‘It’s about the people’

Robbinsville – Becky Garland’s successor has dove in with both feet, accepting the role of Graham County Finance Officer just as budget season kicked off.

Stacy Carpenter has stepped in as the next person tasked with maintaining a delicate balance: keeping the county’s books in the black, while also making sure essential needs are met.

Carpenter was officially appointed to the role by the Graham County Board of Commissioners on April 18. Garland resigned as finance officer Feb. 21, after a 13-year stay (20-plus overall, as she was a consultant for Graham County as far back as 2002).

“I told Becky, ‘You either really believe in me, or you’re leaving me with a mess,’” Carpenter joked. “Becky was phenomenal at everything she did; she did a fabulous job. She cares for Graham County and she told me that she ‘had built the foundation; you build the house.’”

The daughter of missionaries, Carpenter was born in Athens, Tenn. – but spent much of her childhood in Brazil. She obtained an associate’s in business management from Crown College, before delving into ministry work as a church secretary and class organizer.

Later, she moved to suburban Atlanta after striking a job with the accounts payable department of Delta Airlines.

By 2005, Carpenter was back in Tennessee working for Avisco, where she filled roles in reception, human resources, payroll and contract administration. Her family settled in Graham County in 2013 and she most recently held the position of bookkeeper at Robbinsville High School.

But with an infectious smile and laugh, Carpenter quoted her predecessor when asked how her transition to county government was going: “It’s like drinking from a fire hose.”

“I’m trying to bite off one piece at a time,” Carpenter said. “It has been a learning curve, for sure. We have 25 different departments and with a budget, you have to learn each department’s line items and how to justify increase costs; then there’s revenues and grants – it’s a lot of educated guesses.”

Carpenter lit up when talking about her most recent venture before the title of finance officer was bestowed upon her; it let her know that she had found a home in Graham County.

“In a lot of my previous jobs, I didn’t have a lot of local interaction,” said Carpenter.

“So working at the school really gave me a lot of insight into the community. I got to know a lot of people, the kids and see what the school was all about.

“That was a neat experience; it was where I fell in love with Graham County.”

With the vacancy for the role of Graham County Manager lingering, Carpenter explained her decision to apply for the role of finance officer came as a series of thoughts where she was “kind of seeking, but not really seeking.”

“I just felt like there was something more,” Carpenter recalled. “I was going to apply for county manager, but after coming in and talking with a few people, they thought I would be a good fit elsewhere.”

Carpenter entered office and soon found a couple of recurring themes: the much-needed construction of the Graham County Justice Center being one, but the need for a decrease in the millage rate dominated the landscape when tax revaluations had caught many by surprise – and not in a positive manner.

After a rallying cry, the rate dropped – from 0.65 to 0.59.

“We had to chop the budget,” Carpenter explained. “Ultimately, we have to cover our operating costs, but it’s about the people. Our tax rate had to be lowered. We had outsourced the revaluations and there were a lot of discoveries; that’s what really changed things.

“A lot of people were upset, so that mill rate had to come down or it would have doubled people’s tax costs.”

Along with the justice center, the looming time-crunch of pulling off the revamp of Modeal Walsh Memorial (Big Oaks) Stadium’s bleachers is at the front of everyone’s mind – Carpenter’s included, as her son Donovan is entering his senior year and will be Robbinsville’s quarterback this fall. Those two projects will weigh heavily into the future revaluation process.

“I don’t want to come in and change anything; I just want to find ways that we can do things more efficiently,” Carpenter expressed. “One thing that I have identified is that we don’t have a good connection with our department heads, so communication is something that has got to improve. We’ve got to be able to pull together, work together and have a team mentality moving forward. We work for the people and I don’t want us to forget that.”