank you. This role requires serving as clerk to the city council
and maintaining official records. How do you or would you stay organized and ensure meeting minutes, ordinances, and legal documents are accurate and completed on time. >> Um well, so currently I'll speak to the work I do right now. Um I actually carry
40 to 50 case load through the juvenile court where I have to keep track of all of those records um myself and there's different timelines for each um case that I'm working on and there's different not necessarily ordinances, but within the court we have certain um
things that we have to get done. I have to submit reports and legal documents constantly. Um and I've developed my own system through that because I basically have been working on my own self-employed. So I've developed my own system on how to keep track of those things and I would do similar as I entered the role of city
clerk. I mean obviously I know there's um already systems in place, but I would try to make sure and improve those things to make sure things are done on time and then I think in order like staying organized, I am definitely somebody I make lists. I have a calendar where I keep track of things with
reminders. Um I like to use technology that way to help myself. Um and keeping track of the different things I feel I mean obviously it's very important and I would assume for city council they want things on time. Um and I think it makes everything go smoother
through the process. Um but again like I would definitely have something that I would set up a system that I think would work for the whole office too, not just for myself um to make sure that all of those things are accomplished and everything's done on time. >> Thank you. The city clerk interacts frequently with
elected officials, department heads, and the public. How do you handle situations where stakeholders have conflicting priorities or expectations? >> Um I think when one of the main pieces when you're dealing with any type of
um conflicts that exist, I think it's important that you have to obviously know the information and listen to the parties that are involved. Um and I think kind of hearing out each person, then you can evaluate what needs to happen. Um and then obviously, you know,
depending on who I was dealing with, um elected officials department has the public as noted here. I think with each role, um it depends on what you're doing in that moment, right? For elected officials, it might be a very different stance that I would take because more more than likely
I would be in a role of having to fulfill what's necessary and that there could be conflicts with that. Um and I think with department heads, it's a similar situation where with the public it may be in a uh situation where I'm actually trying to educate them, too, because they may not understand
everything that's happening. Um you know, and I think currently, um in the work I do through the juvenile court, there's conflict in every case that I deal with, so I'm often having to um listen to different points of views and kind of take that in and understand
it and then try to work through that. Um which I feel like, you know, I I feel like that would that would actually be a good transition to do that through the clerk's office, as well. >> Thank you. Describe your experience managing budgets, contracts, or departmental
operations. How do you prioritize spending while maintaining service quality? >> Um so, pre- prior to going out and being self-employed, I did actually work in a law firm um where I was managing the law clerks. Um it was many years ago, but I
did do that. So, I had to um actually go through the process of hiring the law clerks and um we didn't have contracts with them. It was very It was a different setup. They were doing work study programs and other things through their law schools. Um so, I had to but I did handle that and managing
that. Um and then currently, I mean, being self-employed, I'm handling the entire um like legal office myself. Um in that, you know, obviously I have to keep track of my own time. Um, my billing, for instance, I have to bill
on each case. Um, it's a separate bill for every case, timing-wise. So, that takes a lot of management to figure out how to do that. And then, obviously, again, the timelines, um, that type of management comes into play. Um, in terms of budgeting, same sort of
thing. I mean, I don't receive an actual budget, but I have to work within my means when I'm handling my own office. Right, I'm not I can't just like buy every new printer and other things. I have to keep track of all that. I have a, you know, an entire home office that I have to run that way. Which, again,
you have to run within what I've delegated as a budget for myself. >> City clerks often work under tight deadlines during elections, council meetings, and reporting periods. How do you manage competing priorities priorities and maintain attention to detail under
pressure? >> Um, I would say that's similar to what I mentioned in the other question about the systems that I would put in place. Um, I, again, doing my own work. Uh, basically, when I get appointed on a case from the court, I get a piece of paper that tells me the name of the
case. And then, I have to go from there to figure out what's necessary. And so, within that, I obviously have to decide and make sure that I'm prioritizing different cases at different times. I also need to know once, you know, what may be coming up. And and then, be able
to make sure I make the time for that as well. Um, and then, obviously, for maintaining service quality, like, I mean, um, uh, paying attention to the details of everything. There's the cases I work on currently, they're changing every day. So, I have
