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City clerk highlights new agenda software, badges and translation support as budgets recommended
Summary
Assistant City Clerk Maureen Fisher outlined technological changes, cross‑training, bilingual staffing stipends and a new badge system; the committee recommended the city clerk and city council FY26 budgets.
The Salem City Committee on Administration and Finance on June 5 recommended the Fiscal Year 2026 budgets for the City Clerk’s office and the City Council while staff described technology and operational changes intended to improve public access and multilingual services.
Maureen Fisher, assistant city clerk, told the committee that the clerk’s office now oversees three areas—city clerk general services, elections, and records such as birth, death and marriage certificates—and that staffing and training work has focused on bilingual services and cross-training. Fisher said the office has two certified bilingual staff receiving stipends after passing the assessment, and that the office uses a remote video translator system in polling places and at the counter when in-person translators are not available.
Fisher described recent administrative upgrades: a new agenda-management software that she said streamlines committee reports and backup materials, and a new badge-printing system for licensed tour guides that replaces an older, manual badge process. Fisher said there were roughly 145 licensed guides and the office has been migrating older badges (about 96 issued before March) to the new system.
Fisher also said the clerk’s office has added a contracted-services line—about $15,000 in the proposed budget—for real-time Spanish translation of council meetings and written transcripts. She described ongoing work with Municipal Code (Municode) for ordinance publishing and with IT and the minute-taker to post minutes online.
Councilors voted to recommend the city clerk personnel line of $384,156 and expenditures of $13,870 (department total $398,026), and to recommend the city council personnel line of $181,821 and expenditures of $97,136 (department total $278,957). Both recommendations carried with the committee's recorded affirmative votes.
Fisher and others emphasized cross-training within the clerk's office to ensure continuity when staff are absent, and noted an increase in printing and municipal code costs tied to ordinance posting. The committee also heard praise for the newly hired minute-taker and for greater public access to agenda backups on the city calendar.
Action and next steps: The committee recommended both department budgets; staff said they will continue implementing the agenda software rollouts, migrating tour guide badges to the new printer, developing a translation contract, and posting historic minutes online.
