Lillie Russell, City of Fernandina Beach Records Coordinator – A profile

Submitted by Deborah Lavery Powers

Staff Reporter

Lillie Russell, our City’s Records Coordinator, reports that the only day she “might” have considered leaving her job was on the day she was first introduced to the records she was newly assigned to organize/coordinate/manage.

That day of introduction was in 2002, and the weather outside was beautiful.  However,  inside Lillie’s new City “home,”  there was nothing that could be considered beautiful.  Nothing at all.  Boxes of all sizes, shapes, and condition were piled on high — here, there and everywhere.  Those boxes not only filled all the space available inside the storage room where Lillie was to work, but the overflow was stacked every which way up against the door and walls  outside Lillie’s new work area, as well.

And Lillie’s assignment?  To create order out of that chaos.  And that is exactly what she did.   As Lillie says,  with a little twinkle in her eyes, “it took awhile.”   (Read that “awhile” to mean “years!”)

First, the boxes full of neatly stacked folders, or often randomly stashed papers,  had to be sorted into like categories, arranged by dates, and re-boxed.   The older records  — those that had been held beyond their retention date — had to documented before they could be destroyed.

The documenting-before-destruction task was, by itself, an overwhelming undertaking.  Some records in that storage room dated back to the 1920’s and 1930‘s — and the retention period for  most City records is only between 1 and 10 years!    So, lots of documenting faced Lillie.

Destroying the records comes after the documenting.    In order to do it, even today, Lillie operates an industrial paper shredder about the size of an office desk,  She not only operates the shredder, but also “oils and tends to its maintenance,”  according to her job description.  The shredded paper spills out of the machine into huge plastic bags.  And next?  The bags are picked up and the contents  are eventually “morphed”  into paper towels.

Lillie discovered, first day on the job, that an astonishing number of the old records were held together with straight pins — like the ones used  when sewing.  Then there were tons (or so it seemed) of paper clips.  And clip-bound folders.  Nary a staple in sight — even though staples had been in use since the late 1800’s.  In some offices, that is.  But not in Fernandina!  (Legend has it that staples date back to the 18th century and King Louis XV.    But his were reportedly  made of silver and gold — hardly what Lillie would have found in our records, right?  But she did find a ten dollar bill tucked away in one folder!)

Lillie’s former supervisor noted, “The most important thing in municipal government is its records – along with the ability to find relevant information by searching through those records.  A city would come to a halt, otherwise.  In Fernandina Beach,  Lillie has taken ownership of our municipal records.  They are her passion.”

So, it was no surprise that when Lillie was asked what she enjoys most about working for the City,  she had a one word response.  “Records.”   That one word told it all as far as Lillie is concerned.  And it probably tells it all to those of us who share her passion for locating and validating  information through research – and have consequently found ourselves spending an untold number of days, months, even years, searching for  information in libraries, or (currently) googling away on the internet.

For Lillie, the one word “Records” also says it all when it comes to the whole spectrum of research involved in fulfilling requests for information stored in our City records.  Those “record requests” come from Commissioners, Staff, and/or the Public — and each one sends Lillie into search mode.

Simple requests are routinely filled within 24-48 hours.  The more complex variety can “take awhile,” since they may involve obtaining information from files in the  storage area “over the bridge,” as well as from more current documents still held in various department offices throughout the City.   As Lillie  explains it, “the searches often go deeper and deeper and spread out further and further. “

Lillie has another passion:  education.  She and her husband, Victor, have not only seen their  daughter and son off to college (neither young one is finished yet), but Lillie is a college student, herself.  She is just three credits short of earning an Associate’s Degree in Office Management from Florida State College at Jacksonville.   Think about it:  the mom of two “20-somethings,” soon to be walking across  the stage and handed her diploma!

In addition, Lillie recently completed another educational undertaking.  She attended 8 conferences during a 4 year period, sponsored by either the Florida Association of City Clerks or the Florida Records Management Association,  and successfully completed the related work involved to earn her Municipal Clerk Certificate, which was presented to her in December 2012.    Before that, she studied for and became a Florida Certified Records Manager.

Lillie is a story teller.  One she tells is about the day years ago when she discovered that her records weren’t left lonely and alone in the storage building where they were safely locked away. They had company!    On the particular day in question she  arrived at the building to discover the huge roll-up entry door to the City’s storage bay open.  “Whaaat?” said she to herself.  “Who left it up like that?”

She didn’t think too much about the open door until, walking back toward the City’s locked area, she came upon a futon pillow, and moving forward with some level of curiosity,  next discovered shoes.   At that point, she went into “Waaait a minute” mode.  Another few cautious steps forward, she saw a bag of clothes and a bottle.  That was it.  She was outta there! The postscript to this story is that a homeless man had broken off the lock and had started using the City’s temporary storage bay as his nighttime sleeping home. He was soon relocated, but whenever Lillie later considered going back to that storage building by herself, she decided, “Nope. Not doin’ it.”

Lillie currently is spending most of her time at City Hall helping out at the counter and with the phones during the staff shortage in the Clerk’s office.    She, like the rest of the staff, greatly appreciates the new telephone system. Before it was installed, “the telephones were ringing off the hook — all the time — and  most calls had to be rerouted to other offices.”   The volume of incoming calls has been cut by more than 50% since the new system was installed and direct dialing to each City employee is now possible.

Though she likes working at the counter, she knows there is unfinished work waiting to be organized back in the Records Room — and she’s ready to return to it as soon as the time is right.

In the meantime, she enjoys serving the public and trying to keep her fellow workers “in a good mood by making us laugh.”  She brings fun from home to the office, too.   Last Friday she celebrated her forever favorite King of Pop, Michael Jackson,   by arriving at the office all decked out in a black fedora, and  black boots!

Editor’s Note: After a career in adult education, where writing, course design and development were her “beat”, Deborah now enjoys the world of freelancing, and volunteering.  Deborah covers the police beat for the Fernandina Observer writing weekly “Police blotter blasts . . .”   We thank Deborah for her many contributions.

October 23, 2013 4:20 p.m.