Lillian Drane, in the midst of her first 3-year term, earns Certified Massachusetts Municipal Clerk designation
LAKEVILLE – With at least a half dozen other official duties attached to her full-time job as Town Clerk of Lakeville, Lillian Drane might wear up to seven hats in one day, if she planned it right.
Recently recognized by the Mass. Town Clerk’s Association as a Certified Massachusetts Municipal Clerk (CCMC), Drane is about two-thirds of the way through her first three-year term as Lakeville’s elected clerk, responsible for maintaining official town records, running elections, and providing expertise to all on how state law impacts local affairs.
In addition to being the elected town clerk, she is also the town’s chief elections officer, a mandated member of the Board of Registrars, a commission able to administer oaths of office, the town’s liason to the federal census bureau, de facto burial agent, and the official Super Records Access Officer of Lakeville.
If each separate duty came with an official hat, that’s a lot of hats for one person to be wearing.
Official duties aside, Drane also manages to serve the community as a notary public and a justice of the peace, two other recognized positions of local authority in the Commonwealth.
Last winter, she was adding her studies of the long list of state laws on the books to the list of things to do, as she prepared for the rigorous 300-question exam that was the final step in her qualification for CMMC certification.
“There’s 472 chapters of Mass. General Laws that I have to enforce” as a town clerk, she noted. The studying and the testing included general law; election law; related election policies and procedures; standards for keeping public records; reporting requirements; campaign finance reporting; and so much more, she indicated.
Just to be eligible for certification, “you have to accumulate seven years of experience as an assistant town clerk, then be the town clerk for three years,” she explained. Then, going to seminars and studying for the exam... “it’s a lot of work” to get certified by the state association, Drane said.
It is the second professional certification she has collected during an 11-year residency in the Lakeville town clerk’s office, she said. She was the assistant town clerk from 2007 to 2014, and completed the required coursework from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks to become a Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) several years ago.
Before that, she spent several years working in the treasurer’s office, and has served on the Cemetery Commission and the Library Gallery Arts Committee.
Her most recent certification is a highlight of her professional career in public service, Drane suggested, pointing out its place of honor on a filing cabinet in her office.
“I’m very proud of this... I’ve been in this office for 11 years, and 18 years altogether in town hall,” she noted. “I’m the only town clerk to be certified by the state association who is already a Certified Municipal Clerk,” she explained.
The more education and experience a town clerk can collect, the better, Drane said, calling the position “a complex job” governed by both state law and local bylaws and regulations. In a small town like Lakeville, the “default” duties are many, she indicated.
“We’re getting ready for the 2020 federal census,” reporting all new addresses and residents to the federal government in advance of the start of the local count, Drane said in her capacity as liason to the census bureau.
As chief elections officer, she is also a default member of the Board of Registrars, an advisory position that ensures the three registrars follow the letter of the law regarding voter affairs. As a Commissioner to Qualify, she is authorized to administers oaths to newly-elected officials; as the town burial agent, she is the person to see for the local permit needed for a burial.
Her newest unpaid and usually mandated position is being the town’s Super Records Access Officer, assigned to help citizens track down and obtain public information from other town departments.
Being a notary is useful in the records business, and the justice of the peace job is.... well, just a convenient service she provides to the public, she said. “I felt it was something the town needed, so I became one,” providing the occasional private wedding or witnessing a legal proceeding such as a safe deposit box inventory, she explained.
OPPOSED TO JOB CHANGE
The dedication to public service makes her question the reasoning behind the winter initiative to change the town clerk’s job from an elected post to an appointed position, Drane said.
The job has always been an elected one in Lakeville, and in most other places in southeastern Massachusetts, making every third election year a referendum on her job performance, she noted. “If people don’t think I’m doing a good job, they can vote someone else in,” Drane said.
The petition to the state legislature headed to town meeting, to make both the town clerk and treasurer/collector posts appointed positions, was initiated by selectmen, and she thinks it’s “unfair,” she said.
“The townspeople should make the choice, like they always have... not just three people,” she feels. “I don’t understand it, the motivation behind it,” she said of the change proposed by selectmen, who would be the appointing authority for the position if the legislative request is approved by local voters.
Only 21 percent of Massachusetts cities and towns have appointed town clerks, Drane pointed out, and there is no great trend toward eliminating elected clerks elsewhere in the state.
Lakeville has done fine with an elected town clerk for the past 165 years, and she sees no reason to change the local tradition now.
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