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Office of the Town Clerk

Morristown Town Hall
200 South Street, 1st Floor, Morristown, New Jersey 07960
Margot Kaye, Town Clerk
Office Hours 8:30am-4:30pm
973-292-6636
 
Watch the Town Council Meetings HERE
Watch the Town Council Meetings every Friday at 8:00 p.m.
on Cablevision Channel 21, Verizon Channel 24
The Clerk's Office serves many vital municipal functions, perhaps the most noticeable to residents being its capacity as the first line information agency for the entire Town. This involves the Clerk's being the keeper of the history of the municipality and as the keeper of the Town's Record; he or she is often called "the Corporate Memory" for Morristown, the corporation. Since historical information is meant to be objective, ideal functioning of this Office would involve the Clerk's retaining absolute political objectivity; this would make the Office the most effective, for it should be the least political of all municipal offices.
 
Another function of the Office is its acting as the responsible agency for the conduct of municipal elections. In this capacity, the Clerk answers to the County Clerk who, in turn, ultimately answers to the Secretary of State.
 
The Clerk also maintains all official records of the municipality, such as minutes, ordinances, resolutions, and all other official documents.
Additionally, he or she creates the agenda for all Council meetings under the supervision of the Council President, deciding what will be discussed. All requests from the public, departments heads, and Council members to schedule items into the agenda go through this Office. Once something is discussed and decided upon by the Council, their actions are recorded by the Clerk, who will then inform all interested parties of what occurred.
 
Every 10 years, on the basis of the Federal census, all Congressional districts are re-balanced in terms of population. The Clerk serves as Ward Commissioner and, once every 10 years, along with four other commissioners, may redraw Ward lines, if necessary. District lines may also be redrawn on the same basis.
Among others, licenses and permits are issued in Morristown for: billiard parlors, liquor establishments, taxis and liveries, newspaper vending machines, theaters (i.e. - Headquarters Plaza) on a per seat fee, charitable solicitations, raffles and bingo, auctions, amusement games, residential parking, going-out-of-business sales, mobile restaurants, peddling, handbills, and parades. The ABC (Alcohol Beverage Commission) licenses are quite substantial in Town, 45 at present, to be precise. Liquor licenses are limited on a population basis; there are rarely new retail consumption (bars and restaurants) or retail distribution (liquor stores, etc.) licenses issued.   The Office of the Clerk is just that, an "Office". As it is not a "Department", per se, it has no official Division heads, though it has different divisions which reflect its different functions. Among these are Records Manager, Licensing, and Vital Statistics. The Clerk is the oldest official in U.S. Government; the Office predates the Constitution and, is the oldest recorded office in the West.