Proclamation - City Council - 4/28/2009 - Municipal Clerks Week
Munieipal Clflrk~ Wflflk proelamation
May :3 through May 9, 2009
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Th~ Offic~ of th~ Municipal Ckrk, a tim~ honor~d
and vital part of local gov~rnm~nt ~xists throughout th~ world, and
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Th~ Offic~ of th~ Municipal CI~rk is th~ old~st among public
s~rvants, and
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Th~ Offic~ of th~ Municipal Ckrk provid~s th~ prof~ssional link
b~tw~~n th~ citiz~ns, th~ local gov~rning bodi~s and ag~nci~s of gov~rnm~nt at
oth~r I~vds, and
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Municipal CI~rks hav~ pl~dg~d to b~ ~v~r mindful of th~ir
n~utrality and impartiality, r~nd~ring ~qual s~rvic~ to all.
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Th~ Municipal CI~rk s~rv~s as th~ information c~nt~r on
functions of local gov~rnm~nt and community.
W1ie'R.e'(i~, Municipal CI~rks continually striv~ to improv~ th~
administration of th~ affairs of th~ Offic~ of th~ Municipal CI~rk through
participation in ~ducation programs, s~minars, workshops and th~ annual
m~~tings of th~ir stat~, provinc~, county, and int~rnational prof~ssional
organ i za ti ons.
W1ie'R.e'(i~, It is most appropriat~ that w~ r~cogniz~ th~ accomplishm~nts
of th~ Offic~ of th~ Municipal CI~rk.
NOW, T1ie'R.efO'Re, I, Phillip Bandy, Mayor of eagk, Idaho do r~cogniz~ th~
w~~k of May 3rd through May 9, 2009, as Municipal CI~rks W~~k, and furth~r
~xt~nd appr~ciation to our Municipal CI~rk, ~haron K.. B~rgmann, our ~~nior
q)~puty Municipal CI~rk, Tracy Osborn, and our q)~puty Municipal CI~rk, ~h~ri
1iorton, and to all Municipal CI~rks for th~ vital s~rvic~s th~y p~rform and th~ir
~x~mplary d~dication to th~ communiti~s th~y r~pr~s~nt.
day of TIpril, 2009.
P illip Bandy
Mayor
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EARLY BEGINNINGS
The :\Iunicipal Clerk is the oldest of public servams in local
government, along with the tax collector. The profession traces back
before Biblical times. For example, the modern Hebrew translation
of Town Clerk is "Mazkir Ha'ir" which literally translated, means
city or town "Reminder:' The early keepers of archives were olien
called "Remembrancers:' and before writing came imo use, their
memory served as the public record.
Ancient Greece had a city secretary who read official
documents publicly. At the opening of a meeting, one of his first
duties wa, to decree a curse upon anyone who should seek to
deccive the people.
St. Paul and his followers during his missionary work in Persia
(now Western Turkey) owed their safety to the action of a town
clerk. As related in Acts 19:22-41, written in A.D. 58, the anisans of
Ephcsus who made the idols of the time, feared the effect of Paul's
missionary work on tbeir trade. They incited a mob to seize two of
Paul's followers. The town clerk, however, spoke out against this
action and insisted that charges laid against these men had to be
settled in the proper manner and before the proper authorities.
There was no justification for riotous conduct. \Vith that, he
dispersed the crowd.
Reportecl\y, the regency line of France desccnds from the office
of the Clerk! According to James Bryce in his book "The Holy
Roman Empire," there is a clirect link between the position of
Mayor of the Palace, a clerical post created by the Merovingian
Kings of France, and all subsequent Kings of France.
In the eighth century, the Frankish Kings of France depended
on the Mayor of the Palace to perform all manner of clerical and
administrative tasks lor the King including collecting taxes and fees,
publishing documents, keeping state records and a"isting in the
enforcement of the King's justice.
In 751, the )'lerovingian King, Childeric, was deposed and his
assistant, Pippin, the )'layor of the Palace, becamc not only the
monarch of France but was simultaneously created a Patrician of
Rome by Pope Gregory the Third. Pippin was, in turn, father of the
great Charlemagne, the lirst Holy Roman Emperor and founder of
the Carolingian Dynasty of Europe on High, which in sueeessive
generations, produced lhe Kings of France, as well as the Emperors
of Germany and Austna.
DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND
The title "Clerk" as we know it developed from the Latin
clericus. During the ~Iiddle Ages, when scholarship and wriling
were limited to the clergy, clerk came to mean a scholar, especially
one who could read, write, and thus serve as notary, secretary,
accountant and recorder.
In ancient England, the township (surrounded by its hedge or
"tun") and the borough (an outpost fortified ",ith a wall) developed
a strong system of democratic local government. And one of the
first officials these freemen elected was the "Clarke.'"
The beginning of the office of city clerk in England can be
traced back to 1272 A.o. in the history of the CO/poration of Old
London. The "Remembrancer" was called upon to remind the
councilors (members of the council) what had transpired at their
previous meetings, since the meeting of the early councils were not
recorded in written minutes.