to constantly be on top of all of those details to then be able to analyze, evaluate, and move forward and make sure that people in the case are getting what they need, because that's my role is to make sure that everything is is following through. So, um, I think I can do a lot of that already
and it would, again, I would just transition those skills, um, into this role as city clerk. >> Public records requests can involve sensitive information and strict legal deadlines. How do you ensure compliance with the municipal or state law and the various requirements of a city clerk
when it comes to open meeting law, public record requests, public hearing notices, and the legal processes that turn council votes into official law? >> Um, well, obviously, making sure like checklists, making sure I'm following through with everything that's supposed to be happening based on what the law
states. Um, in terms of like the open meeting law, obviously, I've been dealing with that and when I was vice chair of the school committee, I had to deal with that in terms of postings and other things. Um, I have dealt with slightly with the public records requests through school committee, not a ton, but I do
understand it. Um, and, you know, in terms of the sensitive information, in the cases that I work on in the juvenile court, we are not allowed, they are called closed sessions because we are not allowed to share information. So, and the only people who are allowed to get information are
people that are working on the case. So, there's a lot of information that every day I have to handle and it's all sensitive information. Um, I'm not allowed to share, I have to engage with people that may not know all the information and know what I'm allowed to
by law to share at that moment. So, I've been dealing with that, um, through the juvenile court work that I've already done. Um, yeah, and I think in terms of, you know, dealing with the council and official laws and that and again, it's more about like the system that's going to be put in place that you
make sure you follow through with it. You have your timelines, your checklists, um, to make sure you comply with all those pieces and obviously, within my legal work, I deal with that in a different way, but I still I have we have regulations. Every department that I work with, the different agencies, they all have their own
regulations that I need to know in order to engage with them. Um and so I've already been doing a lot of that just in a different place right now. Thank you. >> Thank you. Tell us about a time you tried to change a process that was stuck in a we've
always done it this way mentality. How did you handle the pushback and get people on board? >> Um so when I first um was elected to school committee, I believe I think it was the second or third year that I was on, I actually became chair of the or vice chair of the
school committee at that point and I decided that I wanted to change and revamp like how we were handling our meetings. Obviously, we only meet during the school year, but I wanted to make sure there was like a calendar that we went through um and even though it seemed simplistic to put something in
place like that that we would be handling the same things each month during our meetings, it was there was still an uphill battle to get everyone to sort of understand that it would make more sense to have that and to push through and have so each year we would deal with certain things during our September meeting. Each year we would
deal with other things in October and that was not the way it had been done. So I did get a little pushback um from different people saying that, you know, it shouldn't be as structured where I felt that the structure actually kept us better on track. Um
and I mean, I handled it by taking in the information, listening to the complaints, and then, you know, using um information that I had about times we maybe had missed certain votes along the way or had been scrambling last minute to include things in meetings to, you
know, use that information to then push back and say this is why I'd like to do it this way. >> Tell us about a challenging customer service situation and how did you resolve it? >> Um well, in my case is in the juvenile court we
deal with a lot of challenging customer service situations. Um one that comes to mind for me is I actually um there was a case I was working on and obviously all of the cases are usually families involved. It's you know, it's abuse and neglect cases so there's a lot
of emotion involved um and one of the things that was happening is that the guardian of the child was getting into regular arguments with the parent in the case and the two of them were sort of coming to me to mediate that situation. Um and so basically I
had to kind of listen to each one of them and take in that information and then also gather some of my own information and then use that um to sort of help the process forward so that we could get past the conflict that was existing and and really focus on
what was necessary at that moment and obviously I know, you know, a challenging customer service situation if someone in the clerk's office were to walk in I wouldn't necessarily have that time to kind of go through those things but I think it's about hearing people out and then also, you know, knowing the
information you need to know to be able to answer to them and if you don't know it be able to say, "Hey, you know, I'm going to check on this. I'll get back to you." You know, trying to work through that so it's it turns into not being a challenging situation, right? I think
you can you can kind of take those um those moments to hopefully, you know, possibly educate a person who thinks something wasn't done correctly or that. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay, this position supervises staff in four workers.
