Latest / Providence Voice / The Mayor & The Manager - Our City Clerk (Jennifer Nanek) - #025

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The Mayor & The Manager - Our City Clerk (Jennifer Nanek) - #025 · Providence Voice

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, Lake Wales, and welcome to episode number 25 of the Mayor and the Manager.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: This is a podcast that's produced by Providence Voice, which is the media ministry of High Point Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: And we created this podcast so the citizens of Lake Wales could be kept aware of happenings in our city, and also because we want you to get to know better the people that you elect and pay to lead you.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: And in this episode, one of my sayings is that there are people in cities that make headlines, and then there are people in cities that make things happen.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: And today I want you to meet someone that actually makes things happen in the city of Lake Wales.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: I've been working on our city commission for about six years, and it dawned on me that a lot of what occurs is taken care of by our city clerk.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: And many of you may not even know what a city clerk is.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I invited our city clerk, Jennifer Nanek, to join us today.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Jennifer, thanks for being our guest.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me, Mayor.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm and there's a lot that people need to learn about a city clerk.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Most people don't even know that you exist, which probably means you're doing your job.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: But before I get to that, I always want uh you uh to tell kind of your Lake Whales story.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: How did you wind up in Lake Wales?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then we'll get to how you chose to become a city clerk.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm originally from upstate New York.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: My family moved here in 1980.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I grew up here.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was three years old.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um I went through all the Lake Whales schools, graduated Lake Wales High School.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I was 16, I got the ridiculous idea that Lake Wales was nowhere and that I wanted to go to the big city.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's pretty common.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Atlanta to go to college, uh, which I enjoyed my time there.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oglethorpe University.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I got a degree in history, and um, but after that, I decided I wanted to come back to Lake Wales.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And with this history degree, I became the administrative assistant of the Depot Museum to Mimi Hardman.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that is how I started back in 1998 with the city of Lake Wales.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: You were, if you're working with Mimi Hardman, you're fated to do city government at some point.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: For a while she had quite a few graduates of the depot throughout all of city government, including like Tina Peak, our former librarian, for example.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lady whose influence is pretty is not well known, but she's done a lot, she did a lot before she exited, didn't she?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, she did.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so graduated from Oglethorpe with a history degree.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that's how you wound up at the Depot Museum.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so what was how how what did the transition to city clerk look like?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, there are several steps.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I was at the museum for about 10 years, and then in 2008, the city administration wanted to transfer the museum complex to the Historic Lake Wales Society, which they did.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so they moved me over to City Hall.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was the grants administrator for a while.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then I graduated to special projects manager, then I was assistant to the city manager and deputy city clerk.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then about nine years ago, I became the city clerk.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: I um, you know, that sounds like a pretty familiar story.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: And it's um that a lot of the folks that are working in city administration in Lake Wales have a story like that.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: They've spent quite a bit of time, they work their way up through the ranks.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: So you just listed at least three different positions you held before you became the city clerk in Lake Wales.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now it was a couple of years ago when I was doing the state of the city speech that you celebrated 10 years at the city of Lake Wales.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Was that as the clerk or did I get the number wrong?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been uh with the City of Lake Wales 28 years this year.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So a few years ago you announced me as 25 years.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: 25 years, wow.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Understood.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: So, okay, so um we were talking a little bit before uh we actually started recording, and you told me you just got back from Palmetto, Florida from a city clerk convention, which I uh you said there were a couple hundred people there.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure that was an interesting get together.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a very interesting get-together.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, me and my fellow city clerks love to vent and share with each other about some of the challenges that face a lot of our cities.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of us have challenging commissioners and city managers and city staff and residents.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we all have challenges with public records requests.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have challenges with uh press.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have challenges with people who are concerned about overdevelopment.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we share with each other.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the benefit of these conferences, is that we just uh can learn from each other how they address issues, um, how I can do better.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we had lots of classes this week on a lot of these topics.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about um like codification uh when new ordinances passed.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about how to better use AI in some of our everyday tasks, how to manage advisory boards.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um we had a lot of these classes this past week, and it was a good experience.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had a good time.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, you when you say you all get together and do a little bit of commiserating, that happens at every um, that happens at every pastor's conference I go to.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so well, that's a good lead-in then.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh talk, let's talk about um the responsibilities of a city clerk.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_03: What does uh the a typical day in the life of a city clerk in any city, but specifically Lake Wales, look like?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the city clerk is essentially the record keeper for the city of Lake Wales.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, almost every day I have public records requests that I have to answer.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: One of our fellow cities would like records on our skate park, how it was built, what the size was.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is from back in 2008.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't so digital back then.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that means I've got to go dig in the vaults to pull this out.
