City clerk, assistants keep NYM moving forward

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Darla Berry, city clerk at New York Mills, will reach the two-year mark with her job on Nov. 1. She says it’s been a rewarding two years as she and her assistants help keep the wheels of city government moving forward.

As city clerk she’s the primary financial/administrative person for the city.

Berry prepares the city budget, reports to the city council about financial affairs and maintains the general ledger and related accounting system. She prepares the agenda and take minutes at city council meetings.

“I advise the city council on matters which need addressing,” Berry said. “I’m the person responsible for the administration work for all employment matters.”

Berry generally does all the payroll work, although her administrative assistants (Cheri Kopveiler and Jenny Geiser) both do payroll, on occasion.

Berry is the TIF administrator for the city on all tax increment financing districts. There currently are eight districts that are active, while two others have been decertified.

“Officially, I keep the minute book of the city council, keep the ordinance book, act as the bookkeeper of the city, keep all related records, give all required notices of regular and special elections and administer all elections for the city,” Berry said.

If that weren’t enough she serves as the custodian of the city’s seal and records, signs all official papers, posts and/or publishes notices, ordinances, and resolutions as required and performs all other appropriate duties as imposed by the city council.

Geiser has worked as administrative assistant with the city over five years. She does most of the utility billing, although Kopveiler sometimes does some of this.

“Since New York Mills is a gas utility along with water and sewer, the utility billing is a big job,” Berry said. “With tough economic times like now, collection efforts are a big part of Jenny’s job. I also rely a lot on Jenny for back up for things I need done, especially if I’m going to be out of the office.”

Geiser has a lot of expertise in the area of employment law/benefits, so she helps administer routine matters in those areas. She was instrumental in getting the current Employee Handbook written and approved by the city council. She served as interim city clerk for three months before Berry started, so she’s handled a lot of clerk duties as needed.

“Jenny and Cheri both routinely work on the accounts payable throughout the month as needed,” Berry said.

Kopveiler has worked as administrative assistant a little over two years.

“Cheri does a lot of the special projects that come up,” Berry said. “For instance, we’ve been working on revising our entire zoning ordinance for over two years, and she works on that project a lot. She does most of the zoning related administrative work.”

Kopveiler also takes care of the administrative work for the EDA Committee. This includes maintaining the documentation for economic development loans and repayments schedules.

“Cheri is our primary person for any type of graphic design that we need done,” Berry said. “Examples include the brochures for our Country View Housing Development. Cheri also is assigned to take care of working on our website, to bring it current and expand it to include many more features/information than it has had previously.”

Kopveiler backs up both Berry’s work and Geiser’s work as needed.

“Cheri also has a large role in all elections, as she brings years of experience as an election judge/township official,” Berry said, “and she has a lot of experience in running elections.”