BRAD DUNAGAN FOR TAX COMMISSIONER

Brad Dunagan, a life-long native of Gainesville-Hall County, has announced he will be a candidate for Hall County tax commissioner in the July 31^st Republican primary.

Below is the most recent radio interview with Glory 1330 Christian Radio.

Glory 1330 Christian Radio

Below is from the Bill and Joel Show WDUN Interview with Brad Dunagan, candidate for Tax Commissioner.

NAME:             Brad Dunagan

POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION:  Republican

OCCUPATION:  Financial Planner, Estate Advisor

QUESTIONNAIRE from accessnorthgeorgia.com

1) Why are you running for this office?

Except for a tour of duty with the Marine Corps when I was nineteen, I have worked in the private sector all my adult life, mostly in financial management starting out with Merrill Lynch as a financial consultant.  Earlier in my career I managed customer service, credit and debt collection staff which I believe is vital experience to have as a county tax commissioner today. I have never chosen to work in the public sector until now, even though I grew up in a home where both parents were public school teachers, my two sisters, Brenda Rakes and Sandra Deal, were also public school teachers. I have always admired their dedication to the public good and I consider their public service careers, noble professions. I am a candidate for Tax Commissioner of Hall County because I believe that I am well equipped for the job, with the right kind of background and experience. Secondly, I care about the people of Hall County and I believe community service is important in a person’s life. I have raised my family here. I am a longtime member of First Baptist Church of Gainesville and a former deacon. I’m the Co-founder of Gainesville Care Center; former Chairman of the Board of Rehabilitation Industries of Northeast Georgia (RING).  


I have also served on the board of directors of the Gainesville Kiwanis Club and as a Trustee for the Teacher Retirement System of Georgia (TRS), a $54 billion pension fund.

2) Is the first time you have run for political office? (If "no," please explain.)

Yes

3) What qualifications for the office do you bring to the campaign?

The primary function of the tax commissioner’s office is to bill, collect, disburse and account for tax revenue and fees collected within the county on behalf of the State Tax Commission, the Hall County Board of Commissioners and the Hall County School Board of Education. I have management experience in all these areas, as well as experience in managing call centers staffed with customer service personnel. I also believe that it is important for a tax commissioner to be an effective communicator and capable of working with others throughout county government, with all county commissioners, school board members, public officers in state government at all levels and most important, working well with the citizens of this county.

4) What do you see as the biggest concern/issue facing the office?

As I contemplated running for tax commissioner, I conducted a lot of research about the office here in Hall County and in other county offices around Georgia.  I asked the current Tax Commissioner of Hall, and the former Tax Commissioner of Hall, the same question. What has been your greatest challenge as tax commissioner? Both answered, managing personnel! I work well with people and I have management experience that demonstrates that fact. I believe the greatest challenge in the next few years for this office will be to manage cost effectively, but at the same time continue to provide proficient essential services.

5) Are there any specific changes you would like to undertake if you are elected? And, please explain your 

answer.

I believe the office functions well under the current Tax Commissioner but there is always room for improvement. In recent years the budgets have been cut in most county government offices, including the Tax Commissioner’s office. Most counties in Georgia have watched their tax index shrink a little each year largely due to the recent economic recession. As tax commissioner, I will want to review all current operations, billing, collections, disbursement procedures and accounting operations. Training of personnel, especially cross-training, will be very important. As a fiscal conservative, I will also look hard at ways that waste may be identified and eliminated.

I will find ways to better serve the citizens of this county. I hope to introduce more advanced customer friendly technology, expansion of online services, easier access through satellite offices and extended hours.