• 5:48
  unknown: Okay.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got to do my one of my responsibilities is putting the agenda together.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a CRA meeting on Tuesday, and so I've got to get that agenda put together today.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so different departments will send in their agenda items and I just make sure it all looks correct.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that all the I's are dotted, T's are crossed, and that the document is what they call accessible for people who are visually impaired, and then I upload it to the agenda and I get the minutes done from the last CRA meeting, and then the C city manager will review it for posting.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's one part of the job, but I heard you also say you have to manage a lot of committees.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I manage the advisory boards.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have over a dozen different authorities, commissions, and advisory boards with the city of Lake Wales.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is my opportunity to put out a commercial that if anybody wants to serve on one of these advisory boards, um, notably our code enforcement could use two alternates.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: They have a hard time meeting quorum, for example.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I have to track when whose turn is it, when their term is up.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Several of our boards have to file a what is a financial disclosure form.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to make sure they do that.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so and of course I gotta make sure they are all doing what they need to do as far as public records.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are the agendas being posted or the minutes being posted?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if there's any records requests related to them.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: You and you have do you have to sit in on every advisory board meeting?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, besides the commission, the airport and the recreation advisory board are assigned to me.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say I did a very short term on the airport advisory board, and you had to be at those meetings.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: One of the benefits of being going up through the ranks is sometimes you drag uh jobs with you.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I was grants administrator, I was also under the streets department.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Two different departments were paying my salary.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So part of one of the staff members in the streets department left, so they had to shift people around.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got the responsibility of being the clerk or the secretary for the airport advisory board.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have kept that responsibility as I moved along in my career.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: So did I hear you say 12 committees?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: In the city of Lake Wales.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I would imagine that's probably 60 to 80 positions that have to be fulfilled every year.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: And this was a big deal for me when I was elected mayor.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the responsibilities of the mayor is trying to make sure that these positions are filled.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: The good news is that you basically give me recommendations for 95% of those positions.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: But man, it's a lot of names every year.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is a lot of names.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: We do have a few people that, you know, you can only serve on two.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people are uh double up.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very appreciative of that.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, okay.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: So let's, and you know, I one of the things we mention often in the uh city commission meetings is how critically important, for instance, the planning and zoning board is one of the most important boards.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: But all of them serve really significant purposes.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: So you're right.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, a lot of citizens think, well, I can't serve in city government unless I'm running for elected office, and who wants to do that?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: But boy, there's a lot of opportunities to serve that way.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want to serve, call the city clerk.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get I'll share with you the list and the list of job descriptions.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a couple of them that are open.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, some of them have some actual responsibilities.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them are advisory boards, but some of them are not.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: They have real jobs attached to them.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: So um every commission meeting, every CRA meeting, I get a boatload of documents in the mail from you that I have to sign and send back to you.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Minutes.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, do you are you responsible for like if there is a um if there's a resolution?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, proclamations.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: You take the proclamation requests.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: How much how many of those do you actually have to handle the working for?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Some we get about 20 proclamation requests a year.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of them just ask for a proclamation, um, but they have no idea what they want it to say.
