Melrose City Council Opts For New City Clerk In Fresh Process

MELROSE, MA — The City Council elected a new city clerk in a special meeting Monday night, wrapping up what was a much different process than in years past.

Kristin Foote will be city clerk beginning May 1. She has been the clerk of committees since 2018.

Foote will replace Amy Kamosa, whose three-year term expires at the end of April. Kamosa was one of the three finalists for the position but withdrew along with another finalist before Monday's meeting, several people with knowledge of the search confirmed to Patch.

The election process was a change from how Melrose has typically done it. For instance, while Mary-Rita O'Shea was elected to each term from 2001 until her 2018 retirement, the job was never posted and no effort was made to recruit candidates. Her reelections were formalities.

But in January the City Council, made up of almost entirely first-term councilors, opted to formalize the process and give themselves a say in who works with and for them.

The city clerk reports to the president of the council. President Chris Cinella and his predecessor Jen Grigoraitis together introduced an order to create a public hiring process. It passed on an 8-3 vote, creating a hiring committee and instructing the human resources director to post the job.

Nineteen resumes came in, and the HR Director Polina Latta passed on five to the hiring committee. The committee moved forward with four of them, interviewed each and further trimmed the field to three finalists.

Kamosa and another finalist opted to withdraw before Monday's meeting. No questions were asked by the council when Foote was before them.

It ended up being similar to past elections in that just one candidate was before the full council for a vote.

But formalizing the process for selecting the clerk was publicly stated as a primary reason for switching things up. Section 2.8 of the charter states, "The city council shall elect a city clerk to serve for a term of 3 years," and while that's always technically been the case, many prior elections were so in name only. Only when O'Shea retired did a committee form to find candidates for the open position, resulting in Kamosa's hiring.

The city clerk is the keeper of vital records and statistics for Melrose, a chief elections administrator, swears in city officials and has other powers and responsibilities

"Those like me with a passion for local government and public service know that the position of city clerk is one of the oldest and most important in municipal government," Foote told the council.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.