The Salem City Council Committee of the Whole reviewed City Clerk Eileen Simons’ progress on five goals set at her September 2024 reappointment and voted unanimously on Feb. 12 to refer her reappointment to the full City Council with a positive recommendation.

Committee members said the most advanced goal was implementation of new agenda and board-portal software and related public access steps. City Clerk Eileen Simons told the committee she has completed initial agenda publications to the public portal and the board portal, held staff and board training sessions, and provided printed help materials for councilors. She said department heads are currently placing PDFs in a shared folder that clerks staff then incorporate into the portal while the mayor’s office and departments finish transitioning to direct entry.

The committee’s nut graf: councilors praised the improved transparency but pressed for clearer, repeatable procedures so future agendas and backup materials reliably appear in the public shared drive and portal. Several councilors said the portal will take time to use well during meetings and requested further training for staff and councilors and better folder organization so the public can find materials by committee or item.

On public document accessibility, Simons described work to make committee backup materials available on a public shared drive and persistent links on the city council website. She said staff and IT worked with the CivicPlus vendor to resolve access issues and circulated a written shared-drive procedure to councilors in January. Councilors asked clerk staff to confirm that recently submitted items—specifically a Home Rule petition discussed at prior meetings—appear in the correct subfolder; Simons said she would double-check and ensure materials referred to committees are uploaded in a timely fashion.

For customer service, Simons said she arranged a training session through an employee assistance vendor (All One Health/Meyer) in late January that was open to other departments and covered best practices, including working with limited-English staff and customers. She said staff ranked additional training topics and she plans to schedule quarterly sessions if possible. Councilors and public commenters noted the link between DEI and customer service and encouraged continued training and possible recordings or slides to allow staff who cannot attend to access the content.

On diversity, equity and inclusion integration, Simons reported that two bilingual elections staff completed language assessments that make them eligible for stipends and that she has met with the city solicitor and the director of DEI to plan additional training. She provided the committee with vendor quotes for Spanish translation and said recruitment of additional bilingual poll workers is underway. Simons also told the committee that, since 2022, ballots have been bilingual at Salem polling places and that the U.S. Department of Justice visited Salem polling places in 2022 and 2024; she said DOJ’s review did not identify outstanding deficiencies.

Simons described recurring coordination meetings with the mayor’s office to streamline agenda flow and document handling; she said she and mayoral staff meet roughly monthly and will continue to refine the process for getting materials into the shared drive and portal. Several councilors asked that such meetings be held only when there is substantive business to cover.

Public comment at the committee meeting included praise for Simons’ work from Alexandra Pineros Shields, chair of the Board of Registrars, who urged additional milestones for transparency and greater outreach to underrepresented voters; resident Tom Fiore who commended the clerk’s office for its institutional role; and resident Alyssa Rose Martin who called for future measures that track not just actions but impact (for example, whether language access is reaching voters on the ground).

The committee’s formal action: Councilor Marcello moved and Councilor Hobby seconded a motion to refer Simons’ appointment to the full council with a positive recommendation. The committee chair called the voice vote and recorded the referral as unanimous among those present (9 in favor, 0 opposed). The referral will appear on the full council agenda the next day.

The meeting lasted about 82 minutes. Councilors and commenters repeatedly framed the five goals as ongoing work rather than one-time items; several asked the council president to consider a regular feedback or milestone process outside the reappointment schedule so progress on transparency, customer service and voter outreach is tracked year-round.

Votes at a glance: The committee unanimously voted to refer the clerk’s reappointment to the full City Council with a positive recommendation (motion to refer moved by Councilor Marcello, seconded by Councilor Hobby; tally 9–0).