The Original Public Servant: Inside the Office of the City Clerk

You can learn a lot about a city by following its paper trail and in Raymore, that trail runs through the City Clerk’s office. We sit down with City Clerk Erica Hill to explain what the job really looks like day to day: protecting permanent records, handling public meeting minutes, maintaining the Raymore code of ordinances and making sure official actions become searchable, signed and preserved. If you’ve ever wondered where to find council packets, ordinances or City records online, we point you to the exact places to look.

We also get into the practical services residents bump into all the time. Erica breaks down business licensing in Raymore, including when a license is required, what documents you may need, the annual renewal cycle and why the end of the year gets so busy. We talk permits too, including neighborhood vehicles like golf carts and side-by-sides, with clear rules around inspections, insurance, licensed drivers and where these vehicles can legally operate on city streets.

Along the way, we give a shout out to Raymore's 149th anniversary of incorporation (March 20, 2026!) and explore Raymore’s municipal history, including the 1923 fire that destroyed earlier records, what the oldest surviving minutes say about life back then and when city ordinances were finally organized into a formal codebook until 1976. We also clarify the difference between the City charter and the Code of Ordinances. Finally, we walk through how to volunteer for Raymore boards and commissions, what the application process looks like and how appointments happen when vacancies open up. If this helped you understand local government a little better, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more neighbors can find it.

Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications

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Transcript

Meet City Clerk Erica Hill

Melissa Harmer 0:10

Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of Raymore's official podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Harmer, communications director for the City. Before we talk with our guest today, I want to share some fascinating history about the history of the position of the city clerk. The clerk is the oldest position in local government, along with the tax collector. In ancient Greece, there was a city secretary who read official documents publicly, and when a meeting started, one of the first duties of that clerk was to decree a curse upon anyone who should seek to deceive the people. Interesting, our clerk does not do that. The city clerk is mentioned in the Bible. A mob wanted to seize two of St. Paul's followers, but the clerk broke up the crowd and reminded them that, you know, any charges against them had to be settled in the proper manner and before the proper authorities. We see this position in ancient Rome, early France. It was the mayor of the palace. That was what it was called in France. In England, in the Middle Ages, um, the office of the clerk can be traced back to 1272 AD in the history of the Corporation of Old London. The clerk back then was called the Remembrancer, and their duty was to remind the counselors what happened at previous meetings, because back then there were no written minutes or records of the meetings. And then when the early colonists came to America, they set up local forms of government similar to what they were already familiar with, and the office of the clerk was one of the first to be established. Plymouth, Massachusetts. Top priority was appointing a recorder who kept all of the vital records for births, marriages, deaths, and other records of appointments, deeds, meetings, and the election of officers. So the city clerk truly ties all of the pieces of our administrative departments together and acts as the historian of the city in keeping our records and so much more than that that we will learn today. We are talking with City Clerk Erica Hill. Erica, welcome.

Erica Hill 2:13

Thank you.

Melissa Harmer 2:14

Just tell us a little bit about you.

Erica Hill 2:18

I have been a Raymore resident for about the last 14 years. Grew up in South Kansas City, so I've always been kind of close. Both of my kids, uh one graduated from Ray-Pec. He's in the DC area now. Uh my other child is a junior at Ray-Pec, so he'll he'll graduate from there as well.

Melissa Harmer 2:38

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Erica Hill 2:40

Um, I am a plant collector.

Melissa Harmer 2:43

You are a plant lady.

Erica Hill 2:44

I am a plant lady. Um I I've recently tried to pare down my collection at home. I'm I'm down to 65 plants at home.

Melissa Harmer 2:55

Well, if you need to give any away, I'm here. Just letting you know.

Erica Hill 2:59

But I feel like I have too many. I just start bringing them into the office.

Melissa Harmer 3:03

So we'll look forward to that for your culling of the plants, okay?

Erica Hill 3:06

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Melissa Harmer 3:08

And how long have you been with the City of Raymore and how did you come into this role of city clerk?

Erica Hill 3:14

I have been with Raymore since August of 2012. So I'm working on my, I'm in the 13th year. Um I started as deputy city clerk, and in November of 2020, I was appointed to city clerk position.

What The City Clerk Actually Does

Melissa Harmer 3:27

What does that entail? What are some of your duties? What are the things that you take care of? Oh, it's a long list. It's a long list.

Erica Hill 3:35

Um we do one of my the main duties is that I'm the custodian of records. So all the permanent records are under my my control is kind of a broad word for it. Also, all the all the record requests come through me, except for police department. They they handle their own requests. They're they have more sensitive information than than goes through my office.

Melissa Harmer 3:59

Sure.

