NORTH ADAMS — For the second time this year, the city is losing its clerk.
Marcus Lyon is resigning from the position later this month, Mayor Jennifer Macksey said on Monday. Reached via email by The Eagle, Lyon declined to comment.
Lyon, a Berkshire native, took the job after his predecessor, Cathleen King, resigned in January. King was clerk for about year before she left for a job at 1Berkshire in marketing. Recently, the council confirmed Joshua Vallieres, a recent Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts graduate, as assistant city clerk.
In North Adams, the city council — not the mayor — hires the city clerk. Council Vice President Peter Oleskiewicz said that he anticipated they will soon post the job opening. But often, they struggle to attract candidates because of the pay, he said.
Compared with other cities, he said, “we’re really on the low end of the spectrum.”
The job pays $55,153, according to the 2022 fiscal year budget. The same year, the city clerk in Pittsfield pay was budgeted at $75,825, according to the city’s budget.
Council President Lisa Blackmer said earlier this year that salary has been a challenge in hiring for the job in the past. All councilors at a meeting in February voted to confirm Lyon as clerk, but Councilors Jennifer Barbeau and Marie Harpin said they had issues with the process.
The clerk is a crucial position, councilors say.
“A lot of important stuff goes through that office,” Councilor Keith Bona said. With Lyon’s resignation and a new assistant clerk, he worried about lacking election expertise in the office.
There is an election coming up in the fall, Oleskiewicz pointed out. “It’s just state election, but at the end of the day there’s still an election November.”
The council needs to find candidates for the job, Bona said, but “now they are going to question, why are we losing city clerks?”