Former Councilor Selected As New Council Clerk

Former City Councillor Clifford Cunningham will be back in the council chambers next month, but in a new role. On Monday night, the council voted 9-0 to appoint Cunningham as the new clerk to the city council. He will replace long-time council clerk Paul Casino. Last year, Casino announced his intention to retire at the end of 2022, but has stayed in his position on a temporary basis while the council has sought his replacement. “As folks know, our beloved city council clerk is leaving, and we were really in crunch time to fill his position, and we were fortunate enough to be able to find someone in a former city councilor, Clifford Cunningham,” said  Councilor-at-Large Damali Vidot, who chaired the subcommittee in charge of the search process. “We really had a beautiful interview and a really robust dialogue. We’re looking forward to him serving with us; he has big shoes to fill, but I have no doubt that he’ll be able to fulfill all the duties of that role.” The starting salary for the position is $54,819.06, and Cunningham is slated to begin his new position on April 3. There will be a 12-month probationary period as part of the job, and Cunningham will have six months to apply for and complete an online parliamentarian course with an average of at least 70. Vidot said the online course was added to the requirements of the position because there were not many people who applied for the job who were registered parliamentarians. In other business, the council officially voted on the recommendation of members to serve on a screening committee to help select a new city manager. That committee will go through applications, conduct interviews, and select a handful of candidates for the council to interview to find a replacement for former City Manager Thomas Ambrosino. The full members are Fidel Maltez, Joan Cromwell, Michelle Nadow, and Juan Vega. The alternate members selected by the committee are Jen Hassell and Jonathan Gomez-Pereira. Eugene O’Flaherty was previously appointed by Council President Leo Robinson to chair the screening committee. “A lot of residents put their names in, and we had some heated debates, but we think we have a great combination of folks from the community involved to help us get through this very difficult and very serious business,” said District 8 Councilor Calvin Brown. Vidot noted that councilors have been meeting with the Collins Center, which is facilitating the search process, to find out the priorities each councilor has for a new city manager. “They will then take that information and create a profile to help the steering committee and guide them in the search for a new city manager,” said Vidot.

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