Candidates for Lowndes County tax collector spoke to Columbus Exchange Club Thursday afternoon at Lion Hills, introducing themselves and fielding a handful of questions.
Maci Griffin, Diane Stephens and Kalee Talley are all running as Republicans and will face off in the Aug. 8 primary. This will be the first election for a stand-alone tax collector – the office has been split from that of the tax assessor because Lowndes County has in excess of $1 billion in assessed value and collections.
Griffin said she was interested in making the office more technologically up-to-date.
“I would like to take credit cards and debit cards, and make (taxes and fees) payable online,” Griffin said. “I’ll have an open-door policy.”
Griffin said she currently serves with the District 2 volunteer fire department, and formerly worked as an EMT with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
Stephens said she has 16 years of experience in county government, formerly working as an accounts payable clerk, and over 30 years of accounting experience.
She also said she wanted to modernize the office with credit/debit cards and introduce online payments.
Talley touted her experience in the office, where she has worked for four-and-a-half years, spending the last year-and-a-half as lead deputy tax collector.
In addition to adding credit and debit cards and online payments, she said she wanted better customer service in the tax collector’s office.
“I’ll be in the office as much as possible, and be there for the community as much as I can,” Talley said. “I also plan on implementing some kind of queue management system.”
Club member Lee Burdine asked the candidates how they would structure their office, since it will be stand-alone for the first time.
“Whoever’s going to get elected will have to split the offices up,” Stephens said. “… If I get elected, I personally can just work alongside the guys and girls but as a collector I may need my own office to talk to people who come in.”
Talley said she thought the tax collector’s office would stay where it is.
“A lot of things are up in the air, but that office is set up good for the tax collector,” Talley said. “I think the collection portion would stay where it is.”
Club member Ralph Null asked if moving some business on-line would help free up people to answer the phone.
“I would like to designate someone to answer the phones,” Talley said. “Those of us who are on the front lines with a customer try not to answer the phone out of respect for the customer.”
Stephens agreed that she would add someone to the office to answer the phone.
“There’s a lot (in the budget) that you can cut out, and you can probably add one person to come in just to answer the phone,” Stephens said.
Null asked if the tax collector’s office could do anything about people who live in Columbus but tag their cars in Alabama.
Talley said there was little the tax collector’s office could do.
“Some states will not allow you to do that,” Talley said. “When you want something mailed back to you, we will not send it out of state.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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