SALEM — The mayor and City Council last night tangled over the city clerk's office, which one employee said is so understaffed and overworked that personnel are "almost at the point of tears."

Councilors called a special meeting to consider closing the clerk's office to the public on Thursday mornings so workers can catch up on paperwork — even though the city solicitor has ruled the council has no legal authority to do so.

The city clerk's office, normally staffed at nine employees, has dwindled to six, due in part to an unexpected retirement earlier this year. Because of budget constraints, the position isn't expected to be filled until after the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

As a result, staff don't have the resources to both process necessary paperwork and handle requests from the public regarding birth, death and marriage certificates, which are higher in Salem than in surrounding communities because of Salem Hospital, some city councilors said.

The meeting quickly grew tense when one city councilor accused the mayor of overworking employees, while the mayor criticized councilors for failing to communicate with her office.

"We can't work employees to the bone," Councilor-at-large Joan Lovely said. "... I don't see how you can squeeze every last drop of blood out of every employee."

With that, Mayor Kim Driscoll sprung from her seat and fired back.

"That's absolutely ridiculous," Driscoll said. "You're not here every day. ... This is why the City Council shouldn't be involved in personnel issues. ... A mountain is being made out of a molehill. ... Let us manage through this."

"People are losing their jobs because they can't handle it — there's something wrong with that," Lovely said.

At one point in the meeting, an employee let the council know how stressful things are.

"We're almost at the point of tears," Principal Clerk Julie McNaught said. "We just can't do it all. People are getting upset. It's affecting the public.

"... We're at the end of our rope. I don't know what else to say other than you need to do something fast."

Council President Mike Sosnowski urged his colleagues to close the city clerk's office to the public from 8 a.m. to noon on Thursdays to allow staff to catch up on paperwork. The office would reopen from noon to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

City clerk employees work 35 hours a week. However, Sosnowksi said they are already working overtime and not getting paid for it. He also disagreed with the city solicitor's ruling that the decision to close the clerk's office falls with the mayor.

"Those four hours would give those girls a fighting chance to catch up with everything," Sosnowski said.

The mayor, however, questioned the council's priorities. She noted that nearly every department in the city is facing staffing shortages, including the School Department, which had to lay off more than 30 employees. Councilors never called a special meeting for other departments' staff shortages, she said.

On top of that, the city is facing a $700,000 deficit in its snow and ice budget, along with police and veterans services budgets that are close to running over before the end of the fiscal year. Then there's the matter of next year's budget, she said.

"I can't even believe we're here at a special meeting talking about this with everything that's going on in the city," Driscoll said.

Driscoll told councilors she didn't even know about the plan to close the clerk's office until she received an e-mail from City Clerk Cheryl LaPointe informing her the office would be closing.

Closing a municipal office is part of the day-to-day operations of City Hall — a decision that falls under the authority of the mayor, not the council, Driscoll said. After all, if disgruntled citizens find the clerk's office closed, their next stop will be the mayor's office to complain, she said.

Even though city councilors were notified about last night's special meeting on Monday, Driscoll said no one told her until Wednesday.

"I wasn't the first person to know about this, I was the last person to know about this," Driscoll said.

What's more, Driscoll said she reached out to councilors by e-mail earlier this week to sit down and find alternative ways to work through the staffing shortage. Not a single councilor replied, she said.

"No response," Driscoll said. "This isn't a very good way to deal with this."

"I don't know what we're doing here," Ward 3 Councilor Jean Pelletier said. "There's got to be a different way than doing it this way. ... Mr. President, there has to be better communication between you and the mayor."

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at 978-338-2526 or by e-mail at ccassidy@salemnews.com.