Public criticism is part of the job. Sometimes it comes through a meeting. Sometimes it lands in your inbox. Sometimes it shows up online and starts gaining wider traction. If you work in a clerk’s or manager’s office, you’re often right in the middle of it. You’re tracking what happened, what was decided, and how [...]
Board and commission appointments do not follow a single timeline Board and commission appointments rarely follow a single timeline. Terms expire at different points. Vacancies come up unexpectedly. Applications can arrive in waves, trickles, or not at all. Even so, the underlying process is more consistent than it may appear. Most clerk and manager offices [...]
In every community, boards and committees are where much of the real work of local government happens. Appointments are made, terms are tracked, vacancies open, and residents look for ways to get involved. Keeping all of that organized, accurate, and easy to find is not a small task. In Waterford, Connecticut, that work is handled [...]
Updated 4/18/2026 Today, an interim final rule was released from the Department of Justice, extending the effective date for compliance with its new website accessibility rules by one year. The new deadlines are now April 26, 2027 for government entities with populations of 50,000 and above, and April 26, 2028 for government entities with populations [...]
A moment to recognize the work counties do every day April is National County Government Month, an annual observance organized by the National Association of Counties. Since 1991, counties across the country have used the month to help residents better understand the services county government provides and the people who make those services possible. If [...]
We’ll be attending the North Carolina Association of Counties meeting this month, so it’s fitting to highlight the host community, Craven County, NC. Craven County is home to New Bern, one of North Carolina’s oldest cities and the state’s former colonial capital. That history is still visible in the county’s civic identity today. When a [...]
After your governing body approves your community’s strategic plan, the next step is turning that direction into steady, day-to-day governance work. For clerks, managers, and staff, that means confirming the official record, clarifying responsibility for each priority, aligning goals with agendas and budgets, scheduling regular reviews, and documenting progress. The processes are already in place. [...]
Local government work leaves little room for guesswork. When a question comes in, the responsibility is not to respond quickly. It is to respond correctly. That does not require having every detail memorized. It requires knowing where the right answer lives, who holds it, and how to get there without creating risk. That skill shows [...]
In Brookings, boards and commissions are part of everyday municipal work. Member terms expire. Seats open. Applications come in. The clerk’s office keeps that information accurate, current, and available to the public, even when details span multiple boards and timelines. Brookings uses OnBoardGOV to manage board and commission records and to receive volunteer applications. Board [...]
Some days, the reasons are not obvious. You deal with deadlines that do not move, questions that arrive late, and frustration that is often aimed at the process rather than the people keeping it intact. You absorb stress that does not belong to you because someone has to. And still, there are reasons many people [...]