Permits For Neighborhood Vehicles

Erica Hill 3:59

I handle the the updating of the city code. We do licensing for businesses, um, contractors that are doing work in the city, liquor licenses, fireworks tent permits, and oddly enough, um neighborhood vehicle permits.

Melissa Harmer 4:17

All right, you want to talk a little bit really quickly about neighborhood vehicles? Because I know that we have some in town, and sometimes people are out there without their little registration stickers on there.

Erica Hill 4:27

Yes, neighborhood vehicles are required to have a permit. It'll require an inspection if it's over two years old. Everybody is supposed to have vehicle insurance on the permit. It's supposed to be a 16-year-old licensed driver.

Melissa Harmer 4:40

And neighborhood vehicles are golf carts, UTVs, side-by side.

Erica Hill 4:46

Golf carts, side-by-side UTVs. Yes. And they can only drive on streets that are 35 miles an hour, speed limit, or under.

Melissa Harmer 4:54

Yes, correct. No sidewalks, no parks, no park trails. Essentially like a real vehicle, except that not on 58 highway, not on Dean.

Erica Hill 5:05

Yes.

Council Agendas Minutes And Records

Melissa Harmer 5:05

Got it. So, and then council agendas are another uh another one of the things that you're kind of overseeing. So tell us what happens with the council agenda. How are they built? Who contributes? What's your role during the council meetings?

Erica Hill 5:19

So all of staff contributes to council agendas. Um, if they have items that are that need to go before the council, they'll contribute and submit their items for review. Um, then once once we have approval to move forward with with putting all of that together, it gets reviewed by a number of different people to make sure that it's as it needs to be to present to council for for their consideration.

Melissa Harmer 5:45

And then those items we're talking about are bills that once approved by the council become ordinances which are essentially city laws.

Erica Hill 5:54

Yes. Yes, they become laws. Um depending on the the type of law. If it's a law that if it's an ordinance that changes city code, that will be incorporated into well, the city code, which requires a change to that, and that will be reflected in the city code. Um if it's if it's a contract or whether it's something to do with like a plat or a rezoning, that is not require a change to city code. But it is all a permanent record, so that is then stored as a permanent record.

Melissa Harmer 6:27

Right. And where can we find our permanent records?

Erica Hill 6:29

I have a link to all the permanent records and the city code on my section of the website. It's a site called e code. It has all the the city code, permanent records. We have council packets are uploaded there as well as a permanent record. We have minutes for definitely the city council. Um, we're working on getting all the rest of the boards and commissions minutes uploaded into that section as well.

Melissa Harmer 6:53

How nice of you not to call me out right now on my arts commission minutes that I have, but have not gone gotten to you for all of them. So I'm gonna work on that.

Erica Hill 7:02

There are a number of yours that are uploaded right now. So I've got some.

Melissa Harmer 7:06

Okay, good, good, good, good. And then so you're taking the minutes of all of those meetings and you're making sure that once everything is approved, that gets the second and final approval by the council that um it's signed by the right people, and all those contracts then go into effect once they're signed by either the mayor or the city manager and you. Yes. Yeah, depending on what kind of a contract or agreement it is.

Erica Hill 7:32

Absolutely.

Melissa Harmer 7:33

Okay. Our city council meetings, we have essentially second and fourth Mondays of the month are our regular city council meetings where the council does consider bills and those types of items, and then the first and third Mondays of the month at City Hall, 6 p.m., we have work sessions, which are where things are brought up that are going to be for future consideration for the council to be official. And you are taking minutes for all of those, correct?

Erica Hill 8:02

Yes. Yes, yes, take minutes for everything. For all for all the council meetings, yes.

Melissa Harmer 8:08

And is that required by state statute? Or I know some of the things you do are because you're we're directed by state statute, or is that our charter, or is that just good governance in general?

Erica Hill 8:21

There are minutes that are required to be kept for all meetings, for all public meetings, um, whether it's the the city council or the arts commission or planning and zoning, all of those commissions or public entities are required to keep minutes as a record of their meeting.

Melissa Harmer 8:40

You also handle the business licensing process. So, what does that look like for someone who wants to start a business in Raymore?

Erica Hill 8:48

So um if someone wants to start a business in Raymore, we suggest them come start with my office. Um we can walk them through the steps of if they first if they need a license. Um there are certain certain occupations that do not require a license, like a dentist, doctor's office, chiropractor, more service, CPA. However, think of a chiropractor, if they have retail sales, that would require a license. And we'll walk them through the process. There's certain documents they'll have to provide, they'll get approved through a number of different departments. And then once approved, they'll get their license. It's an annual license, it's $100 a year. They all expire December 31st. It's a fairly simple process.

