THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110382
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 51 lines
Next to the mayor, Portsmouth City Clerk Sheila Powell Pittman may be the most visible person in the city.
Pittman, as do all city clerks, sits at the mayor's right hand at public meetings and prompts the officials on their protocols and procedures. She swears in new city officials and even performs wedding ceremonies, when asked.
In recent months, she also has become highly visible across the state as president of the Virginia Municipal Clerks Association. More recently, she was named ``Clerk of the Year'' by that organization.
``It's very rare that a clerk receives both honors in the same year,'' said Joyce M. Page of Big Stone Gap, chairman of the award committee.
In addition to the high profile activities, however, Pittman has been praised for her concern for individual citizens and for her efforts to help the public through the intricacies of government.
``The clerk's office is the gateway to government,'' she said in a recent interview. ``Whether in Portsmouth, Va., or Portsmouth, England, the clerk's office is important because it is responsible for the history of the city.''
In addition, the clerk is the continuity at City Hall, she said.
``City councils come and go and city managers come and go, but the clerk's office goes on,'' Powell said.
Powell, 47, has worked 22 years for the city. After starting in the basement of the civic center working as a clerk-typist, Pittman worked in personnel and then parks and recreation before Mayor Richard Davis asked her to be his secretary. Then she worked as an administrative assistant to the city manager, organized the city's central files system and became Portsmouth's first public information officer.
She was appointed clerk by City Council when Corinna Jeffreys retired in January 1988.
But life is more than work for Pittman, who is clerk and a deacon of Port Norfolk Baptist Church and an outstanding Rotarian, who was the first woman to be named the Portsmouth Club's Rotarian of the Year.
About five years ago, she discovered what had intrigued her husband of 29 years about stock car racing and what had propelled her son to excel at golf during his school years.
``I got hooked on both sports,'' she said. She now joins her husband on trips to Florida, Delaware and other places on the East Coast for auto races. And just recently, she outscored the other women in a foursome who took a two-day golf trip to Pinehurst in North Carolina.
Known for her decorum and fashionable clothes, Pittman admits that one of her prized posessions is a shirt autographed by Dale Earnhardt and that she'd really like to try driving a race car.
``My husband says people in Portsmouth wouldn't believe it if they saw me at the races,'' she said. by CNB