Velma Young, tax assessor/collector for Montgomery County, is retiring after serving for 12 years as assessor and collector and 23 years as a clerk, serving under three different assessor and collectors for a total of 36 years in all.
After more than three decades in the Montgomery County tax office, Young said she has decided to do something different. Although she likes working with the public, she wants to do something at a slower pace and enjoy life more.
“I want to be the person who answers the phone, a receptionist job somewhere, let someone else be in charge for a while,” she said.
Young said before deciding whether to run or not this year, she prayed about it and talked it over with her husband. She said she had decided that she had served her time.
She said she had told her staff first that she decided not to run this year, and a few candidates approached her and asked if she planned to run for another term.
“I had been telling my staff that there was a possibility that I wasn’t going to run, so they had been prepared for it,” she said. “I had told a few candidates who approached me, but you know we stay in a small county and word got out that I wasn’t running.”
She said she waited to announce because she didn’t want people to think she was going to change her mind.
“I didn’t want them to think I was going to run to the Circuit Clerk’s office to register at the last minute on March 1,” she said.
Young said being home more will mean she’ll get to read, exercise, help with her mom and have more time for herself. She said from 2008 when she first took office until 2015 she rarely took off.
“My daughter made me take a vacation,” Young said, laughing. “She made me go. Because I never took off. She told me ‘Come on Momma, you’re taking a vacation.’”
She said after taking the vacation, she started to take more time for herself. “You’re always busy,” she said. “I was always gone to some convention or busy doing work that I never took any time off.”
Young said as a tax assessor/collector she remains busy year round with the beginning of the year starting with tax time. Her office also handles property taxes, real taxes, ad valorem, land deeds, property tax sales, mobile home sales and the list goes on.
She said when she first decided to run, her predecessor Sarah Johnson was preparing to retire and she decided to give it a shot. Young said the first time she ran, she had an opponent but her second and third terms she ran unopposed.
“When I began going door to door,” Young said. “It was easy because people already knew who I was from working in the office. They knew I had the experience.”
She said her first campaign was nerve wrecking. Young said it’s like applying for a job with thousands of interviewers because you have to convince the person that you’re the right one for the job.
She said transitioning from a clerk to tax assessor/collector was a challenge at first and she faced some obstacles along the way. But, by her second term, she had learned how to multitask and to take one task at a time.
“It was stressful,” she said. “It was different going from being the clerk to the one in charge. I was all over the place.”
She credits having the right team of people working with you as a help. But it didn’t happen in the first.
“It was rough at first,” she said. “But, I have a good group working with me now.”
Young said it was part of the reason that she never took off because she always wanted to be close by if help was needed. But, now she has a staff where she doesn’t have to worry about it.
“I know that if something happens, they’re capable of handling it and I’m thankful for that.”
She said in order to be the tax assessor, a person has to be patient with dealing with public and money, “you have to have a calm mindset,” she said. “Especially with collecting money. You can’t have the wrong attitude. You’ll have people who are going to come in and be nasty, but you can’t give that back. You have to always be professional and you can even through a little humor in there depending on the customer.”
“It’s very seldom that I can’t calm a person down,” she said. “When I was younger, there was a saying that said ‘You don’t feed fire with fire.’ There’s a way to reach a person. You’ll have one out of 10 that you just can’t reach. And, it’s expected. You’re dealing with many personalities.”
She said it’s easy to be consumed by work, but once she leaves her office, she’s Velma.
“I work with the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and when I’m done, I leave it here at work. I don’t take it with me.”
To unwind, she said she plays freecell to clear her head.
“Or, I may browse in a store before going home,” she said. “You have to find ways to unwind.”
When asked if she any advice for her successor who will take office Jan. 1, she said whoever wins must have an open mind, be humble, considerate but firm.
“They have to be ready to embark on a new journey, because that’s that it is, a journey,” she said.
Young thanks everyone who has supported her for the past 12 years.
“I could not have done it without my fellow citizens of our great county. Without you, I would not have been able to do my job. I thank each of you for your love and your support. I also want to thank my staff for working so hard and being so diligent.”