What is your leadership style and how do you train and motivate employees in high-pressure situations such as elections? >> Um I would say my leadership style is that I lead with respect, um and then I set high expectations that I want people
to, you know, to rise to. Um I think in training and motivating employees in high-pressure situations, I don't necessarily currently do what would be seen as as that, but at the same time, I mean,
I'm working with teenagers on my cases where I have to convince them sometimes to participate in different things that they don't want to participate in. Even sometimes just, you know, motivating a child to get to school who has truancy issues and other things, but I, you know, I try to figure out what's going
to work, and obviously, you know, in an election situation, it wouldn't be the same as that, but I think it's about, you know, trying to get people to understand like what's to be expected of them, why we're setting those expectations, and then again, respecting, you know, their viewpoints
on things, but you know, holding to the line that I think is appropriate at that time. Um And then obviously, for the training piece of it, um you know, I think it's for the election piece, there's certain things that have to happen
that I'm going to have to be able to say to them like this is the way that we're going to be doing it because this is the legal process that has to happen in an election, um and just sort of knowing those things and be able to be the person that has those answers, I think helps in that situation.
>> Thank you. >> All right, back to me. We have The job requires strong knowledge of parliamentary procedure and municipal government operations. What experience do you have with city council meetings, Robert's Rules of Order, or the legislative process?
>> Um well, in terms of my experience, obviously, I've been on School Committee for 10 years, I think it's about now. Um Um, and we do use Robert's Rules of Order. I wouldn't say we adhere as closely to it, but overall we do. And obviously I've been participating in
other committees where we've had to, you know, you we had, I don't know, maybe 20 people that was on school building committee, so there had to be, you know, some adherence to the rules in order for the meetings to process. Um
and I would say in terms of the legislative process, I've obviously been involved in different pieces as I've been on the school committee. And even just being on the school building committee, we went through a whole process through the MSBA
that I participated virtually from the beginning through that process. Um and then obviously, I think currently I have to deal with different laws, regulations, you know, even in a court setting there's certain rules that we have
within the court when we're having a hearing that I have to know and adhere to, which actually is a little more strict which you would say happens through Robert's Rules, just rules of evidence, other pieces that I have to know and and quite honestly sort of be on my toes at all
time because it's just they're ongoing hearings where we're participating in and the judges can ask us questions on anything, other attorneys can bring up situations. I just have to be able to know all of that. Um and so I think like again, I think that
helps to sort of it lends well to you know, working within the government operations. >> Thank you. I'd like to ask the committee if they have any follow-up questions for the candidate. >> I do. >> I have no follow-up questions.
>> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, Megan, do you have any questions? >> Not unless you have any for me. >> And that's our next question actually. >> [laughter] >> It's not an interview unless you get the question of what questions do you have for us. I think you know, not only are interviews important for the hiring body to vet the
candidate, but also the candidate to vet if the fit is right for them. So, what questions do you have for us that we can answer for you? >> Um well, I guess right now, um and I'm not you know, like are there things that you feel as like city councilors that are
important for me to know about what needs to happen moving forward? Um like maybe just things that, you know, might not be as obvious like publicly about certain things. And I'm not I don't want you to put information out there. I understand this is a public meeting, but um you know, like is there things that
you're looking for, I guess, in a city clerk to kind of pick up and move forward with it at this point? >> I I can begin. So, as council president, I'd be curious for the previous council president's opinion on this as well. There's actually a lot of work that goes into preparing for the actual meetings
that we have. Preparing the agendas, receiving information, making sure the standing committees are in order. What I would really and I and I think that's not so obvious to someone who, you know, turns into a YouTube or Channel 8 and just sees it happen. So, what I would look for in our next clerk
is, you know, someone who has the attention to detail to make sure that, you know, they're vetting through the agendas. They're they're looking at the actual packet of the ordinance, making sure the numbers align. That that level of diligence we all try to do, I think, but most of us have jobs. You know,
we're we're in the building as much as we can be. Some of us are retired and that's arguably sometimes more busy than having a full-time job. So, that that's I think one thing that comes to mind really clearly is that attention to detail and and that professionalism of making sure the package is together. That way we can do our our job.
>> I would say along those lines with somebody with a very strong work ethic and and takes a sense of pride in their work. I think accuracy in minutes and meeting notices. I mean, as simple as
proofreading things because errors reflect, you know, from the clerk's office actually reflect directly on the council because we're the ones, you know, who are voting for the the items on our agenda. But, I also think it's it's just really important to
have somebody who is um really vested in making their office the office their own and really who wants to um you know make us all [clears throat] succeed, the city of Gardner, not just the clerk's office because it's such a busy place.
