{"id":407,"date":"2026-06-26T13:40:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.phonelive.io\/?p=407"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:40:42","slug":"gfg_ep84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/","title":{"rendered":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode, Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie’s journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Unexpected is a common word when we talk to people about their career in local government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I didn’t want to be a politician, but what could I do behind the scenes?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. I had no idea really what I was doing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. I had to figure out how to communicate and keep things moving.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Implementing that change has been a game changer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Finance plays a major role in what council does.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Digital ADA accessibility is very important.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. I work for city council, I don’t work for the mayor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Continuing education is constant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. No two days are the same.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary In this episode, Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie’s journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technolgies","tag-audiopodcast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 | PhoneLive Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ep. 84\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PhoneLive Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/PL_Site.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hugh Plappert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PhoneLive_io\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PhoneLive_io\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hugh Plappert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hugh Plappert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117\"},\"headline\":\"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\"},\"wordCount\":180,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Podcast\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Technologies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\",\"name\":\"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 | PhoneLive Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PhoneLive.io Church Tech Blog\",\"description\":\"Turn your live stream into a phone call. Phone streaming for churches and local governments \u2014 reach seniors and offline members, no internet needed.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"PL - Church Tech Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PhoneLive.io\",\"alternateName\":\"PL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"PhoneLive.io\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/PhoneLive_io\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/72555498\/admin\/feed\/posts\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PhoneLive\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117\",\"name\":\"Hugh Plappert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hugh Plappert\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 | PhoneLive Blog","description":"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ep. 84","og_description":"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.","og_url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/","og_site_name":"PhoneLive Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io","article_published_time":"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/PL_Site.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Hugh Plappert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84","twitter_creator":"@PhoneLive_io","twitter_site":"@PhoneLive_io","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hugh Plappert","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/"},"author":{"name":"Hugh Plappert","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117"},"headline":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84","datePublished":"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/"},"wordCount":180,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Podcast"],"articleSection":["Technologies"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/","name":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84 | PhoneLive Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-06-26T18:40:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-26T18:40:42+00:00","description":"Hugh Plappert interviews Addie Balester, the Clerk of the Council for Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They discuss Addie's journey into local government, the challenges she faced, the importance of finance in council actions, and the need for transparency and accessibility in government processes. Addie shares insights on cross-department collaboration, opportunities for aspiring local government workers, and the passion that drives her in her role.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep84\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From Administrative Assistant to City Clerk (with Addie Balester) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 84"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/","name":"PhoneLive.io Church Tech Blog","description":"Turn your live stream into a phone call. Phone streaming for churches and local governments \u2014 reach seniors and offline members, no internet needed.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"PL - Church Tech Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization","name":"PhoneLive.io","alternateName":"PL","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"PhoneLive.io"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io","https:\/\/x.com\/PhoneLive_io","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/72555498\/admin\/feed\/posts\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PhoneLive"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117","name":"Hugh Plappert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hugh Plappert"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}