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Bonnie Jo Robertson
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
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WARM SPRINGS - Bonnie Jo Robertson thinks it is time for her generation to step up to the plate in the treasurer's office.
"It is time for us to show how great we can be," she said. The treasurer's office seems to have "stayed still for 15 years" she said and she would like to step in and move the office forward.
While Robertson currently works in a bank, she said, "twenty years of on the job training builds you up for a job like treasurer." A lot of people, she noted, acquired the qualifications for an elected post while in office.
"I don't mine humbling myself and telling people I need help," Robertson said, if she doesn't know how to do something. "We all need to work together," is her philosophy of learning on the job while taking the helm of the office.
Within that framework, she plans to keep the current staff if elected though she thinks the atmosphere in the office needs to be different. "There are some changes that need to be made," she said.
Promises to improve customer service are a big part of Robertson's campaign to unseat incumbent Mary Susan Blankenship. While the people in the treasurer's office, including Blankenship, are great, she said, "It is time for a change."
The computer systems should be upgraded if possible, Robertson said. She plans to keep the current Department of Motor Vehicle services provided in the office and expand upon those services if available.
I want people to "come into the office and feel like there is someone there wanting to wait on them," Robertson said. She said the people working in the treasurer's office should serve customers in a professional manner while making them feel valued.
"I want to treat others as I want to be treated," she said. That means someone on staff making a call to DMV or another office to clear up a problem rather than handing a customer a phone number, she said.
Robertson notes when people come into the bank where she currently works, they "feel it is a humble atmosphere." She would like to replicate that atmosphere at the treasurer's office if elected.
She wants people to come to the courthouse for great customer service. The staff should greet people with a big smile and do a professional job. "We should make them feel like they are wanted," she said of the county office that handles taxes and other items that citizens are seldom happy to be paying.
Robertson noted she tended to be naive when she was younger and this tendency to believe people can still be a weakness that people will take advantage of at times. In the job world, including treasurer, she said she would "have to be strong."
Robertson asked voters to look at her experience and her willingness to work long hours to put the county and its citizens first.
"We need more people like me out there working for us," Robertson said. If elected treasurer she will be one of those people "working for us."
About the candidate Bonnie Jo Robertson, 41 Honor graduate BCHS 1984, classes in insurance, public relations, management, business Dabney S. Lancaster Community College Three years First National Bank. Lives in Millboro
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