• 9:56
  unknown: Yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes they give me the information I write it, but a lot of place people, organizations, they send it to me fully written.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just modify it a little bit to reflect Lake Wales.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: What about when a um resolution is put forward?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Do you also have to work and kind of doctor the language on that, or is that pretty much informed for you too?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes um most departments send in their resolutions completely finished.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's very rare that I have to write a resolution completely from scratch.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I can do it always.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: So, like I said, on a after a commission meeting, a CRA meeting, a work session, we I'll get the minutes.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: And those are long.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we're talking 10, 12 pages for about five meetings a month that I'm aware of.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, how are those composed?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Do you actually have tools that help you do that, or do you have to sit there and manually enter these things?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It used to be the latter.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for the past few years, I've been using AI to assist me to do minutes.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is especially nice when we have some long talkers.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: When there are some long speeches, I can just take this transcript and say, Yeah.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Gemini, I use Gemini and say, can you just give me a summary of this speech?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so that makes it a lot easier.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, artificial intelligence has to have been a lifesaver for you.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: I can't even imagine.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, seriously, I look at the number, the page numbers just for instance, this week, and this was a brief meeting this week.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: We only had you only sent me three items, and I still think I counted 30 plus pages that I had to scroll through to get to the to get to the signature page.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, a lot of it's just the agenda memo.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just copy and paste the agenda memo.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: But there are some sometimes y'all have really in-depth discussions on some of the topics.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: So um when you say you're the records keeper, is there can you kind of summarize the documents that you legally have to make sure that we keep?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: And like, is there um a time limit on records that have to be kept?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so talk to us about that.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So things like resolutions and ordinances, those are kept forever.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we're now keeping them digitally now.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when you sign them, then I sign them.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the ordinances have to be recorded, but all of them are uploaded to our Unicode site so anybody can read them and review them.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some ordinances have to be what are called codified.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so they are um blended in with our code of ordinances.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um to what extent I have to have a paper copy, and sometimes I do, then that is filed into the vault.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, contracts, uh, depending on whether it's a capital improvement project or not, have to be kept from five to ten years.
• 12:34
  unknown: Okay.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Grant records have to be kept for at least six years.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's see, what else do you keep?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Any kind of land exchange or property deeds, keep those forever.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's see.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I keep we keep agenda packets forever.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I have found that the people who use those the most are staff.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because people just don't remember what they did five, 10, 15, 20 years ago.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't remember what I did 10 minutes ago.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And believe it or not, where you find the most answers to your questions are in the agenda memos, in the supplementary materials that go into the agenda packet.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not required that you keep them forever, but we have decided some city clerk way back when has decided we keep them forever, and I agree.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: But they are now all online.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're becoming more and more searchable as technology evolves.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to know how something, an issue has evolved, you can go and look it up.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Trace it.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: I just got to stop and go back to this because I am fascinated.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: You said AI now helps you a great deal, but I wonder how many hours a week you used to spend when you had to manually type these things out.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if there is an hour commission meeting and it was mostly a lot of back and forth dialogue, that could take me three hours to do.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But so so now, but it's it's a lot easier.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: Did you record them or and and go back to listen to voice recordings?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we do an audio recording, we do a video recording.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I generally do the many minutes from the audio recording.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: So you have to sit through the meetings and then you have to listen to them again.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: There are some people that have a sadomasochistic streak that would do that for entertainment, but I can't imagine many that would.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: So um you mentioned FOIA requests.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Talk to me about that because I would imagine you get a lot of those.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: We get about two to three hundred p uh requests a year.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um majority of them are either police or they're permitting, right?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those departments, they can handle them no problem.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they they they can almost do it blindfolded.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we get requests that are much more complicated.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They want, especially related to the like the CRA expansion issue that we just went through.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: They want, you know, copies of the CRA plan, they want copies of minutes, they want copies of agenda packets, they want copies of the related resolutions and ordinances.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so this can take a while to assemble.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so for many people, that sometimes there's a charge for that, which state statute allows us to charge for that.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um most of the time it's pretty easy because things are digital.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can just go look it up now.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh on rare occasions, um, like I had to go dig for the 1987 CRA plan not too long ago.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so that took me a minute.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had to find that in the vault someplace.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I do this all the time, trying to fit find stuff for people.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I heard you mention because where when we interacted the most was the first time that I ran for mayor.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I realized that we have another, we have municipal elections every year.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: Every year?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that your job gets pretty hairy about that time.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: So talk to me about your responsibilities when it comes to municipal elections.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the city clerk is responsible for the municipal elections.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: We do the advertising.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we uh have to do the qualifying.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is and I I put together a book of all the instructions that the candidates don't really read.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is a big, thick book.