Kristen Bates

While visiting colleges during high school, Kristen fell in love with Florida; she arrived in Florida in the fall of 1994 to start at Flagler College.  After spending just three months on the campus and experiencing Florida, she officially “moved” to Florida in January 1995.  Through an internship her Senior year at Flagler College, she was offered a job with a State agency before even obtaining her degree. This adjusted her plans about attending Law School following graduation.  She graduated from Flagler College, with honors, in 1998 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Pre-Law.

She has worked for two different State Agencies for the State of Florida.  Her employment with those agencies provided many different opportunities and experiences, including case management and documentation, assisting people navigate available community services and the Court system, serving on several interagency boards and committees, senior management, creating and providing job specific in-service training to staff, assisting with the implementation of and providing training on new data systems, experience with accreditation applications and the accreditation process, achieving national accreditation for a local agency, completing quality assurance reviews and auditing of state and county records, just to name a few.

In May 2011, Kristen joined the City of Bunnell family, working in the Community Development Department.  In this role, she gained knowledge and experience in several other City of Bunnell departments.  In January 2016, Kristen moved from the Community Development Department to the City Clerk Office when she was hired as the Deputy City Clerk.  In November 2016, she began serving as the Interim Community Development Director and continued to serve as Deputy Clerk.  On November 27, 2017, Kristen was hired as the City Clerk while continuing to serve as the Interim Community Development Director.   She continued to serve as the Interim Community Development Director until January 2019.  Currently, Kristen oversees the City Clerk office which includes Human Resources, Solid Waste, Fleet and Parks and Recreation.

In January 2019, Kristen earned her Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) credentials, completing a 3-year program in just over two years.  As a City Clerk, she maintains memberships with the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, the Florida Association of City Clerks, and the Alachua County City Clerk Association to stay current on matters affecting City business and operations.  As a Certified Municipal Clerk, Kristen also mentors other City Clerks across the State of Florida.  In 2020, she participated in the Northeast Florida Regional Council (NEFRC) Regional Leadership Academy (RLA).  After a brief delay due to COVID, she graduated from RLA, at the end of 2021 and is now a part of the Regional Community Institute of Northeast Florida, Inc. (RCI), the nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that works with the NEFRC.  It serves as a policy "think tank" for NEFRC.   In June 2021, Kristen became a Certified Business Tax Official and is a member of the Florida Association of Business Tax Officials to ensure the City complies with Florida Statutes for local business tax receipts (LBTRs).