Herriman City Recorder honored with city recorder of the year award

By Justin Adams | [email protected]

Herriman’s City Recorder, Jackie Nostrom, was recently honored by the Utah Municipal Clerks Association as the city recorder of the year. 

“It’s an honor just to be nominated, to know that my colleagues think that highly of me,” Nostrom told the South Valley Journal. “I just look at it like I’m doing my job, and I never thought it would be better than someone else in my profession.”

The public recognition means even more because city clerks largely operate in the background of local governments, but that doesn’t mean their role is anything less than essential. 

“[The position] services every department in the city, the mayor, the city council,” Nostrom explained. “We’re a key component for records and archives. We’re basically the city historian.”

At a time when people increasingly want transparency from their government, the city recorder is possibly the most important position as they’re responsible for noticing public meetings, posting agendas and providing meeting notes and recordings.

“We don’t want the community to think that we’re trying to slide something under. We want to give adequate notice so people will know whether they might need to plan to attend a city meeting,” she said.    

Nostrom’s efforts have been noticed not only by the Municipal Clerks Association, but by her colleagues at Herriman City Hall as well. 

“To her she’s just doing her job, but to the rest of us she goes above and beyond,” said Tami Moody, the city’s director of administration and communication. “I don’t think there’s another city recorder in the state of Utah that knows things the way Jackie knows things. She can recite state statute, she can recite city code. She’s incredible. She keeps us all in line.”

Brett Wood, the city manager, agreed that Nostrom was well-deserving of the award.

“When you’re the cream of the crop and you get rewarded for it, it’s a big deal,” he said during an October city council meeting in which she was recognized for having won the award. 

“I pride myself in being able to say that my job is to make the city council and city administration look good. I try to make the city look professional and highlight the talents that our council and administration have,” Nostrom said. 

One way Nostrom has made the city look good is establishing a passport office at city hall. Since 2015, residents from the southwest corner of the valley have been able to get their passport at Herriman City Hall. Prior to that, they would have had to go to the West Jordan post office. 

These days, Nostrom said she is working on a training guide for newly-elected officials to help them get up to speed on the more technical in’s and out’s of municipal governance.