At Town Web, we know a thing or two about running municipalities (with a municipal clerk playing a key role in this). After all, we offer a dedicated service for building user-friendly, accessible, and up-to-date municipal websites. Here, we will explain the common municipal clerk duties. We’ll also look at some municipal clerk job advertisements and expand on what you need to consider when hiring a municipal clerk.

What is a clerk?

A municipal clerk is a senior municipal official. Their work often comprises a range of legal and clerical tasks. But, they also tend to undertake financial tasks, report preparation, and copywriting/transcription, among other duties.

In the US, states have the freedom to decide for themselves what tasks the clerk will undertake with some describing the provisions of what a municipal clerk must do in their constitutions

‍

Common municipal clerk responsibilities

There is no singular, formal list of a municipal clerk’s responsibilities covering the entire United States. But some duties appear more regularly than others.

Here’s what the most common municipal clerk responsibilities involve:

• Managing council meeting minutes - Taking minutes during council meetings is a very common task for municipal clerks. After recording minutes, they’ll need to edit them to perfection before they can pass them on to the relevant staff members and municipal officials. Council meeting minutes may include a call to order, role call, and the agenda items discussed.
• Issue public notification of official events and meetings - It is often up to the municipal clerk to make the public aware of meetings and events that the municipality is responsible for. This is one example of how municipal clerks liaise between the city council and the general public.
• Organizing municipal elections - Coordinating municipal elections is an essential duty of municipal clerks. This can include preparing and distributing ballots, tabulation/certification of election results, and training election officers. When it comes to ballots, this may also involve issuing absentee ballots. In most cases, municipalities hold several elections on the same date, which tends to take place every two years. For instance, a municipality may hold elections for the mayor, city controller, attorney, and city council all on one day.
• Copywriting and transcription - General office duties include dictation, transcription, copywriting, and proofreading. A municipal clerk also tends to schedule appointments and distribute/file official forms and documentation.
• Dealing with official reports and legal documentation - Another important duty is preparing and maintaining official reports, reference materials, and legal documents. This may include working with ordinances, resolutions, or/and proclamations for archiving and distributing. Municipal clerks often maintain and update documents like city charters and municipal codes too. They may also deal with issuing documentation or identification to employees/customers.
• Municipal archive work - As touched on, municipal clerks must archive reports, documents, and other paperwork. Not only that, but their job can also involve finding information from existing archives when public officials or private citizens make specific requests.
• Filing and storing data properly - The filing, digitization, and general safekeeping of documentation is another key duty of municipal clerks.
• Prepare civic needs reports - Municipal clerks usually prepare research or technical reports on civic needs from time to time.
• Financial tasks - They often deal with financial records too. However, if there is a municipal comptroller, they’ll likely take care of this work. If not, municipal clerks will undertake budget responsibilities, such as helping with budget admin, expenditure review, and budget preparation. Aside from analyzing financial records, they will also record and maintain various financial/account records.

‍

While you work to hire the right people, Town Web can help by building a new, high-quality site for your town or city. If you’re interested, you can request a quote through our website.

‍

‍

‍

Municipal clerk job requirements

Let’s explore what an applicant usually needs. Here are some of the normal requirements of becoming a municipal clerk:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., public admin or business admin).
• Appropriate computer skills.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Excellent people skills.
• Strong performer when it comes to organizing and managing time.
• Can transcribe.
• An understanding of various laws, whether on a local, state, or federal level.
• Financial bookkeeping.
• Digital data management.

You may decide that they must have previous experience in a similar role, or, if you’d like, you can list this as preferable. In general, it’s up to you whether or not to class any of the above as a requirement or just preferable.

‍

Examples of municipal clerk jobs

To give you a sense of city clerk jobs in practice, let’s look at some real job descriptions.

First, here’s an example of a city clerk job ad for High Point, North Carolina, on the jobs site Glassdoor:

‍

‍

Below is a second example, as taken from the jobs site Monster. It shows a job description for the Deputy City Clerk of Eastpointe, Michigan:

‍

‍

Municipal clerk job ad template

Now here’s a template of what you may want to include in a municipal clerk job ad:

We are currently seeking a city clerk to undertake a range of duties that will serve the local council and the general public. We need someone with all the relevant skills suitable for a job as varied and important as the city clerk. If you believe you tick the boxes and have what it takes to become a municipal clerk, read on.

‍

What is a clerk? City Clerk Job Description:

As the city’s clerk, you must prepare and maintain official documentation, financial records, and various reports while making sure that citizens can access public records. You will also need to take meeting minutes regularly and undertake transcription work, archiving, and digital data management. It will also be part of your job to help organize city elections which take place on a bi-annual basis.

‍

What does a city clerk do?

• Record and edit council meeting minutes.
• Archive relevant documentation and reports (e.g., resolutions and proclamations).
• Financial tasks such as bookkeeping.
• Put together civic needs reports.
• Dictate and transcribe.
• Organize city elections.
• Act as a liaison between city officials and the general public.
• Use computer databases and software, primarily for recording and archiving.

‍

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in business admin, public admin, or a related field.
• Previous employment as a municipal clerk or related role.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Experience with transcription.
• Financial bookkeeping skills.
• Computer skills and experience with various software applications.
• Great communication and interpersonal skills.

‍

Municipal clerk responsibilities FAQs

Q: How many hours does the average municipal clerk do?

A: It may surprise you that most municipal clerks do 40 hours a week and no more. But in many cases, municipal clerks will need to occasionally do evening or weekend work. This might happen if meetings are held outside of regular office hours or for events such as city elections.

‍

Q: Who does a municipal clerk primarily work with?

A: Mostly, municipal clerks work directly with the local mayor and city council. They may also work in conjunction with the managing directors of a range of municipal admin departments.

‍

Q: What is the average salary of a municipal clerk? 

A: In the United States, municipal clerks tend to have salaries in the region of $44,000 to $54,000. The average figure, according to Salary.com, is $49,164. In some cases, the figure will fall below $40K, while on other occasions, city clerks may even see salaries in excess of $60K. Factors like where they are applying, how much experience they have, and the scale of the job can all play a role in shaping the salary of a municipal clerk. After all, working as a clerk for a small rural town is likely to pay quite a bit less than that of a city clerk for a major American city like Los Angeles, California or Dallas, Texas.

‍

Learn more through our blog

Today we looked at the various duties of a municipal clerk. Beyond that, we touched on what you might want to list as the requirements or preferences when hiring. We also explored a job ad template and existing job examples.

If you want to know more about municipality promotion, check out our blog! We explore topics like government chatbots and cyber security for municipalities.

‍