The longtime Rockmart City Clerk is now getting a new job title and will be specifically handling finances, while another city employee will be moving into a new role as well after the council approved of changes to the charter to create new roles.

Longtime clerk Pam Herring, who served in the role for over 19 years since May 2001, is now the Chief Financial Officer after the council approved her appointment to the role. Her new duties will be completely related to finances, and council members voted for her appointment with the understanding that a job performance evaluation will be created around the role freshly added to the city’s organization chart.

Council member Marty Robinson requested that a job evaluation be created to ensure the city and Herring in her new role start on the right foot and that expectations for what she’ll be doing as Chief Financial Officer overseeing the city’s coffers are in place. His goal was to avoid a situation where months into the job she faces an evaluation and no one know what the job performance standards should be.

Herring said with the new role’s creation and her appointment, half of her previous duties as city clerk will remain in her office. She oversees everything from payroll processing to ensuring bills are paid on time, making sure the city has money for future projects and tracking the value fixed assets, like buildings and heavy equipment.

After approving Herring for her new role, council members unanimously approved Stacey Smith to take over as city clerk. She previously served as the Director of Community Development for the city, overseeing business, building and code compliance-related issues. Smith will take over several of the previous duties of the clerk with the new transition.

The change in roles over finances for the City of Rockmart came as the new fiscal year is getting underway for the city, and Herring said that once final bills are tallied for FY 2020 she’ll be submitting the final financial report for the council to review and prepare for the coming audit of the city’s books for the year.