By Donald Wittkowski
Cindy Griffith joked that she began her career as a municipal clerk “back when the dinosaurs were still roaming” the Earth.
History, though, tells us the dinosaurs were extinct long before 1992, when Griffith started working in Ocean City as the deputy city clerk. She was promoted to Ocean City’s clerk in 2003, but left in 2008 to become Sea Isle City’s municipal clerk.
On Tuesday, the 61-year-old Griffith attended her last City Council meeting in Sea Isle during an emotional ceremony marking her retirement.
In her farewell remarks, she told Council, Mayor Leonard Desiderio and the audience that it was “completely my honor” serving the city.
“I felt a part of this community instantly,” Griffith recalled of starting her job in Sea Isle nine years ago.
Shannon Romano, 38, who had been Sea Isle’s deputy clerk to Griffith, has been promoted to clerk and will earn a starting salary of $77,175, city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said. Romano has worked in the city clerk’s office since 2009.
Romano was surrounded by her husband, Steven, her daughters, Julianna, 9, and Lucianna, 5, her son, Steven Jr., 3, and her parents, Howard and Debbie Wright, when she took the oath of office Tuesday from the mayor
“We have all the confidence in the world in her,” Council President Mary Tighe said of Romano.
Both Griffith and Romano received praise from the Council members and Desiderio. In resolutions read by Tighe, Griffith was lauded for her dedication to public service and “standard of excellence.”
“She has served us well and we appreciate everything she has done for us,” Councilman Jack Gibson said.
Desiderio presented Griffith with a ceremonial key to the city as well as a T-shirt that humorously proclaimed Sea Isle as the “Capital of Cape May County.”
During her tenure, Griffith helped guide Sea Isle’s transition from its old Commission-style form of government to the current Mayor-Council format.
Now, she is part of another transition in city government – one that marks her retirement and Romano’s promotion to municipal clerk.
“I’m ready. Shannon’s ready,” Griffith said in an interview.
