Maryville announces brand new position 

Heather Griffith has been the executive administrative assistant for the City of Maryville for five years. Now she will be transitioning into her new position; one that is totally new to the city of Maryville, community relations manager.

This new position will be to provide professional level support, management and oversight to key programs and processes as assigned by city manager and assistant city manager. It includes front desk customer service relations, responsibility and oversight of the city’s website and social media channels, development of a social media and marketing plan for public information, as well as the creation of promotional materials and press releases.

Griffith will still have her administrative assistant duties like assisting the city clerk and other people in the building, answering the phone and other secretarial work. Griffith is excited to start getting a lot more information to the public, and expanding the city’s social media.

“We are pretty transparent, especially with our financials and everything, but I think we could do a better job of just being out in public, answering questions and putting our information out for them,” Griffith said. “I feel like I am good with communication, and I love being a part of a team. I’m excited for the new responsibilities that are coming up, learning new things about government and being able to pass that information on to the public.”

Griffith will also be involved with another new feature for city government, serving as ClearGov administrator. It will be a way for citizens to see more in depth financial information, and to specifically see where their tax money is going. It is all part of being more transparent to the public. Citizens can go to https://cleargov.com/ and search for Maryville to see information.

She will also be working on a newsletter and resident brochure, as well as being the face of city hall at various community events and ribbon cuttings. Griffith also stressed the importance of continuing to build a relationship with local media, and putting out more agendas for various city groups’ meetings. Overall she just wants the public to be more informed on what is happening around Maryville, including more frequent updates on the South Main project and other street closures.

“We could always be better at sharing information. Sometimes we all know what’s going on here in city hall, and we kinda forget to let the public know,” Griffith said. “South Main updates are a big one too. I would like to get back to putting out updates. People can see what’s going on, but it’s also good to know we are still on track to be done in April and what to expect in the next phase.”