Phyllis Powell - Keeping the city on track

Phyllis Powell, city clerk for Jefferson City, is shown at City Hall in this April 2015 photo.
Phyllis Powell, city clerk for Jefferson City, is shown at City Hall in this April 2015 photo.

Between work and home life, Jefferson City Clerk Phyllis Powell doesn't have to worry about not being busy.

Powell was city clerk from 1982-86, then came back to the clerk position in 1993 and has been there ever since.

If you've been to a City Council meeting, you'll see Powell sitting next to the mayor keeping the records and minutes of the meetings.

She also has to post the notices for all city meetings, and when elections come around, Powell is responsible for getting candidates signed up.

Trying to bring the city's paper records into a digital format and archiving them takes a lot of Powell's time.

"Having it digitized has made it easier to share with the public and keep track of," she said. "A lot of the calls we get deal with city code issues. But since we are the capital city, the part that has never changed since I've been here is probably 80 percent of all the calls I get are for state matters, so I've learned where to send people for those."

Powell said it's fascinating to keep track of things at City Hall because she gets asked so many questions about city issues.

"I get asked "do you remember when' many times because I'm one of the few left here that can remember when things occurred and if I don't remember myself I know where to go find it," she said. "I get a lot of requests from city staff to help them find things that they've been told exist, but they don't know where they might be. I like being able to help them because it's a win-win for all of us."

Away from City Hall, Powell stays busy with her family. She and her husband, Harold, who works at home as a computer consultant, have been married since 1971. They have one daughter and one granddaughter.

"I've been sewing costumes for a play my daughter and friends are producing," she said. "I also like to garden and to collect and read books. Once something catches my interest, I like learning all about it."

This is the longest amount of time Powell has lived in one place; she moved to Jefferson City in 1980. Born in Thayer in Oregon County near the Arkansas border, she eventually graduated from Eldon.

"When I grew up, I went to 11 schools in 12 years, and I have blogged about it," she said. "My dad was in construction, so we moved around a lot. Some years, I was at three different schools. I was trying to tell my granddaughter one day about my growing up, and my husband said I should write about it. So I did, so she can look back and be able to remember that."