Last week, WAMC broke the news that North Adams, Massachusetts city clerk Josh Vallieres will step down in May after less than a year. His appointment last July came after the back-to-back resignations of the city’s two prior clerks earlier in 2022. At the time, the then-22-year-old was serving as acting city clerk. His installation was unsuccessfully opposed by city councilors Marie Harpin and Jennifer Barbeau. Former city clerk Marcus Lyon told WAMC the councilors’ toxic behavior was to blame for both his and fellow clerk Cathleen King’s resignations last year. The city clerk position has a salary of over $55,000 as of fiscal year 2023. Vallieres is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and former member of the school committee who ran for mayor in 2021. According to city council president Lisa Hall Blackmer, a screening committee will be set up to find his replacement. Vallieres spoke with WAMC about why he’s stepping down.
VALLEIRES: It's been a little while stewing on it, about a month or so. But I just feel like it's the right decision for me. Things have been going really well in my life, my personal life, my partner, and I just need a job that strikes a better work life balance. The job never affected our relationship, exactly, but I knew the people around me could see that it was, the job itself was affecting me personally. My transition from assistant city clerk to the city clerk had me alone in this office for about four months or so. I may be young, and that's one of the things that I kind of tried to justify it with was, yeah, I'm young, and I can handle this position, but being alone in this office for that long of a time plus working two elections- I mean, that can burn anybody out, young or not.
WAMC: In the past, I've spoken with former city clerks who talked about difficult experiences with other members of city government affecting their interest in maintaining the position. Can you speak to that? Was there any external influence behind your decision to step down?
I mean, I had a fine working relationship with the council. I think there's definitely better avenues of communication that can happen between the two of us. But I, at the present moment, I don't really want to comment on the council.
When you came into this, you were really excited about setting a precedent for other young folks to get involved in public office. With you stepping down now, any thoughts on how that might impact your efforts to normalize younger folks heading into office and representing a new generation for North Adams?
Well, I still plan on participating in local government as a constituent. I'll still be attending the city council meetings, and other various committee and board meetings when possible. City council meetings, I will be much more vocal, I think, on the other side of it as a constituent. I think seeing my presence there can still influence a lot of people, and I'm still optimistic that we're going to see more young people stepping into bureaucratic positions, elected offices, and we'll see how that affects it. But I'm still optimistic for the future.
So, what's next for you [after] stepping down from the city clerk position? What do you have on deck?
Well, right now I have a couple of jobs lined up. Nothing in particular that I've made a firm decision, and I've also made quite a few job applications in the past couple of days. Either way, by the time I step down in May, I should have a job lined up for me. But at the present moment, that's all I really can say.
What do you feel like you've learned from your time as city clerk in North Adams?
The whole thing was an immense learning experience. I mean, the daily office work was something I felt comfortable in from day one. It was just really easy. I've always been good with names and birth dates. So, birth certificates were never a problem for me. It was a lot of jumping around, because, as I began to, once I became the acting clerk, taking on the extra roles here, not only just the keeper of records, but now I'm the clerk of the city council, the clerk of the board of registrars, I am the head for elections in North Adams. And it was a lot that I learned and I'm very grateful for the experience. And I did, one of the biggest learning experiences was how much I loved elections. As much as it drained me and as much as I was trying to focus on the multitasking of the office, I found that I really enjoyed elections quite a bit. It was a lot of multitasking, and to do it all alone in the beginning, it was a lot. So, I was very grateful to have Assistant Clerk [Tina Leonesio] step in as the assistant and provide a little help in the office that was much needed.
