Speakers: Melissa Brunner, Deputy City Secretary, City of Bryan, Linda Ruth, Town Administrator, Town of Lakeside Village & Angela Smith, City Secretary, City of Deer Park

About this Webinar:
This webinar will cover key HR topics such as workers compensation, exempt/non-exempt employees/employment contracts, performance improvement plans, and other pertinent topics.

About the Speakers:
Melissa Brunner has been in the city secretary profession since December of 1999. She served as the City Secretary of Flatonia for 21 years. She left Flatonia to serve in the Fort Worth City Secretary’s office. Melissa now serves as the Deputy City Secretary in Bryan. Melissa has her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Communication from Texas A&M University. She received her TRMC in 2003 and is currently working on her fifth recertification. Melissa received her CMC through IIMC in 2009 and her MMC in 2021.

Melissa has been a member of the Capital Chapter for the majority of her time in this profession. She was a member of the North Texas Municipal Clerks Association while serving in Fort Worth. Melissa has served as all officers of the Capital Chapter as well as serving on multiple committees and as chair to several. Melissa has also served on multiple committees for TMCA, including the Advisory Management Committee, Municipal Clerk of the Year, Retirement, TML Booth, Certification and Strategic Plan.

During her time in the city secretary profession, Melissa has had the opportunity to serve in a very small city where she wore many hats as well as serving in a very large metropolitan city where she was fortunate to be able to focus more closely on strictly city secretary duties. In her current mid-size city she is able to focus on many of the traditional city secretary duties while still assisting in other not so traditional duties within the city.

Linda Ruth, TRMC, CMC is the Town Administrator/Town Secretary has over 30 years of municipal experience with over 18 years as city secretary. She has served the Town of Lakewood Village since June 2006 as Town Secretary. In October 2015 she was named Town Administrator/Town Secretary. She earned her Texas Registered Municipal Clerks Certification in 2014, recertified in 2019 and is working toward her second recertification. Linda received her Certified Municipal Clerk designation from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks in 2017. In  August 2018 Linda earned the IIMC Athenian Fellow certification from the IIMC Athenian Leadership Society. Linda served on the TMCA Scholarship Committee in 2019 and assisted with the preparation of the Election Step-by-Step training materials in 2020 and taught Election Step-by-Step in 2021. She is a member of the Lone Star Chapter.

Angela Smith, TRMC, CMC, has over thirty years of combined experience in human resources, training and development, payroll, administrative support, event planning, graphic design, and local government.

In 2008, Angela started her governmental career in the City of Cleveland, Texas as their HR/Payroll Manager. In January 2015 she accepted the additional position of City Secretary.

She served as the City Secretary as well as the HR/Payroll Manager until February 2021. In February 2021 she was promoted to Director of Administrative Services/City Secretary where she took on the additional responsibilities of overseeing the Utility Billing/Permitting departments. May 2022 saw her appointed by council as the Acting City Manager for the City of Cleveland. During her entire tenure in Cleveland, she handled all aspects of human resources and payroll for approximately 100 employees.

Since July 2022, Angela was appointed as the City Secretary for the City of Deer Park which she serves in additional roles: RMO, Early voting clerk, LEPC Board Secretary/Treasurer, Board Secretary for Fire and Crime Districts, and Assistant Board Secretary for the Deer Park CDC as well as the P&Z/BOA boards. The City Secretary’s office has three full-time employees and two part-time employees and also covers the front desk of City Hall.

Angela enrolled in the TMCCP program and TMCA in January 2015 and earned her TRMC certification in January 2019 and recertification in 2024. She has been a member of TMCA since 2015. She earned the Certified Municipal Clerk designation (CMC) from IIMC in 2023 and has started working on her Master Municipal Clerk (MMC) certification. She has been a member of the Salt Grass Chapter since 2017 and served on the board as historian for one term as well as serving on several different chapter committees. Angela is also a member of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) and has been a member of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM). She is also a Rotary Club of Deer Park member since 2023.

Outside of work, Angela enjoys spending time with her husband of 32 years and practicing self-care by creating crafts and painting.

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*On-Demand version available 3 days after the live version takes place.*