Article 26: Assistant Town Clerk – $44,662

Shall the Town of Hampton raise and appropriate the sum of $44,662.00 for the purpose of hiring a full-time Assistant Town Clerk?

NOTE: The warrant article contains the cost for 39 weeks from April 1, 2018 to December31, 2018.  Total yearly cost is $59,549.

What it means: A new person would be added to the staff at Town Hall, with the task of being the second in command to the Town clerk, and helping to manage the Town Clerk responsibilities, including Motor Vehicle Registrations, Boat Registrations, Dog Licensing, OHRV Registrations, Hunting & Fishing Licenses, Vital Records & Marriage Licenses, Voter Registration, Election Administration (Day of as well as preparation months before including Absentee Ballots), Beach & Transfer Station Decals, Oaths of Office, Filing of Articles of Agreement, Filing of Burial Transit Permits, Filing of Wetlands Applications, Record Retention and Notary Services.

If successful, a full year’s salary would be $59,549. The first year would start in April so the 2018 cost is less.

Those in favor say: Often, there is a long line of people waiting to be served at Town Clerk’s Office.  The existing staff is not sufficient to handle the ever-increasing workload on a normal day.  On days when some members of the team are not available for any number of reasons (illness, family emergency, vacation, etc), the Town Clerk needs to stand in.  But at certain times such as the ramp-up to Town Meeting, this is not feasible.  The volume of work since 2007 has increased almost 25% since 2007, yet staff hours are identical.

Those against say: A speaker at Deliberative Session noted that window hours have been re-structured so that the windows are open more hours Monday – Thursday and close early on Friday (a total of 39.5 hours per week). Although not clear, presumably the point was that more people would come later in the day on Friday if the windows were open then, thus reducing the lines during the rest of the week.

Fiscal Impact: The average Hampton home valued at $408,000 would bear an increased tax cost of $6.93 for a 52- week period if this Article passes.