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, if I don't provide provide it, yeah, then there's discussion.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't know.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so candidates have to turn in their petitions, their financial paperwork, um, which I track.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm sure you can understand that that's the number one public records request I get during election seasons.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's I want all the candidates' financial reports.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just create a share link, like a Dropbox link, almost from the beginning.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I just put everybody's stuff on there.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just send that link um to whoever asks for it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so I guess the hairiest part is like right at right as we're getting up to the election day and doing the uh when we get absentee ballots back or vote by mail ballots, I have to go and check signatures almost every single day.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so this is a good time to remind people, you know, if your signature is not up to date with the supervisor of elections office, please do that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't changed your if your change signature has changed in the past 50 years, it can cause a problem.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can cause a problem.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you've been on the canvassing board, you've seen some of the weird things that come through that people do.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but most of the time we had that one issue one year, but most of the time the election goes pretty smoothly.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, election officials like to say we don't care what the result is, so long as it's a landslide.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we would love that.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's when it gets close that we start sweating.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: So um let me see.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: You've talked about you have to keep all of the minutes.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: You have to, you you're basically the record keeper for the city of Lake Wales.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that is a that's anybody that's a history major understands how important that is.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: Not just for administrative purposes, it's important for the whole culture of a city to keep track of their records.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Any culture that loses their history is in trouble.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: And the city of Lake Wales has a rich history.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: It does.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: So talk to me about then what do you enjoy the most about being a city clerk?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we'll go there first.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: What do you enjoy the most about it?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I can really help somebody who's trying to navigate government, you know, I've been around a while.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody's really frustrated with local government, they can't find the right person or the right place to help them, and I can figure that out for them.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good day.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's that makes me feel good as a city employee.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's my favorite thing to do for somebody.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: So what's the most challenging?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: 9 p.m.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: on Tuesday nights when y'all are still talking for the third time, going around the same issues over and over again.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's when it really gets hard.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to shoot myself right about that.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I understand.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: Believe me, I think probably every commissioner feels about the same way too.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: So, okay.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: So now you've been in Lake Wales since 1980.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you mentioned that your start here in the city was at the the depot museum with Mimi Hardman.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: But um, I know that you're fairly active in a lot of civic organizations.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, talk to me about some of those.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Talk talk about a lot of the civic organizations that you're a part of.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I still serve on the board of the Lake Wales History Museum, as they like to call it these days.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I still call the depot museum.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I'm glad to do that.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have our pioneer days coming up, the 50th.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm also part of the Rotary Club of Lake Wales, which just celebrated 100 years this past March.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been with them since 2015.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I serve on the board of the Ridge Audubon uh Society, which has a center down in Babson Park.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um they have regular uh monthly meetings uh and events.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with the AAUW, which is the American Association of University Women, which promotes education for women.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: One of their big projects every year is to provide scholarships for women who are returning to college.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if they had to drop out to care for a child or uh aging parent and they're going back to school because they want to provide for their families, we provide scholarships for those students.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's cool.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a specific thing.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is a very yes.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh as part of my city responsibilities, I am the president and chair of the Ridge Scenic Highway CME or the quarter management entity.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this road that your church sits on is a designated scenic highway, and it's been so for 20 years.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we sponsor the 39 mile yard sale every beginning of November.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that is coming up.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: You actually helped put that together.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, my wife, I'm gonna she you just got a new fan.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: She loves that.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good excuse to get people to drive the 39 mile scenic highway and to see the rolling hills and how beautiful it looks, um, especially going through our historic downtowns like Dundee and Lake Hamilton and Lake Wales and frostproof.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get to experience a real part of Florida.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we have people driving down from Orlando to go do this yard set.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's it's an excuse to get people to come experience, you know, historic Lake Wales, historic Pope County.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so those are some of the things I get I keep myself involved in.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: So it's apparent now.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: You you moved here when you were three years old.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I I heard you say when I left Lake Wales, basically this was nowhere.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I can't tell you how often I hear that.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's kind of my I came to Lake Wales in 1989 to attend Warner University.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: And when I graduated um in '92, uh I distinctly remember driving through downtown on scenic, looking around and thinking, I'll never be back at this place.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then I moved back in 1997 and haven't left.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: Don't think I will.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: I call it the gravitational effect of Lake Wales.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: But after you've been here a while, um, you really do find out that it's a special place.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so since you've been back, you've gotten really engaged in the city.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me what is happening right now, having that kind of history and that kind of involvement.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: What's happening in the city right now that you're the most Excited about.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh trails.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um trails have been an ongoing project of mine since I've been working with the city.