Town Clerk Jan Parker Retiring After 21 Years

Jan Parker has served Seekonk as town clerk for 21 years. She recently announced that she will be retiring when her current term ends on Election Day, April 3.  “I think it’s time,” Parker said. “I have mixed feelings. It’s a great job. The staff here is wonderful. That’s what I will miss most. Everyone helps each other and gets along,” Parker said.

Parker was technically the first elected town clerk in Seekonk. Previously it was a Town Clerk-Treasurer combined position. The job was split into two separate positions after a charter review in 1996. Parker’s husband David, who has also served the town for many years and is a member of the Board of Selectmen, encouraged her to run.  “We muddled through a September election without even knowing how to work the voting machines,” she recalled.

The town clerk’s office is responsible for many services and Parker has overseen it all for more than 20 years. Some of the services include voter registration, elections, dog and cat licenses (Seekonk licenses more than 2,000 dogs every year), marriage licenses, town census, vital records, genealogy records and more. Parker is also a justice of the peace and notary. She’s conducted hundreds of marriages as justice of the peace. “There are many things that this office does that are important,” she said.

Parker says she has been fortunate to have had great assistants, including Susan Wagner, Chris Clancy and Karen McHugh, who worked with her for 3 or 4 years before the tragic hit-and-run accident that took her life.  “It was tough losing Karen. I think that affected all of us,” Parker said. Florice Craig, assistant town clerk, has been in the position for two years.

One of Parker’s proudest achievements was doing passports, which she started around 1998.  “We made over $40,000 for the town the first few years. The last year we made about $20,000. It was a great service,” Parker said. She continued the passport service until the federal government put an end to it about 8 or 9 years ago after a clerk in another state falsified a birth record for someone to get a passport. The government decided that a department that handled birth records could not also provide passports.

Parker has instituted several changes in the department over the years that improved service to the town and saved money. She changed the hours of operation so that the office would be open one night a week, on Wednesdays till 9 p.m. To make up for the extra hours, they closed a half day on Friday. The Board of Selectmen thought it was such a good idea that they had all the town departments open late on Wednesdays. “It’s a service to the public. A lot of towns are doing it now,” Parker said.

Another improvement that Parker introduced was combining the polling places for elections to one central site, Seekonk High School. Four polling places - Martin Elementary School, North School, Seekonk Public Library and Town Hall – were merged. “The reason we did it was that the board of selectmen asked us to come up with ways to save money,” Parker said. Her suggestion saved thousands at each election. “It just made more sense. The high school is a central location for everybody,” Parker said. She recently helped coordinate early voting for the first time during the Presidential election in November. “All in all, early voting is good, but they have to improve the process,” Parker said.

Parker hasn’t just left a mark on the town clerk’s office; she’s left a mark on the community. Every year since the tragic September 11th attacks in 2001, Parker has organized a 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony at the Public Safety Building. It is always a well-attended event that the community looks forward to. The program includes speeches by local elected officials and the Seekonk Police and Fire Department Honor Guards participate along with elementary school students. Seekonk High School’s brass ensemble also performs. “I vowed I would do it every year while I was clerk. It’s a good way to thank our police and firefighters,” Parker said.

The Parkers, along with Dave and Jan Bowden, started the “Save-a-Pet Society” a non-profit organization that supports the Seekonk Animal Shelter, about 30 years ago. She also helped create Save-a-Pet’s annual fundraising auction, which raises about $20,000 annually.

In her retirement, Parker plans to look for a part time job and volunteer at the animal shelter and senior center. Parker will also spend more time with her family. She has three grown children: Jonathan, 46; Scott, 43; and Rachel, 40, and two grandchildren and a grand dog. Craig is planning to run for Parker’s position in the April election. “I wish Florice well. She’ll do a good job,” Parker said.