And it's like being a bank teller. It's actually one of the, you know, that you're you're the you're the face of the community when people come in here. And and um some people, you know, they'll be upset cuz they're late on their dog license or something like that. So, there's a lot of troubleshooting. So, I I I'm looking for somebody who can
multi-task and really um, you know, just deal with the public on the fly because um, you know, there are a lot of different things come up, but I just think that um, you know, it really is a is an important position, but it's also a customer service position.
>> I would agree um with what what the councilor said. And one of the things that happens often is the clerk's office is where like everyone who walks in the building goes to first cuz they don't know where to go. They may have never been to city hall, especially since COVID, a lot of things are done online. So, people who moved to the city
recently or, you know, have different needs now may come in the city office for the first time ever and so we will get those people and a lot of times even as a city council, we're not somebody's first stop or their last stop. Um and so they may come in with different
experiences before they reach out to you and talk to you about what they their needs are. Um but even if it is the first stop, it's still just as important to have that point of contact that's positive and knowledgeable and um is hopefully um getting them to their last stop as as quickly as possible even if they are
supposed to be the treasure collector's office, they're supposed to be in the magnet upstairs. So, uh that's that's something that's the forward-facing piece of it. And um I'll also say that from kind of a counter-president side of things, and Councilwoman Teston mentioned this as well, was that you know, the agendas for
our meetings have the council's letterhead and the president's signature on it. And so, anything that goes into that agenda, and I know the packets are not required publicly, but we do do that for one of transparency. All of that reflects on us. And so, even though sometimes the information that's in the
packet wasn't contributed by us, it is put together by us. And and and you're going to get a phone call or we are going to get it. So, um you know, all of that consistency, being really organized, being ahead of things, uh uh that to me, like when this new person
starts, that um the level of service should stay or raise in terms of people coming in. And then also for the council as well, because we don't we don't, as Council President said, we don't have offices in this building. You know, this is a a full-time job. That's not our
full-time job. And so, the clerk and the clerk's office is our piece in this building. And um so, my experience was always with the clerk, the clerk now and the clerk before her. Um they really are your eyes and ears and your everything in there. And so, when you hear about something, it's great
when the clerk has heard about it first and lets you know. Um so, those kinds of things were just thinking about who you serve and how you serve them. And you mentioned the lots of efficiency department heads and um and staff. And so, having really, really uh
deep understanding of that and and organizational structure about it uh is going to be like hit the ground running with it, because it's getting enough staff. And we do the watch commission here, too. So, there's going to be a lot on top of it. Um but, you know, it's I think, you know, the position is it's just it's so
critical to the city and to the council and all those things, but for all those reasons like I'd say that was the priority is like you're it. And and if you hold it to whatever standard that you do, then that's what I think we're going to thrive to uphold the most. >> Um I know it's funny when you were
saying that, my first thought was like when I submit things to the court, right? Like everything has my name on it. Um and I don't get to rely on anybody else. It's me, right? Um so I get that. Um and I think I being vice chair of the school committee at times,
too, there was a lot of that, especially through COVID, um where I was sort of the face of even whether I wanted to be or not. I was more the face of some of the decisions that had to be made. Um and you know, I I totally understand that part
and what that means and how people sometimes will approach things. Um and I think it's important, you know, I I get that about having, you know, you want your agenda to be correct because you need to go over those things. You need to have everything aligned up correctly because if it's not, then it doesn't hold the same weight that it may hold if
you did it correctly, right? So um no, that makes sense. >> I don't think I have any more questions. >> Excellent. Uh so, thank you very much for coming in, Jen. Uh thank you for your time in speaking with with us today and your interest in serving the city in a different capacity. Our HR team will
be in contact with you moving forward based on the committee's recommendation. >> [clears throat] >> Um I do have my references, too, if you'd like me to give them to you. >> And I'm going to try to make a note. >> I don't have them written out, but I can write them out for you. Part: 2
I call the special search committee for the city clerk back to order. Uh we have our candidate with us, Jan. Thank you for coming today and your interest in serving our community. I'd like to begin by introducing everyone around the table, >> city councelor Judy Mack, >> Megan Graves, city councelor Lindsey
Kazinsquez, >> council President George Tyrros, Janet, just to make the process clear from the start, the mandate of the special search committee is strictly to evaluate candidates and make a formal recommendation to the full city council. The actual election to fill this vacancy will take place at a later date by a
vote of the full council. To give you a quick overview of the governmental framework of gardener, the city cler is one of three municipal positions that our city has direct with our city council directly elects and reports. The other two being the city auditor and city treasur collector. While the work of the clerk's office uh
while the city clerk's office works closely on a daily basis with the mayor, city departments, and the public, the role is fundamentally a neutral independent municipal officer. The clerk acts as the official keeper of city records, the chief election official, and the clerk to the council with the
last two both requiring long hours working after hours often. This role ensures absolute transparency and compliance with master's general laws, including open meeting and public records acts. To ensure equity and fairness across the search, we have a
set of preset questions that we're asking every single candidate. We've provided you with copy of those questions for your reference as we go. We've allotted 45 minutes for each interview. So, please consider this in your responses. I'll kick things off with our first question.
