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Sandra Williams
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
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WARM SPRINGS - Sandra Wolfe Williams began her work career in customer service and accounts receivable; switched to education and became a teacher and has now taken a big step back toward financial operations by challenging the incumbent Bath County treasurer.
Like the other candidate seeking to unseat long time treasurer Mary Susan Blankenship, Williams stresses the need for an improvement in customer service in the county office where taxes are collected and county bills are paid.
"Customers are the number one priority," said Williams about the treasurer's office. While her focus is on the county citizen experience at the front counter, the biggest customer of the office may be the county government and all the bills paid each month.
The office needs some changes, said Williams; it needs to "run more efficiently." While Williams B.A. degree is in English and Education, she has taken accounting classes and technology classes that apply to the treasurer's job.
She would expand the use of technology in the office to improve efficiency at all levels of the operation. Williams didn't have specific suggestions as to networks and software she might employ, but said she has taken classes that cover the range from networks to Excel.
Deciding how to change and improve the office technology will have to wait until she is elected, Williams said. But she plans to look for the most cost effective solutions that improve service to all customers.
Using her experience and what she has learned from classes in technology, she would like to improve the over all operation of the office and the level of customer service.
Williams had first planned to get her bachelor's degree in accounting she said before deciding on education. The challenge of the treasurer's job is, in a way, a return to a first career interest.
Not only does she know the numbers, said Williams, she works "really, really well with the public." After a classroom full of elementary students, a counter full of taxpayers or late night board of supervisors meeting might seem calm to Williams.
Her only weakness is her need to learn the specifics of the job, Williams said. She doesn't see that really as a weakness. She said she is a fast learner and with her education and experience she doesn't anticipate any problem "getting the job done."
Williams plans to keep the department of motor vehicles services currently available in the treasurer's office. But she thinks all aspect of the services provided in the office need to be quicker.
Changes wouldn't necessarily mean new personnel in the office, said Williams. She wouldn't go in right away and make any changes to the current staff. Those types of changes would "have to be determined over time."
Williams characterizes herself as "very honest, hard working, dedicated to my job." Along with her education, she feels her customer service skills are her best assets preparing her to be a good treasurer if elected.
She says voters can "count on me to be dedicated, work hard and provide them the best service possible."
About the candidate Sandra Wolfe Williams, 34 BCHS 1991, BA English, Education Mary Baldwin College Teacher, Valley Elementary School Lives in Bacova Member, Chimney Run Church of the Brethren
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