The City Clerk is NOT your secretary

Marsha Stickford recently sent an email to the members of City Council to address her thoughts on the current discussion surrounding the position of City Clerk. It is important to understand Raleigh’s City Charter specifies the City Clerk position as being independent from the City Manager and reporting directly to the City Council. This is also the case with the City Attorney and City Manager.

Marsha Stickford moved to Raleigh four years ago from Asheville to be closer to family after she retired from her position with Asheville City as their Neighborhood Coordinator. She has a Masters in Public Administration and has participated in the Raleigh Neighborhood and Planning Academies. She is the current chair of her condo homeowners’ association and has been active with Livable Raleigh and the Midtown CAC.

While working for the City of Asheville, she was a member of the City Manager’s office and had the privilege of working with an experienced and effective City Clerk both in her professional capacity and prior work with government-related non-profits.

Marsha’s email follows: 

Dear Raleigh City Council Members,

I am writing in response to the effort by some Raleigh City Council folks to move the City Clerk’s position into the City Manager’s office. I believe that the Raleigh community is best served by an independent City Clerk, who operates as a sworn City of Raleigh Official. 

By Charter and tradition, the Raleigh City Clerk is one of the three sworn City officials hired, supervised and evaluated by the elected members of the Council. The City Clerk is not the secretary of City Council, but a public official who serves the community through their role in recording and maintaining official city records and documents. This unique duty, along with others that serve to create and support transparency and accountability to the public, places the City Clerk in an elevated position in city government. The City Clerk does not take minutes – they record the official meetings and deliberations of our elected officials. The City Clerk does not file – they preserve that record and make it available to the public served by the elected City Council members. 

By relegating the City Clerk to a position in the City Manager’s office, you create the impression – and reality – that the City Clerk is just another hired staff member who is supervised by the City Manager and answers to them, making them just a part of the bureaucracy. I believe this is a major mistake for a Mayor and Council who are currently seen by many Raleigh citizens to be less than transparent and accountable to the public by whom they are elected.The previous City Clerk was regarded by the public as someone they could trust and rely on for accurate and unbiased information. I do not believe you have the luxury of further alienating public trust through an action that appears to be motivated by a wish to control access to information and processes that citizens hold by right.

I have heard that the stated reason for making this change is that the last City Clerk was too old-fashioned and not technically savvy. That can be addressed in the process to advertise and interview new candidates, it does not require a realignment of the position. A good City Clerk candidate should have both the appropriate training for the position and the capacity to operate in the current technology-dependent era without forfeiting their sworn duties. 

Please honor the intent of the creation of the City Clerk position. The City Clerk is not your secretary!!

Thanks for your attention to this matter and your service to our community.

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