In 1354, the Mayor of Nottingham appointed the Clarke and
provided for his remuneration. In 1439, Symkyn Birches was
awarded the ollice of "Toun Clerk" in another community for the
rest of his life. In 1477 Thomas Canon, a town clerk, was the first
English printer, and served as diplomat for the King. In 1485,
Nicholas Lancaster, the Clarke, became Mayor of York.
In the 1500's in England, tllere were not only the 'Town
Clarke" but also the "Clerc Comptroller of the King's Honorable
Household. In 1603, there was a "Clarke General of the Armie."
Indeed, King Henry the Eighth had a "Clarke of the Spicery" and
King Charles had his "Clarke of the Robes."
Perhaps the strongest statement of the unique position
occupied by the Municipal Clerk is by an English Court in the
Midcl\e Ages ruling in the case, Hurle-Hobhs ex parte Riley and
another. Concerning this case, Chief Justice Lord Caldecote,
observed:
"The ollice of town clerk is an important part of the machinery
of local government. He may be said to stand between the local
Council and the ratepayers. He is there to assist by his ad,iee and
aetion the conduct of public anairs in the borough and, if there is a
disposition on the pan of the council, still more on the part of any
member of the council, to ride roughshod O\'er his opinions, the
question must at once arise as to whether it is not his duty forthwith
to resign his office or, at any rate, to do what he thinks right and
await lhe consequences."
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THE HISTORY Of THE ClERK.. ..Continued horn poge 6
COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT
When the early colonists came to America they set up forms of
local govcrnment to which they had been accustomed, and the
ollice of clcrk was one of the first to be established. \-Vhen the
colonists first settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, they quickly
appointed a person to act as recorder. That person kept all the vital
records for birth, marriages and deaths for the church, as well as
various other records of appointments, deeds, meetings, and the
elcction of officers at the annual town meeting.
Indeed, in Massachusetts, the town clcrk was one of the earliest
offices establish cd in colonial towns. The settlers were well aware of
the importance of keeping accurate written records of their agree-
ments and actions including grants of land, regulations governing
animals, the collection of taxes and the expencliture of town funds.
The person given the responsibility for recorcling these orders
was also otten given other duties, such as sweeping the meeting-
house and selling the scats, ringing the bell, and paying the bounty
for jays and blackbirds whose heads were prcscntcd to him by the
citizens. By the midcl\e of the 17th century, the title town clerk
appears in town records and this title has continued to the present.
Onc of the earliest statutory duties imposed by the
Massachusetts General Court on town clerks was recorcling births,
deaths and marriages. Since that time, the General Court has
formalized by statutc many of the duties first delegated by vote of
the town and has added others. By 1692, the town c1crk was
required to enter and record clivisions of land and orders of the
selectmcn as well as all town votes, orders and grants. \Varrants
clirected to the constable for thc collection of taxes were to be signed
by the assessors or the town clerk. Betwcen 1742 and 1756, thc
General Coun made the town clerk responsible for maintaining a
list showing each inhabitant's property value and for producing it, if
necessary, to substantiate a person's voting rights. The town clcrk
was required to administer and record the oath of oflice taken by
town officials. By 1776, the town clcrk was empowered to call town
meetin.gs to elect selectmen if a majority of the selectmen had
moved from the town or werc absent in the seIvice of the country.
The office of town clerk of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was
established in 1639 and that person was to "keep a record of every
man's house and land," and to present "a fairly wriltcn" copy of
such to every General Court to be recorded by the secretary of the
colony. In the first municipal election in New York City in 16119, the
offices of Sheriff, ~Iayor and City Clerk were on the ballot,
The Puritan town of \Voodstock, :\Iassaehusetts, appointed a
town clerk in 1693 to record deeds and mongages and to record the
books. Because thc town's people wanted to keep him on a perma-
nent basis, he was given 20 acres of land and a fee of 12 pence for
each town meeting plus 6 pence for each grant filed. The Town
Clerk of Midcl\eboro, Mass., on the other hand was compensated
with "one load of fish taken at the herring-weir and delivered to his
hOllse." Three centuries later, one of his sC\Tnth-great-grandchil-
dren is serving as City Recorder of the city of Newport, Oregon.
SUMMARY
Over the years, Municipal Clerks have become the hub of
govcrnment, the clirect link between the inhabitants of their
community and their government. The Clerk is the historian of the
community, for the entire recorded history of the town (city) and its
people is in his or her care.
The eminent political scientist, Professor William Bennett
Munro, writing in one of the first textbooks on municipal adminis-
tration (1934), stated:
"No other office in municipal seIvice has so many contracts. It
servcs the mayor, the city council, the city managcr (when there is
one), and all administrative departments without exception. All of
them call upon it, almost daily, for some seIviee or information. Its
work is not spectacular, but it demands versatility, alertness,
accuracy, and no end of patience. The public does not realize how
many loose ends of city administration this oflice pulls together."
lThese words, written more than 70 years ago, are even more
appropriate today.
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