Among the myriad tasks that fall under Brenda Long’s job description as city clerk, one of the biggest is holding on to the City of Jacksonville’s records — in effect, the city’s memory itself.
Long’s office at the temporary City Hall is a testament to analog storage — file cabinets of insurance papers, drawers of project bids and an impressive collection of binders that contain the minutes of City Council meetings stretching back a long, long way. There will be a file storage room in the new, permanent City Hall, but for now it’s all part of Long’s workplace decor.
“In 50 years if the city clerk of Jacksonville has a question about something from my time as a clerk, they’ll be able to find that,” said Long, who took over the clerk’s office in November 2019.
Moving from the old building gave Long a chance to look over old files, which led her to start digitizing documents to make them not only easier to physically store, but also easier to find.
Not that her work is just about storing documentation — Long’s office manages a lot of the work that creates it, too. City elections are a massive undertaking that fall under her purview, and she’s responsible for dozens of support functions — project bids are her responsibility, for instance, along with the city’s insurance policies. She’s the one recording and writing the minutes from each City Council meeting that fill the binders in her office, and she coordinates with departments in and out of City Hall on anything from building permits to garbage collection complaints.
“You never know what’s going to hit you from day to day,” Long said.
If it sounds stressful, you may be right. But Long was an ambulance dispatcher before she joined the city Finance Department in 2011, so she’s used to tough situations. In fact, she was hired to that department based on her ambulance experience, handling the billing for city ambulance services before her tasks expanded to include anything from accounts payable to business licenses and collections. She has an associate’s degree in accounting, and maintains her accounting certification even now.
Long said she applied for the city clerk position because of her then-supervisor, former finance director Laura Copeland, whom she said she wanted to thank.
“She was, as a supervisor, someone who trained you to move forward in life and do better,” Long recalled.
Though her work life is so full, Long keeps things busy at home, too. She said she was proudest of her children; Drew, 25; Ray, 19; and Kohl, 12.
She said she spends most of her time with Kohl, the only one still living at home. He’s involved in a slew of sports, ranging from wrestling to football and baseball, and seems to be quite an athlete: Long has joined him on trips to various championships and high-level competitions recently.
“I spend most of my time chasing my 12-year-old around,” Long said, smiling.