What most excites you about the opportunity to serve the public, specifically in the role of city clerk. >> I think what excites me most goes back to the fact that I'm 25 years old. I've lived here for about 22 23 years. So
essentially my entire life um obviously I was not in this realm of work until just a couple years ago and in these couple years here um knowing the inner workings of not only just the clerk's office but the city in its entirety has
been kind of mind-blowing to me how much actually goes on. And I think what excites me most um about working potentially working as a city clerk would be continuing um
to help out the community in its entirety with how things function and how things run. Specifically with obviously the city council and its government, one of the biggest things working as the clerk is working for the city council and just knowing how much
actually goes through the council. um is something that I think is really cool and something that I look forward to on a daily basis here seeing you know what's going on and what's changing and how the council approaches that themselves. >> Thank you.
>> M serves as the clerk to the council and maintaining official records. How do you or would you stay organized and ensure meeting minutes, ordinances, and legal documents are accurate and completed on time?
So, my obviously I'll state this for the record. I've worked in the clerk's office for the past two and a half years and I've worked as the assistant clerk here for just about the past two years. Um, a lot of what I've come to realize
is that things are done fairly efficiently, but there is always room for change. And I think some of the biggest things that I would like to try to introduce with these standard processes is some sort of
almost it might even go into just like a calendar for myself. But like automation, having things almost like automatically come up like okay we had this meeting minutes need to be done as soon as they can right after. Have reminders set.
have um basically mental deadlines. Um and then solid tracking and numbering systems, if you would want to call it that. Um again, one of the big things we use for really any item in city council
is the shared spreadsheet. And I do think that's a solid way to keep track of everything, but I do think there would be better ways to make these things go efficiently. Um yeah, I think obviously um all these
things being organized is important and I think that it might take me some time to figure out specifically the exact ways to make these things even more efficient. Um, but yeah, really just mental mental
deadlines, keeping myself in check. >> Thank you. >> The city clerk interacts frequently with elected officials, department heads, and the public. How do you handle situations where stakeholders have conflicting priorities or expectations?
