Meet Monte Johnson, City Clerk and GIS Administrator for the City of Sullivan!
Mr. Johnson has been with the City of Sullivan for 21 years filling in many different roles and wearing many different hats. He graduated from Illinois State University in 1995 with a degree in Business Education, and has since earned an associate’s degree in Information Technology - Network Administration. He currently severs as the City Clerk and GIS Administrator as well as other roles critical to municipal operations. He began working for the City when he was in high school as a part time lifeguard and swim instructor. His full-time duties began in 1997 when he was hired as the Assistant Director at the Civic Center. He created the City's first website in 2002 and has been serving as the City's webmaster since. He began building the City's GIS system in 2007 and has turned that into a City-wide system with remote access through web-based applications. He began redesigning the City's digital document system in 2012, and it now has a public portal for the public to access documents, allows departments to remotely access documents, has workflows to automate business processes, and has an online forms portal for the automatic submission and handling of web-based forms. He was named the City's Freedom of Information Act Officer and Open Meetings Act Designee in 2013, and the ADA Coordinator in 2017. Through training and education, he was conferred the title of Registered Municipal Clerk by the Municipal Clerks of Illinois.
The City of Sullivan owns Electric, Water, and Gas utilities and contracted with Cloudpoint beginning in 2014 to implement an enterprise GIS system by collecting GPS data, centralizing database records, and securing an Enterprise License Agreement from Esri which opened the door for providing location-based decision making for each department. All departments now have iPads helping them access and update their information in the field in near real time. They also have many web apps available for departments (and the public) to see all of our utility information as well as general public information (Zoning, TIF, etc).
As City Clerk, Mr. Johnson’s responsibilities include preparing agendas and minutes for Council meetings; keeping up with, informing the Council about, and enforcing new municipal laws; preparing and publishing legal notices; handling bidding requirements and documents; handling and coordinating annexations and zoning; tax location verifications; coordinating building inspection and permit reports; assisting the City Attorney with research and paperwork; assisting with and acting as a liaison with engineering firms; IT support for all City departments; administrative support for all City departments and the City Council, including research for health insurance renewals, lawsuits, collective bargaining negotiations, updates to the employee handbook, research for software and technology, updates to policies and procedures; handling of all licenses (liquor, raffle, A frame signs, carnival, golf cart, merchandise on public streets/sidewalks, outdoor dining, peddler's, rubbish, food vendors, waste disposal), and serving as the City's Open Meetings Act Designee. One of the greatest benefits Monte has recognized from the use of GIS is that city staff no longer has to look up paper documents and maps. Everything is there at their fingertips in digital format. Mr. Johnson has a gift for administration and technology and he looks forward to continuing to expand in the City’s use of GIS technology and helping them informed data-driven decision in the most efficient manner. The Cloudpoint team is privileged to have the opportunity to work with him and the City of Sullivan.