4 vie for treasurer position

Four candidates for city treasurer tout a variety of work experience and financial management in their campaigns, alongside promises for improvements in the office.

Each, including the incumbent, anticipates the need to learn more about office duties and accounting software.

Candidates deviate on which issues are most pressing and how they might approach customer service if elected.

Before September, the race pitted incumbent Sandra “Sandee” Dixon, 54, against challenger Stephanie Beverage, 42, in a rematch of the 2005 race in which Beverage was severely affected by reports of a post-divorce bankruptcy in 1997.

Two write-in candidates joined the race after Dixon was cited in a fourth consecutive state audit for insufficient office controls and sloppy recordkeeping. Write-in candidate Jim Serba, 56, called the treasurer’s office a “broken store” that he’s prepared to fix. Write-in candidate Terry Kent, 54, expressed similar concerns.

The write-in candidates have never run for a constitutional office. Serba, recently retired, worked in retail for 34 years as a store manager. Kent, a former associate pastor in Waynesboro, worked in video store chains as a manager and operated a tax service for 15 years.

Beverage works full-time as a city 911 dispatcher and part-time as cashier at Jim Snead Ford.

Dixon worked in the Treasurer’s Office five years prior to her election.

Handling accounts

Under Dixon since 2005, the Treasurer’s Office has botched the handling of about $400,000 in city and state money, according to state audits and city officials. Checks and cash were not properly secured in the office, leaving funds vulnerable to loss and theft, according to audits, eliciting dozens of taxpayer complaints.

Dixon said this week she and staff are caught up on software training that will aid bookkeeping.

“I am very comfortable with it now,” she said.

Changes to locking and storage of cash and checks were implemented after the last state audit, she said. She said she has gained a better understanding of timely cash flow and taxpayer checks have not been slow in getting cashed in the past two years.

Beverage doesn’t buy it: “Obviously, what’s been in place hasn’t been working,” she said.

Beverage said her car dealership experience put her in touch with thousands of dollars per day from several sources.

“It’s OK to have a bad audit, but you have to fix it,” Serba said. “The same thing in the last four years is unacceptable to me.”

Serba said experience reforming store operations would aid his treasurer work if elected. He said accurate accounting and efficient deposits will generate interest and aid the city’s finances.

Kent said efficient accounting is the top priority.

“Everybody’s telling me how the checks were getting cashed so late,” he said.

Kent said his tax and accounting background make him a good fit for the position and it makes him aware of the importance of daily checking so interest won’t be lost to the city.

Beverage promises daily check deposits by 11 a.m.

She wants to more aggressively collect delinquent taxes, a measure Dixon said will soon be under way in her office.

Learning

Each challenger plans to take courses to learn about accounting software used by city treasurer offices across the state. After three years without such training, Dixon and staff recently completed their lessons.

Kent said he would take courses before entering office.

“I should be ready pretty much Day One when I walk in there,” he said.

“I plan to take every course [the state] offers,” Beverage said, adding that for quick questions she would consult her mother, a former city treasurer for 12 years.

Serba said he has been studying up on the office as well, and would undergo the same training to make for a smooth transition into office.

Dixon said she is comfortable with her level of training and acted quickly to fix problems raised in the most recent state audit.

“There are always changes and new things come up,” she said. “The basic learning has been taken care of.”

Dixon said her nine years of experience in the office make her most qualified for the job.

Services

Dixon said she ran in 2005 with a promise to bring a credit-debit card machine into the office for taxpayer convenience. It hasn’t happened, she said, because of credit card company fees imposed on each transaction.

She continues to pursue bringing that service to the office.

Beverage, too, wants that change.

“That’s the biggest thing I hear about,” she said, noting cost hurdles.

Serba and Kent were each hesitant about that change because of cost the city would incur.

“You just can’t jump in and do it,” Serba said.

Beverage alone has suggested changes to office hours. She would keep the office open until 7 p.m. once a week and one Saturday a month, she said. She would cover the extra hours so as not to cost the city in hourly pay.

Dixon said she will continue to run the office “as smoothly as possible.”

Kent said he would work on a training guide for future office employees.

“I’m not coming in just to put a Band-Aid on the office,” he said.