>> So, with conflicting like deadlines and everything, at the end of the day, there's only so much a person office can do it once. So, I really think it's important to find since me or my office would be the people doing the work, I think it would
be important to find what would be the most efficient way to go about getting all of the things done as soon as possible. Obviously, like if there's something two things with a similar deadline and one might take a couple hours to do and
one might take a few days to do, it's probably better to do the thing that we can get done sooner or quicker and then look into doing um whatever else might take longer. At the same time, with um things like this, I think it's
important to decide who can do the work. If you can divvy it up more amongst people and that might make things get done quicker. I think that's important to consider as well. >> Describe your experience managing budgets, contracts, or departmental
operations. How do you prioritize spending while maintaining service quality? So, I think specifically in the clerk's office, um, it really comes down to what is important. And so, like
obviously things we use every single day like a time stamp or the city seal, anything like that. Um, something like that had issues that would be pertinent to fix. Um, obviously, you know, you have to consider different price points,
look at different um you call them vendors because obviously I don't want to be spending the maximum for a simple thing. And then you know with budgets I if I'm being honest I did most of the
budget for the office for this upcoming budget year. So that's really my only experience with that so far. But I think the big things to consider are keeping, you know, a good outlook on trends, how
things are looking in the future, as well as how things have gone the past few years. Um, and also keeping a a mental like calendar like what's coming up this year. If there's any big, you know, event or you know of something that's going to be happening, being able
to prepare for that financially and, uh, logistically. City clerks often work under tight deadlines during elections, council meetings, and reporting periods. How do you manage competing priorities, and maintaining attention to detail under
pressure? >> So, I think one of the biggest things I would say that I'm strong at is multitasking. So, there are so many times where I'm working on something in between customers and having to take care of
them. There's a lot of distractions in the office and that can be challenging. However, I take pride in my ability to multitask and um essentially get distracted. I'm able to be distracted by
a customer or a phone call or an email or something coming up where I have to take time away from the matter I was working and then being able to go back to it, know where I was, know what I was doing, and get right back into it. Um,
and again, kind of what I was getting at before with deadlines, it really comes down to what needs to be done first. Again, if work needs to be divvied up to meet said deadlines, I'm more than capable of directing people if need be
and giving people tasks to do if they need direction. Um, and I think one of the biggest things too is that I am able to maintain good composure. So if there's any surprises,
any sort of um issues that arise out of nowhere, I'm able to maintain calm, composed, and do what I need to do to get whatever that is done. >> Public record requests can involve sensitive information and strict legal deadlines. How do you ensure compliance
with municipal or state law and the various requirements of a city clerk when it comes to open meeting law, public record requests, public hearing notices, and the legal processes that turn city council votes into official law? >> So, I think the biggest thing is always
just keeping in the back of my mind whenever a situation like this arises with um any sort of open meeting law issues or public records requests, just kind of always considering in the back of my head Is this okay? Does this make sense? Is
everything going smoothly? And that if there are any issues to do some research, make sure everything is being done right. And in the worst case scenario, stop and you can always reach out to our city solicitor with any questions just
to make sure everything is being done lawfully and properly. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Tell us about a time you tried to change a process that was stuck in a we've always done it this way mentality.
How did you handle the push back and get people on board? I think I think one of the biggest things that I changed in the office so far was some of the ways in which our early voting
processes work with mail and voting specifically. We used to so what would happen is in a year where say there's three elections um there when people apply for say a mail in balllet they can apply for all
elections. So what the office used to do was when we would get application we would look at how many elections it's for. If it's just one for the um next election or if it's for all three, the office would make piles of whatever situation it was
and we would make however many copies of the application. So if it was for all three elections, there would then be three copies of the application made and they would all be filed into their own basically file for an election. So, and
a lot of times too, there are some applications that are a full sheet of paper and there are some that are just cards. So, when we would get cards and we would put them in a file, the office would staple them to a piece of paper and make copies so that they're all just
a regular size sheet of paper. In my mind, when I first started doing that, obviously, I didn't know too too much. So, I it just felt weird to me. I was like this is so many copies we're making stapling stuff to paper these giant files it feels like a waste of time
found. So I once I started really learning what needed to be done, making sure we abide by laws and regulations for voting, I decided, hey, why don't we just have one file for an election and then we
process it in our voter system. We take a look at it then and if it's for another election that year, then then we take it and just move it to a different folder or file. And so that's what we started doing in the office. And that saved us per
election days of time of going through all of the the applications that we do get. >> So I think that's probably the most timesaving that I've been able to come across in the office so far. >> Thank you.
>> Tell us about a challenging customer service situation. How did you resolve it? So, I'm not okay. I'll go on to a different thing. My first year here, um, our dog licensing system was the
first year that it was in effect. So, essentially in 2024, we were creating a whole new database essentially of dog records. So the first year that we were renewing in 2025,
um there was a lot of people that hadn't licensed the previous year because it was a brand new system and there were kinks in the system. So the first year we were renewing, we came across a lot of people that hadn't actually done a dog license the year before. So we sent
out a lot of mail to people who hadn't renewed dog licenses. So there was one gentleman who came in basically hysterical, almost crying, saying that his dog had passed away the
year before and he didn't know why he got that mail saying he needed to renew it. So the second he came in, one of my co-workers at the time was speaking with him and I could see over my computer that it wasn't a goodlook situation. So,
and my coworker wasn't having the best time herself maintaining composure with the gentleman because he was he was loud and it wasn't a great situation. So, I stepped up. I stepped into the situation, asked him,
"What is it exactly that he's looking for? What can I do for him? We're here to help him with whatever he may need." And he was still very frantic. And I just kind of stood there and listened to him speak for a while.
