|
Char Meiners appointed interim County Auditor at May 6 meeting
|
|
|
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
With 28 years experience working in the Houston County Auditor’s Office, Char Meiners was the logical choice to replace retiring County Auditor Pete Johnson. The Houston County Board agreed, and approved the appointment of Meiners as the interim county auditor at the May 6 board meeting.
Meiners will take over the management of the auditor’s office June 1 and serve out the final two and one-half years of Johnson’s term. Johnson announced this past winter of his plans to retire as of May 31.
Meiners, who grew up in Caledonia, saw an ad in the paper back in 1980, that the county had an opening in the auditor’s office. She applied for the job, and as they say, the rest is history.
“It’s sometimes hard to imagine I’ve been here that long,” she said last week. “But it’s been a very enjoyable experience and there’s never a dull moment.”
While Meiners started out on the ground level at the auditor’s office, she quickly worked her way up the ladder. After working in the office for three years, the person who took the weekly county board minutes, resigned to raise a family. Meiners took over that position and has served that capacity for the past 25 years.
Taking down everything said and done at nearly every county board meeting for the past 25 years seems like a daunting endeavor. But Meiners said she has loved it.
“It’s so interesting. There are so many things going on each week, and I’m the person who takes it all down. We’ve had some very good and colorful county commissioners. And there have been some very interesting issues,” Meiners recalled. “I’ve really enjoyed taking the board minutes.”
Meiners was named Chief Deputy Auditor in 2001, and continued to take on more responsibilities in the office.
“When Pete announced his retirement, we started spending even more time together. It was kind of like cramming for an exam. Pete has been such a great person to work for. He never gets excited about anything.”
Meiners has seen many changes in the past 28 years. When she started, everything was done manually. Now, everything is done with computers. Computers have eased the workload to some degree, but have also made some things more complicated. The new ballot counting equipment for elections has also been a major improvement.
“The election judges used to have to count all the ballots by hand,” she remembered. “With the new technology, we are only required to hand count several races in two precincts. The state picks which races and precincts every election. They’re never the same ones. This acts as a check and balance to make sure the machines are working properly.”
The auditor’s office actually includes two departments…the license bureau and the auditor’s office. There are two fulltime persons working the license office and two full time and two parttime employees in the auditor’s office.
When asked if the “department head” title is starting to sink in, Meiners replied, “yes, and no. I’m excited to be working with all the other department heads here. We do have a great bunch of people working here. And the people in our office are also wonderful. They all make working here a great experience.”
During the next two weeks, Meiners will really be “cramming” to learn as much from Johnson as she can. But the veteran auditor isn’t planning on leaving the area. He’s retiring, but not moving away.
“Pete said he’ll just be a phone call away if I have any questions. That’s comforting,” Meiners concluded.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
