Member Spotlight – Lewis County Treasurer Arny Davis
We know this to be true, during 2020 County Officials were unable to halt work, take a timeout, or pause their services. Even when the COVID19 pandemic brought much business to an urgent stop – county officials and their staff continued to provide essential services to their citizens, adapting to the challenges they faced.
One example of this hard work was demonstrated through the offices of Lewis County Treasurer, Arny Davis. Arny Davis has served as the Lewis County Treasurer since 2015 and began work in the office in April of 2012 as Chief Deputy Treasurer to then Treasurer Rose Bowman. Through his 9 years as an elected official, 2020 presented some of the most unique challenges to date – however, none that he and his staff could not overcome.
When the Stay-at-Home Mandate came down from the Governor’s Office, Treasurer Davis worked with the Lewis County IT Department to issue computers and other equipment to his staff, allowing them to work from home. When asked how he continued to keep his staff connected while working remotely Treasurer Davis said “Our staff has been great and very accommodating. They are dedicated professionals who have stepped up to help us continue to serve the public and other county departments”.
Treasurer Davis’ staff was quick to adapt to the changes, and yes, that meant Zoom meetings. However, Treasurer Davis did find some value to those virtual meetings that seem to occupy our calendars through 2020, he comments “While many have lamented the time spent in Zoom meetings, I think Zoom meetings served a great purpose and helped to maintain an admittedly more distant, but reasonable level of connectedness”. He continues to say how great it is t video chat with other county treasurers and maintain contact with old friends and colleagues.
Once some staff members were able to travel into the office and provide in-person services, the mission was still the same as it always had been – provide excellent customer service to meet the needs of the public. Once again adapting, Treasurer Davis organized his staff to reconstruct their in-person services, he states “Our office was fortunate in that our lobby for serving the public already contained glass partitions. With the implementation of an intercom system for our tellers and social distancing signage we were able to serve the public with normal lobby service hours for the first and second half tax collections in 2020”. For an in person no contact option, two new payment drop boxes were installed, one outside the courthouse on North St. and one in the lobby of the main entrance to the courthouse.
In addition to these measures, the Treasurer’s office is also working on a rotational schedule, with some staff working from home and others working in-person on specific days of the week to maintain social distancing. They also are using more y to communicate with the public, and fulfill services, by encouraging taxpayers to connect with their office via social media or website if in-person services were not needed.
With all the changes through 2020 and even 2021, there is always one never-changing factor – the quality of services the Lewis County Treasurer’s office provides. When asked what he would be most proud of in 2020, Treasurer Davis stated “I have to celebrate our staff and other county departments who supported us in making it possible to continue to provide excellent public service and they accomplished this with a great can-do attitude. I am truly thankful to our staff for, their grit and determination to soldier on through difficult and challenging times”. Furthermore, Treasurer Davis wants the general public to know what a great team of dedicated staff members he has in their office, and for anyone who doesn’t know – he welcomes the opportunity to introduce them to his team.
