The City of Powder Springs issued the following press release:

A proclamation issued by the City of Powder Springs on Monday resolves that the week of May 1 through May 7, 2022, is designated as “Professional Municipal Clerks Week.” 

Unanimously adopted by the City Council, the proclamation extends appreciation to all municipal and deputy clerks for the services with which they provide their communities. Specifically, the proclamation cites that the clerk “serves as the professional link between the citizens, the local governing bodies and agencies of government at other levels.”

The proclamation was presented to City Clerk Kelly Axt and Deputy City Clerk Tamara Newkirt, and signed by Mayor Al Thurman. It also honors municipal and deputy clerks for “continually striving to improve the administration of their duties through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops and annual meetings of their state, province, county and international professional organizations.”

The International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC), a professional association of city, town, township, village, borough, deputy and county clerks, sponsors Municipal Clerks Week. IIMC has 14,700 members throughout the United States, Canada and 15 other countries.

IIMC President Sheri Pierce, MMC, and city clerk for the City of Valdez, Alaska, urges municipal and deputy clerks to highlight the importance of their roles and functions and the impact the municipal clerk’s office has on the public.

Quoting Professor William Bennett Munro — author of one of the first textbooks written on the topic of municipal administration — Pierce shares, “No other office in municipal service has so many contacts. It serves the mayor, the city council, the city manager, and all administrative departments, without exception. All of them call upon it, almost daily, for some service or information.”

“The functions of the clerk necessitate a thorough knowledge of law procedure, administration and interpersonal relations,” Pierce added, further challenging clerks to fervently pursue continuing education opportunities and professional networking to “establish [their] proper role as a member of the municipal executive team.” 

Kelly Axt has served as Powder Springs’ city clerk since December 2014 and Newkirt has been Powder Springs’ deputy city clerk since Aug. 2020.