EASTHAMPTON — In the office where she once worked as a high schooler counting election papers, Mary Ann Giza is now at the helm as Easthampton’s new city clerk.
Giza began her position as clerk on April 1 after serving for more than 20 years as assistant clerk. After moving to Easthampton with her family when she was 3 years old, the community and clerk’s office is more than familiar to the new clerk.
“In high school I worked at elections,” said Giza. “We didn’t have voting machines and we counted by hand. I remember staying up until three or four in the morning with teams counting ballots by hand.”
Giza did community service work for the clerk’s office while in high school working under previous City Clerk Phillip Campbell. After graduating from Western New England University in 1994 with a degree in business, she immediately filled the role as assistant clerk in Easthampton. She worked under previous clerk Barbara LaBombard, who was longest serving clerk in Easthampton’s history, serving more than 41 years.
“She was a good mentor to me,” Giza said about working for LaBombard. “I knew her for many years even back when she was an assistant clerk. She was very knowledgeable, very helpful and a good role model.”
LaBombard retired effective March 31, ending her substantial run in the clerk’s office. She took great pride helping Easthampton run smoothly, earning a respectable reputation and gaining statewide recognition as the 2024 Massachusetts Town Clerks Association’s Clerk of the Year. Giza emphasized how her experience working under LaBombard has prepared her for the transition from assistant to clerk.
“It’s been very good so far,” Giza said about beginning her role as clerk. “I’m really enjoying things. Some new things come up that I hadn’t dealt with … but I am excited for the new challenges and I’m always interested in learning new things. In this type of office there’s something new pretty much all the time.”
Clerks are tasked with many different responsibilities. The Clerk’s Office houses the city’s statistics, such as birth, death and marriages records, and is the place to apply for a marriage license. Licenses and permits needed for recreation and business including dog licenses, tag sale permits, business certificates, raffle and bazaar permits, and hunting and fishing licenses, can be applied for at the clerk’s office.
“We’re the first stop for a lot of people, first call,” Giza explained. “A lot of people come in with various questions about the different departments. That helps us learn things too about other offices and departments that we may not know, so I enjoy that.”
Giza explained the clerk operates the city’s elections, and organizes agendas and certain correspondence between the different departments and committees. Ahead of a city election on Nov. 4, Giza looks forward to the new challenges that will come.
“I’ve worked at previous elections before, but this is the first election where I’ll be the clerk so that’s something different and we’re looking forward to that,” said Giza.
LaBombard secured new voting machines for this year’s election, one of her last actions as clerk. Giza hopes the new machines will make ballot counting smoother and more efficient.
The city hired Maddie Palmer as the new assistant clerk, filling Giza’s old role.
“I have a wonderful assistant clerk, Maddie Palmer,” said Giza. “It’ll be new to us being in charge of the elections.”
Giza oversaw numerous events throughout her time in Easthampton, including the transition from a town to a city form of government in 1996. Giza looks forward to learning more in her new position and engaging further with the community.
“We want our office to be helpful, welcoming and inclusive,” said Giza. “Anyone who wants assistance with anything, we try to help the best we can. We may not know the answer but we’ll find out for you and look into it. We want people to know they can feel comfortable walking in, calling or emailing any requests and we’ll try our best to assist them.”
Sam Ferland can be reached at sferland@gazettenet.com