Melissa Harmer 9:29

Yes. And then once that is taken care of, you have, I mean, you keep a list of all the businesses. About how many businesses, active businesses, do we have right now in Raymore?

Erica Hill 9:41

Active Raymore-based businesses, including businesses like based out of homes. We have right around 400. And then we have another, I would say, 800 contractors that do work in Raymore that have an active Raymore license.

Melissa Harmer 9:54

So that's a lot of work that you start doing at the end of the year to make sure that everyone gets their license renewed by December 31st.

Erica Hill 10:03

Yes. We start we start renewing November 1st, and it is a very, very busy end of the year through through usually January.

Melissa Harmer 10:12

I have witnessed that. Yes. It is.

Erica Hill 10:16

No vacations at the end of the year.

Melissa Harmer 10:19

Ongoing education is a big part of a lot of different areas in the city. A lot of our staff uh continues that, which is wonderful because we want to be the best and we want to know about best practices and um keep up with with everybody else and make sure that we're doing our job the way we're supposed to. So, what are some of the organizations you're involved in or the certifications that you have that you have achieved?

Erica Hill 10:45

So I am a member of the Missouri City Clerks and Finance Officers Association. I have one more level to go in their organization before I reach the maximum education level I can receive, which is their Missouri professional city clerk level. Um, I'm gonna put my application in for that here in the next coming months.

Melissa Harmer 11:05

That's exciting.

Erica Hill 11:06

Um I did just receive my 500 hours certificate from them, which that is just the hours of education I have received just from that organization.

Melissa Harmer 11:16

Wow. So and in that in those trainings and things you get to network with other city clerks from around the state as well. Yes, yes.

Erica Hill 11:25

The Missouri City Clerks is only for the state of Missouri. Um I'm also a member of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. I have their first level, they only have two levels of education of certification. Um I'm gonna put my my application in for their second level as well here in the next coming months.

Raymore Records Fire And Early Minutes

Melissa Harmer 11:43

Nice. So it record keeping is of course extremely important, necessary. Let's talk about some of the first records that we have. So if anyone is not aware, March 20th of 2026 will be the city's 149th birthday from the official date that we were incorporated as a city. So watch out for next year because we might be doing some extra things to celebrate 150. We have some old records that have been kept and tell us a little bit about that because we have– our records don't go back to 1877, unfortunately.

Erica Hill 12:23

No, they do not. So I have the oldest records um for the city in my office. There was a fire in 1923 that destroyed all the records prior to that in a bank vault. Um, so the earliest records we have is March 23rd, 1923 for the Board of Trustees for the City of Ray more. It's their minutes from their meeting.

Melissa Harmer 12:47

What kind of things were they talking about back then?

Erica Hill 12:49

Um, not much. Not much. They really just say that they met. Um they talked about like they met at a a store.

Melissa Harmer 12:58

Did they talk about, I think I've looked through some of them. I think one of the things was if they could get electricity for the streetlights back then. I believe that was something that I read about. And um, so just little things, and they're kind of like, do we have the money? Yes, we do. Okay, good.

Erica Hill 13:14

They were very worried about ruts in the dirt roads from wagons. Yes. Um, and if the cattle would shut down the streets during, you know, when school let out.

Melissa Harmer 13:26

That is interesting. That's, what a different world. Yeah. Over a hundred years ago.

Erica Hill 13:31

Yeah. Yeah. Different times, different problems.

Melissa Harmer 13:34

Yes. The problems are always there, they just change a little time goes on. Anything else interesting from our history that has stood out to you? I'll tell you what's interesting to me. The two guys that started this city just started it and left. They didn't stick around. Which is interesting. But I mean, I guess good good for them. They they started something good, but yeah, they just like went back east after everything was started and the railroad came through and, like. bye.

Erica Hill 14:01

Yes. Yeah.

Melissa Harmer 14:02

We talked a little bit about our code, our code of ordinances, which is the law of Raymore, the laws of Raymore. So when did that first come around?

Erica Hill 14:10

Okay, um, so ordinances are passed prior to that being put into a code book. It's just a collection of ordinances. So the laws were there, but they you had to like go through the ordinances to see to know what it was. Raymore first organized their ordinances and had them put into an into a actual codebook that we would know today in 1976.

Melissa Harmer 14:35

Oh wow. So it was around for 99 years, and they're like, hey, let's organize these things.

Erica Hill 14:41

And I do have the original first codebook in my office as well. So if anybody ever wants to see any of these, um come visit. I can, I can show you. It's um they're pretty interesting.

Melissa Harmer 14:51

Any wacky laws?

Erica Hill 14:53

I haven't looked through them all.

Melissa Harmer 14:54

That's okay. Well, take a look, get back to us, fill us in on any anything like that.

