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Mayor Mary Robichaud spotlights clerk's role in transparency and records management
Summary
Mayor Mary Robichaud interviewed City Clerk Nancy Long on the Inside Roswell podcast about the clerk's duties: maintaining the city seal and official records, managing meeting agendas and minutes, processing open-records requests, and handling appointments to boards and commissions.
Mayor Mary Robichaud interviewed Nancy Long, Roswell's city clerk, on the Inside Roswell podcast about the clerk's central role in municipal transparency, records management and meeting administration.
Long, who has served as Roswell's city clerk for 14 years, described the office as both historically rooted and modernized by technology. "Every municipality in the state of Georgia is required to have a city clerk, so it's state mandated," Long said, adding that clerks also must complete mandated state training.
The clerk's core duties, Long said, include custody of the city seal to attest official documents and oversight of legislative operations: attending meetings, managing calendars, preparing agendas and finalizing item packets. "Once they end up as an item on an agenda, really is where my office takes over, and we finalize it, put it together, make it pretty, and publish it," she said.
Long told listeners the office maintains public meeting records and posts minutes, proclamations, ordinances and resolutions to the city's online code library. She described handling open-records requests as a major, day-to-day responsibility: "It's a lot. It is our responsibility to make sure that we provide all those records in accordance with the state law," Long said.
The clerk's office also maintains membership rolls for boards and commissions, notifies the mayor when terms expire, and processes online volunteer applications that are forwarded to the mayor's office for consideration. Robichaud noted the office's role in certifying candidates who run for local office.
Asked about leadership, Long said effective public-service leadership balances public trust with strategic decision-making and high ethical standards while operating in the public eye. She also reflected on changes during her tenure, citing increased public interest, aging infrastructure and rapidly evolving technology as major new challenges for local government.
Long encouraged those considering local government careers to start at the municipal level, where they can learn the full range of city operations. "If you can get a position as a city clerk, go for it because you will be exposed to everything," she said.
Robichaud closed the episode by thanking Long for her service to Roswell and asking listeners to follow Inside Roswell for future episodes about city operations.
