By Rich Pollack
Valerie Oakes
Valerie Oakes knows how to help Highland Beach residents get answers. As deputy town clerk, Oakes serves as the right hand to Town Clerk Beverly Brown and is often the first person to greet residents coming to Town Hall seeking information about everything from codes and ordinances to agendas and taxes.
“We’re the first point of contact for residents,” she said. “Our job is to lead them in the right direction.”
Often behind the front desk and behind the scenes, Oakes is about to get a little higher-profile inside Highland Beach and throughout surrounding areas, having recently been installed as president of the Palm Beach County Municipal Clerks Association.
As president, she will lead an organization that brings town and city clerks and assistant clerks from all of Palm Beach County together every other month to share best practices and keep members abreast of any law changes or other issues that have widespread impact.
Many of those clerks were in Highland Beach last month, some for the first time, for the installation of Oakes and other association officers, including the new vice president, Crystal Gibson of Lantana.
A member of the association since 2008, Oakes served as secretary and then as vice president before taking the reins. She also served on several committees and was instrumental in developing the association’s first website.
She also led a team from the clerk’s association in last month’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in Boca Raton.
As deputy town clerk in Highland Beach for almost four years, having previously served in a similar position for the small Palm Beach County community of Haverhill, Oakes has had an opportunity to interact with many residents, whom she enjoys helping.
“I don’t think people grow up saying I want to be a municipal clerk,” she said. “But when you’re in government and you see what a clerk does, you say to yourself, ‘That’s what I want to do, I want to help people.’ ”
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