Erica Hill 15:00

And in my in my uh vault of old stuff, we have um some of the official ballots from 1977 that have been left over.

Melissa Harmer 15:10

And they're like yellowed pages or so pages and cool, so vintage. Yes. Was it for like mayor, council, anything else on the ballot besides elected officials?

Erica Hill 15:24

For aldermen and city collector.

Melissa Harmer 15:26

Ah. So when we first became a city where it was actually the village of Raymore.

Erica Hill 15:32

Yes.

Melissa Harmer 15:33

And then that was when we had a board of aldermen until we reached a certain population, and then we became a now we're a home rule city. If anyone's interested in that, we do have a little bit of history on that. Um, but yeah, basically, as you as you grow, you kind of like graduate, I guess graduate to different levels of what your local government is made up of.

Erica Hill 15:55

Yep. And then we voted in or the citizens voted in ninety seven, I believe, to become a charter city. Charter City, yes.

Melissa Harmer 16:07

And the charter is our our constitution, basically. Yes. And so that's that's the small the small piece, which is the the very basic rule of law, I guess. Yes. And then the code of ordinances are the more elaborate, uh dialed down, specific type ..

Erica Hill 16:27

The code of ordinances can be changed by city council. The charter has to be changed by a vote of the people.

Volunteering Boards And How To Apply

Melissa Harmer 16:33

And if anyone wants to look at any of these, again, go to our Raymore.com website, click on government and find the city clerk's section of the website, and we have links to the charter and our code. We have links to um council meeting materials and minutes, open records requests, permanent records search, as you mentioned earlier, information about licenses, how you can volunteer to be on a board or commission, and municipal elections. Tell us quickly how how people can volunteer and be involved.

Erica Hill 17:06

Submit an application.

Melissa Harmer 17:08

And we have multiple boards and commissions. So park board, arts commission, planning and zoning. We have a couple others that don't meet quite as often. If if you don't want as much of a commitment, they meet as needed or a couple times a year.

Erica Hill 17:21

Board of adjustment, yeah. Arts Commission, Board of Appeals, all of the all of the boards and commissions. Um, we like to have a collection of applications on file because we never know when we're gonna have a vacancy come available. The more volunteers we have, the better equipped we are to fill those quickly and efficiently.

Melissa Harmer 17:40

Yes. And when you put in your application, it's not long. Your name, your contact information, your address. We want to make sure that you've you have to have lived at your address for two years, is that correct?

Erica Hill 17:50

Um, I think it's six months.

Melissa Harmer 17:51

Oh, six months. Sorry. Uh I might have been thinking about council candidate.

Erica Hill 17:56

Yes, you have to be in your in your in your ward for six months.

Melissa Harmer 17:59

Okay, six months, and then there's a little area where you can kind of talk about why you would like to be involved. And then if you're involved in any other organizations around town or in the in the area, and those are yeah, kept on file for three years and everything goes through you. And then once so, you know, I am the staff liaison for the arts commission, so when anyone applies for the arts commission, you're gonna send that to me and you're gonna send that to the mayor and the city co city manager, and then usually you copy on whatever ward they're from, those council members, just so they're aware that someone from their ward is interested in serving.

Erica Hill 18:37

Yes.

Melissa Harmer 18:38

And then yeah, once we have a vacancy, we'll look through the applications and reach out. And if you're still interested, then you're appointed by the by the mayor. He kind of clears it with city council at a work session, and then at the next meeting, it's just a one-time vote resolution on the consent agenda.

Erica Hill 19:00

And you're appointed.

Melissa Harmer 19:00

And then you're appointed. And different boards or commissions have different lengths of the time you serve, so all of the information as well is on our website as well.

Erica Hill 19:09

Yes. And you can you don't have to use the online volunteer application. I have paper applications in my office, or you can print one off from the website. There's always more ways to get the information other than just submitting it on the website. Got it. And always if you have questions, anybody can call my office or send an email.

How To Contact The City Clerk

Melissa Harmer 19:28

Yes. Or stop in during regular business hours. Absolutely. Which are eight to five, Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit about what you do with us today and how can you remind people how they can get in touch with you if they have any questions about any of the work that you do?

Erica Hill 19:45

Um, they can email the city clerk's office at cityclerk at raymore.com. Um, that's the general email. If they want to reach me directly, if they have specific questions, it's ehill e-h I L L at Raymore.com. They can call the office at 816-331-3324. Or they can visit my section of the website if they just want to look through some of the records and the websites that we have linked on my page.com slash cityclerk.

Melissa Harmer 20:19

All right. Thank you so much.

Erica Hill 20:21

Thank you for having me.