Clerk Spotlight: North Bay Village, FL

Behind every successful government is a clerk keeping it all together through technology and cross-department collaboration. 

North Bay Village is a small, three-island community in Florida that once existed only underwater. Nestled neatly between Miami and Miami Beach, North Bay Village was a nightlife hotspot that attracted celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Dean Martin, who operated his own club in the area in the 60s and 70s.

Our featured clerk, Elora Riera, has been serving municipalities in south Florida since 2011, when she began working in the clerk’s department for the City of Miami Springs, a role she held for six years before transitioning to the Town of Surfside. Elora was appointed village clerk for North Bay Village in 2019 and is an active member of organizations like the Florida Association of City Clerks, the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, and the Miami-Dade County Municipal Clerks Association.

In this clerk spotlight, Elora discusses the methods and tools North Bay Village implemented during the pandemic and the COVID-inspired solutions that were incorporated permanently like hybrid public meetings that can be attended virtually or in person. The option to attend meetings virtually sparked a much higher participation rate among North Bay Village residents. Elora worked from home during the pandemic and cited Granicus Peak and Zoom as the helpful software solutions that allowed her to run meetings remotely. Peak’s time-stamping capability is a favorite feature among residents. Instead of having to watch the entire meeting, the footage is divided into easy-to-consume sections by topic so each agenda item can be viewed independently.

Elora also mentioned the ease of Peak’s built-in workflows that make agenda creation simple and seamless even as she worked from home. Using an integration between govMeetings Peak and govDelivery called Send Agenda, roughly 600 North Bay Village residents are currently signed-up to receive agendas as soon as they are finalized. In addition to earning back hours of valuable staff time and energy, this integration also fosters transparency within the North Bay Village community.

“Before we had Peak Agenda, I had to work late to print copies. Now I can manage the agenda from anywhere, so we’re saving time, energy, stress, money—everything. I don’t think there’s a municipality that wouldn’t benefit from Peak. It’s a win-win for staff and residents.”

— Elora Riera B.A.S., MMC, Village Clerk, North Bay Village, FL

Click here to watch the full clerk spotlight.

Municipality: North Bay Village, FL
Population: 8,273
Solutions: govMeetings & govDelivery
Website: northbayvillage-fl.gov
Speaker: Elora Riera B.A.S., MMC, Village Clerk, North Bay Village, FL