For the fifth time in as many years, Bucyrus will have a new city council clerk.
Council members, in a special meeting Oct. 16, voted 6-1 to hire Michelle Mostoller to fill the position, starting Oct. 20.
The only dissenting vote came from Councilwoman Vicki Dishon, Republican at-large.
Legislation to employ the new clerk sets the compensation at $25.25 per hour, “together with the available health insurance and sick leave entitlements.”
Mostoller’s position is not union and reports directly to the president of Bucyrus City Council.
For now, the clerk’s boss is Kurt Fankhauser, but his term as council president expires at the end of the year — he is not seeking re-election.
Voters will decide in the Nov. 4 general election if the city’s new council president will be Kevin S. Myers or Greg White.
‘One of the most important city employee jobs’
Having an experienced clerk is critical to council’s success, the body’s president says.
“Other than certain elected positions within the city, the clerk’s job is probably one of the most important city employee jobs,” Fankhauser said.
A few of the clerk’s many duties include preparing agendas, documenting meeting minutes, calling the roll, tallying votes and maintaining city records.
“One of the most important things is the permanent record books,” Fankhauser said. “That’s legally required by Ohio Revised Code to have those. All the minutes and the ordinances and resolutions have to make it into those permanent record books.”
For the city to remain compliant, someone must regularly complete those tasks.
“It’s not good for the city when there’s high turnover in the council clerk’s office,” Fankhauser said. “There’s a lot of legal things that need to be done and followed.”
The council president said clerks become more valuable as they gain experience and build a personal knowledge of the city’s history.
“I think it takes two years to figure this job fully out,” Fankhauser said. “There’s things that come up yearly … you need to go through a couple cycles of all that in order to get in the routine.”
‘This job needs to be somewhere around $30 an hour’
The council clerk is required by Bucyrus law to attend all regular and special meetings of city council, as well as council committees.
The clerk could earn time-and-a-half for working longer than 40 hours each week, but Fankhauser said overtime has rarely been approved by any council president because of budget constraints. Instead, the clerk earns “flex time” for working late meetings throughout the week, then typically uses those accruals to leave early Friday afternoon.
The odd hours, combined with the unique skillset required by the job, can make it a challenge for council to find the right person.
“There are other government jobs out there that are better hours that have less work,” Fankhauser said. “When one of those becomes available, why would you stay here?”
He thinks a few of the city’s recent council clerks have left the position specifically because of pay. Until this spring, clerks had earned $20 an hour before the rate was raised to $25.25 per hour.
“I think this job needs to be somewhere around $30 an hour,” Fankhauser said. “The council president does not set the pay.”
ztuggle@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Members of Bucyrus City Council voted to hire Michelle Mostoller as their new clerk
Reporting by Zach Tuggle, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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