Welcome to the Town Clerk�s Corner

My name is Carol Simpkins  I serve as the Town Clerk for the Town of Lake Park. You may see me at the meetings of the Town Commission or at any of the various Board meetings held in the Town.

I�d like to take this opportunity to let you know about the services provided by my office. Many people aren�t aware of exactly what a Town Clerk is. Unfortunately because of the title �clerk� the function of the position is sometimes diminished.  Many years ago, Professor William Bennett Monro, described the Town Clerk position this way: �No other office in municipal governments has so many contacts.  It serves the Mayor, the City Council, the City Manager and all other City Departments, without exception.  All of them call upon it daily for some service or information.  Its work is not spectacular, but it demands versatility, alertness, accuracy and no end of patience. The public does not realize how many loose ends of city administration it pulls together.�

The Town Clerk�s Office is the clearinghouse for dissemination of information. Anyone who requests copies of any documents, such as leases, contracts, correspondence, minutes or tapes of meetings (Commission or Boards), Meeting Agendas, etc. must go through the Town Clerk�s Office.

The Town Clerk compiles the Commission Agenda, prepares the packets and delivers them to the Commissioners on the Friday night prior to the Commission meeting. S/he is also responsible for attending the meetings, recording the proceedings, and transcribing the minutes, which are kept in a binder for review by the public. On the morning after the Commission meeting, the Clerk compiles a listing of directives made by the Commission at the prior night�s meeting, along with a Synopsis of the meeting for dissemination at a Staff meeting held that day with all of the Town Department Directors. It is at this meeting that the Agenda for the following Commission meeting, containing directives from the Commission is formulated.  A follow-up Staff meeting is held the following week to provide the Clerk with appropriate documentation or add items to the Agenda based upon the possible need for Commission approval of an issue that has transpired since the last meeting.

If an Ordinance has appeared before the Commission on first reading, the Clerk must advertise the Second Reading of the Ordinance in the largest newspaper with general circulation ten days prior to the Commission Meeting where it will be heard for Final Adoption.

The Town Clerk is also responsible for all of the Town�s eleven advisory boards.  In order to serve on a Town Board, one must complete an application which is submitted to the Clerk. Board attendance is vital for a Board to function properly.  The Clerk must monitor Board attendance and once a Board member exceeds the permitted absences, he or she must be terminated from the Board. When a vacancy occurs on a Board, applications are compiled by the Clerk and a ballot is prepared for submission to the Commission at the next meeting.  Once a new Board member is appointed, the Clerk notifies the member in writing, enclosing pertinent material concerning the Board. The Board member must then appear before the Clerk to be sworn in, either at her office or at the next meeting of the Board.

The Town Clerk also serves as the Supervisor of Elections for the Town.  It is his/her responsibility to coordinate each election, which includes qualifying the candidates, preparing the election precincts, hiring poll workers and coordinating their training. She must also ensure that each candidate completes the proper election campaign reports in a timely manner.  At 6:00 a.m. on the day of the election, she sets up each of the polling places, ensuring that the poll workers have adequate supplies. After the polls close that evening, the Clerk is responsible for transporting the ballot boxes to the County Supervisor of Election for tabulation, and announcing the election results to the respective winners.

The Town Clerk is responsible for ensuring that the Town�s Code of Ordinances contains up-to-date information.  Each October, the Clerk compiles all of the Ordinances passed by the Commission during the previous year and sends them to the Municipal Code Corporation.  There the Ordinances are retyped within their specific sections and made a part of the existing Code of Ordinances. The new sections are sent to the Town in May as supplements to the Code and are inserted in each Code Book within the Town.