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Professionalism. Accountability. Stability. All three point towards a positive step forward for our municipal government, as DeKalb’s residents are asked to help shape the future of the position of City Clerk.
While we all have a stake in the upcoming referendum’s result, I’ve seen first hand the problems that we can rectify by voting Yes for an appointed City Clerk.
During my tenure as your mayor, the city experienced one problem after another, it seems, in the performance of that office. A well-meaning elected individual, in 2017, simply found the job too overwhelming. In an effort to fulfill my responsibility to find someone to assume the clerk’s role, I appointed a person who had the skills and knowledge of municipal government, but personalities got in the way, and it simply did not work out. Fortunately, our City Council was able to assign the Clerk duties to the city manager’s executive assistant.
As I transitioned out of my mayoral duties in 2021, the city’s voters once again chose an individual who had difficulty in fulfilling the duties of the office. What followed were several months of embarrassment, especially for those public servants in City Hall who found that the lax performance of the elected clerk was flying in the face of good government.
Folks, let’s face it. We finally have an opportunity to fill the position of city clerk with the kind of individual we deserve. One who has the required specialized skills to administer an office that is critical to a government the size of the city of DeKalb. One who is accountable to the very folks that we elect as our City Council.
I strongly encourage a Yes vote on the Clerk referendum. Yes to Appoint Our City Clerk.
Jerry Smith
DeKalb
Former mayor