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um back in 2004, there was a whole trail controversy that we had to have a referendum on.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the citizens voted almost two to one to support the rails to trails.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years, we've done a lot with adding trails, expanding trails.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's more trails forthcoming.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's not just bringing in bicyclists or uh runners from out of the city or from other states, and we do want to do that.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: We want visitors to come here and see our walkable downtowns.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I see people that walk and bike all over the city of Lake Wales.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And to make it safer for them, uh, it's not just trails, although trails are important, but more sidewalks.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have all the sidewalks in the northwest area.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are asking more developers to put in sidewalks so it's safer for those that are not who don't have a car for whatever reason to go from our major points in Lake Wales safely and to encourage walking uh and bicycling.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I think that's fabulous.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um they uh they said, why do you need this rails to trails here between Buckmore Road and Scenic Highway?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't connect anything.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now 20 years later, it's now gonna connect to something.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It does, yeah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm I'm delighted about that.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad for my part in that.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I um that's that's kind of uh um I've learned this um in my short tenure in city government is one of the frustrations is you're you have to think 20 years out in advance, and most citizens only think two weeks out in advance.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so um we had quite a moment of excitement in um one of our recent commission meetings when um a couple of commissioners got irritated about a delay on Buckmore Road until they realized wow, that's the connection we've been waiting for for geez since 2004.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's an exciting part of it.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, I was just at a PTO meeting yesterday where they were talking about call um casting back to when Rails to Trails was a countywide project.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so there have been some connections.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, they're building a bridge over um Van Fleet and Bartow.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's exciting.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a nice trail.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh Polk County uh in general is going to become a really um exciting place for trails.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: But Lake Wales, in the in the years that I've been involved in city government, this has been a huge emphasis.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I agree with you.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the Park Avenue Connector Trail uh was the first big one that we opened up with the shade trees all the way up.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um now we've got the Tower Boulevard Trail, Kwanis Loop.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um we've got the new mile and a half up around Bock Tower Garden that has just gone in.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: You can get just about anywhere uh in the city in a on a bike or just walking right now.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, without having to walk in the middle of the road.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and really it's a nice walk.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you're your your trails are going to take you past the new um uh Oakley Park in front of the library.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's just a lot to see.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and and not only that, but I've noticed, you know, we're uh we're actually now doing some of our musical festivals down around these trails.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Now, me, just as a citizen, not as the mayor, when I go up that Park Avenue trail, I'm I get this vision of vendors when we do like you're on the uh the um um uh pioneer days.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and our big events down one day I could just see us extending those vendors all the way up that trail.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's a cool idea.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that you know, to get more of an excuse for our folks to get up to the downtown area and and back.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: But that's true anyway.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, I would say I join you in that.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: I hope that more people are excited about that kind of thing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um so um I think that that's kind of what I had in mind is okay, so if you had to, if you had to talk to the average citizen in Lake Wales right now and you had to tell them one thing about your job, you had like two minutes to tell them one thing about being, I know this I what would you say?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, okay, let's do it this way.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Let's say do it this way.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: You bump into um a 19-year-old who's thinking about a career, and and there's and for some reason the idea of being a city clerk has entered their mind.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: What would you tell them about being prepared for that?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um learn how to write.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh yeah, they have to learn how to be organized.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's see.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they have to learn how to enjoy history.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um learning how to keep track of things.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um learning to enjoy public policy or issues of public policy.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I have enjoyed watching how the city has grown and changed with different areas.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you don't like to difficult topics um about trails, about economic development.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, you have to uh brush up on your public policy, you know, start reading the newspaper, even if it's online.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um learn what your city commission is doing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't learn who the mayor of Lake Wales was until 1993 when I was in a junior my junior high school class.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: They said it's Al Kirkland.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I if you're one of if you're interested, I which I encourage more people to go into public service, into local government.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: We need talented people at all levels in all departments.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's so important.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it's so important that you have people that do it that care about your city.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I would say, I know this is going to sound a little self-serving, but I it's genuine, it's in earnest.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things that has been encouraging to me, because I wasn't deeply involved in local politics up until about seven or eight years ago.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: And um, one of the things that has been very um enheartening to me, that's not a word, but you know what I mean, um, is that the folks that work in the administration, by and large, are people have been here for a long time.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: And they really do care about the city of Lake Way.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: They do, and they do the best they can.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very underappreciated for many of our departments, as I'm sure you know.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, they they work hard.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: They love this uh community.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they've really put 110% effort into it, I think.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's been my experience.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for coming and spending time with us here on the podcast.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate you doing that.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you again for inviting me.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: This was fun.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Mayor and the Manager.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: The goal of this podcast is to keep you up to date on all that is happening in the great city of Lake Wales.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: To that end, we would love to take questions from you and take the time to answer them.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: So if you have any questions, just click on submit a question in the description above this podcast.