And I something about I've been told I have a calming presence. And so the more he kind of went on and I just I listened to him, just let him go on for a little while. He just started to calm down. And I was when he was finally done, I was like, "Okay, so again, what is it that
we want to get done?" He told me. I helped him out. and he left the office with a smile on his face, which honestly kind of blew me away because I myself didn't even do that much. I just helped him calm down and did my job. And again,
like I've said before, I think maintaining my composure and being calm is something I'm very good at. And I feel like that's a very important skill to have when working with the public is being able to stay calm and composed. So, I think that's
the most interesting customer service situation I've dealt with. >> Thank you. This position supervises staff and pole workers. What is your leadership style and how do you train and motivate employees in high pressure
situations such as elections? I think what would really be important in situations like this is time management and making sure the office is in a position where there won't be as many high pressure situations so that
everyone is ready for anything that could come and there's no surprises. Um, I have no issues with delegating work to other employees if, again, like I've said a couple times now, for work needs to be divied up to get a task
done. Um, I think what goes along with that is as being a department head, you need to know the inner workings of how everything does get done. And so that way you know what you can give people to
do, what needs to get done in a timely manner. And assuming that's all done properly, then that should result in less high pressure situations. Obviously, there's going to be surprises. And if you're in a good situation to start with, when a surprise
does come up, then you're still well capable of dealing with that. >> Thank you. The job requires a strong knowledge of parliamentary procedure and municipal government operations. What experience do you have with city council meetings, Robert's rules of order, or the
legislative process? So, I myself have covered a handful of city council meetings. I've worked um directly with at this moment in time two different council presidents before. Um,
I have done a lot of research on Robert's rules specifically to know what kind of votes need to happen, what certain types of items require for a vote, um, you know, majority, 2/3,
um, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, if I'm being completely honest in regards to specifically city council meetings, I don't have a whole lot of experience. However, like I said, I have helped out with cover meetings and I have worked very closely with um the
current city clerk in regards to a lot of processes that come before a meeting and getting everything set up properly as well as after a meeting with, you know, when votes do take place, what happens to the item and how it gets kept
track of. Before we move to the last question, I'd just like to ask if the committee has any follow-up questions for the candidate. >> I do not have any questions. >> Any questions for anyone? >> I do not. >> All right. As with every interview, the question
comes, what questions do you have for us? And as I've said with other candidates, as much as it is the hiring body vetting the candidate, it should also be for the candidate to see if the situation is a good fit for them. Uh so with that, what questions do you have for us that we can answer for you today?
So my one big question is being a department head a very important thing is the staff in the office and my question is I know I've seen that there is a posting for an assistant clerk and
I was just wondering um realistically if any applicants have been there or if there's any idea of when there is potential for that position to be hired. um because I do think it is important to
have the good staffing to really um flourish in a situation. So I don't know if that's something that can be answered here or if that would >> Yeah, absolutely. I can I can answer that. So uh you're correct. There's an assistant position that's been posted. Uh it's a position that exists in our
non-UN personnel ordinance. It's council confirmed. uh it's well within the abilities of the clerk to you know request to be hired and put it up to the council for the appointment to be voted. So it is staffing. Yes, that is absolutely um an important position for
us to get filled in the city. >> Okay. So just kind of going off that are we waiting until a decision is made for the clerk and that individual is going to make that decision or is that >> I think it's a good question. >> No, that's that's a very fair question.
I um you know as council president been requested to put anything on the agenda to approve assistant clerk position. I think there is a matter of um the process of wanting to hire the leader before uh you hire a subordinate you know um so I I get both sides of of that
but um that that's how I would answer the question correctly. It's >> just like the clerk position where I think we're moving with diligence and and purpose. Uh I'd also like to see that position as well. Um, I think that's it for me. I don't
believe I came with any other questions. So, >> anything further after me? >> Well, thank you so much for coming in today, Jane. Um, thank you for your interest in the city and stepping up for our city. RHR team will be in contact with the moving forward based on the committee's recommendation. >> Thank you. Like to take a brief recess
uh for the committee to take a break.