Town Trustees Approve Appointment of Bowman as Town Clerk; Seeking Admin. Secretary Position

During the August 20 Town of Lake City Board of Trustees meeting, Trustees and Mayor Dave Roberts voted unanimously to appoint Deputy Town Clerk Christina Bowman as Town Clerk, replacing former Clerk Grant Massey, who resigned his post August 5. Trustees also formally accepted Massey’s resignation at the meeting.
Bowman, who is also co-owner of Sportsman’s Barbecue in Wade’s Addition, was hired earlier this year to take some of the burden off of Massey, serving as deputy to the Town Clerk, processing payroll, preparing bills payable for town meetings and processing water billing and payments.
According to Town Manager Lex Mulhall, Bowman quickly learned her job, describing her as “extremely astute” when it came to treasurer’s duties and accounting tasks. It was with this in mind that upon Massey’s departure, Mulhall and Bowman decided to reassess and restructure the Town office, with Mulhall as Manager, Bowman as lead Clerk, and bringing in a third person as Administrative Secretary.
In the August 20 Town meeting, Mulhall said, “someone who can answer the phone, handle walk-ins, process and issue the unbelievably huge amounts of gym memberships coming in. Someone who can take that burden off the Town Clerk so they can focus on tasks that really require focus, that are nearly impossible to complete effectively and accurately when being interrupted all the time, all day long.”
Trustees unanimously approved Bowman’s appointment, and also unanimously approved action to create the position of Administrative Secretary with a pay scale of $35,360 to $47,840.
The new hire will act not only as receptionist, but will also have several administrative and customer service roles as well, including responding to public needs, ordering supplies, handing out applications and forms, receiving payments from the public, serving as primary contact with the public in response to inquiries related to the operations of the Town, retrieving, opening and processing mail, as well as ensuring all information on the Town’s website is updated and maintained correctly, scheduling meetings for the Town Manager and publishing public meeting notices for the Town Board of Trustees, Historic Preservation Commission, and Planning and Zoning Commission.
Bowman is scheduled to be sworn in as Town Clerk during the September 3 regular Board of Trustees meeting.