Brad Dunagan

770-654-1037

taxcommish@gmail.com

Brad Dunagan for Tax Commissioner

1051 East Lake Drive

Gainesville, GA 30506

MOST RECENT INTERVIEW - THE GAINESVILLE TIMES

4 Republicans vie for tax commissioner seat By Ashley Fieldingafielding@gainesvilletimes.com POSTED: July 19, 2012 12:05 a.m. On July 31, among the myriad other choices they make, Hall County voters will decide on their first new tax commissioner in 12 years. This year, Keith Echols, who has served three terms in the position, has declined to seek re-election. The job, which largely serves to collect property taxes for the various governments inside the county, comes with a first-term salary of $77,344.56. Four candidates, all Republicans, have signed up to succeed Echols: Brad Dunagan, Darla Eden, Kent Henderson and Charles L. Lewis. Two are certified public accountants and two say their experience managing people is what qualifies them for the job. All have ideas about improving the office’s level of customer service and tax collection if elected. By the June 30 reporting deadline, Eden had spent nearly $25,000 in an effort to win the seat. It was, by far, the most any candidate in the race had recorded spending. According to reports filed with the state, Henderson had spent some $8,750; Lewis, $8,190 and Dunagan, some $3,940. Here’s a look at who they are and what ideas they have: Brad Dunagan Dunagan said he is finally getting around to running for the office he once considered when it opened up 12 years ago. Dunagan passed up the election in 2000, because he still had children in college. When he talks about why he’s running, Dunagan often mentions his family’s connections to public service. His parents were schoolteachers. So were his sisters, one of whom is now Georgia’s first lady. Dunagan, 59, has spent most of his life in the private sector. He once worked as a debt and credit collection manager for a company that was a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company in Texas, he said. He later worked in Athens, managing a customer service staff. And while he’s not a certified public accountant, he’s done accounting and bookkeeping for years, he said. He’s done work in financial management as a financial planner and estate adviser. And he said he has a lot of experience in collections. “I know my way around a balance sheet,” he said. Unlike the two CPAs in the race, Dunagan doesn’t think it’s a distinction he needs to do the job well. “I don’t want to denigrate the CPAs who are running, but I don’t think you need a glorified bookkeeper to do the job,” he said. “You need more broad experience.” Before running, Dunagan said he asked several tax commissioners in the area what the most important part of the job was. “Nine times out of 10 it was managing personnel,” he said. “It’s not that you have to be a good bean counter; you have to understand the different functions of the office and on top of that, you’ve got to be good with people. you’ve got to deal with the public and communicate well with other leadership in the county and in the state.” And Dunagan said his background has prepared him “very well” for that. “Not everyone works well with people,” he said. One of Dunagan’s first priorities if elected would be to audit whether the county’s outsourcing of delinquent tax collections is the best method. With a background in collections, Dunagan believes he could save money by bringing the function in house. Dunagan, like others, also wants to update the office’s website, making it more “customer friendly.” Darla Eden Eden, a certified public accountant and former finance director and auditor for Hall County, said she’s running because she misses public service. To deal with what she said are staffing shortages in the tax commissioner’s office, Eden wants to implement a “lock box” system for collecting mailed tax payments. The system would mean that all property tax payments would be processed by bank employees, not employees of the tax commissioner’s office, who can sometimes need as much as two weeks to process mailed payments near due dates, she said. “We don’t have enough staff to open up 75,000 checks,” Eden said. Eden believes the system might free employees for customer service. Instead of spending time processing mail, she said employees could open the office earlier, stay open later and work the counter even half a day on Saturdays. Also, she said, it means governments relying on the money could get it faster. “The money goes right to work, earning interest, and we don’t have checks sitting unopened in a vault for weeks,” Eden said. Eden also wants to change the format of county tax bills “so they’re a little easier to understand and read.” She has proposed placing information about tax exemptions on the bills and possibly information about government budgets. “I want to make the office more informative,” she said. Like others running for the office, Eden wants to improve the tax commissioner’s website to make it more friendly to users. Some of her proposals include adding a “question and answer” section and making it easier to pay online. Along with her previous work with the county, Eden, 44, has spent 12 years in the private sector. She touts her certified public accountant status on campaign signs for a reason, she said. “The tax office is largely financial,” she said. “It is a people management position, but it is largely managing the dollars; those monies have to be balanced and managed effectively.” Eden wants to bring the accounting of taxes back into the tax commissioner’s office. The task is currently handled by the county finance department. She isn’t the only candidate who thinks that distinction is important. Charles L. Lewis Lewis is also a certified public accountant. The former chairman of the Hall County Republican Party has been a CPA for 30 years, he said. A veteran of the military, Lewis said that he, too, has a “heart for service.” Lewis spent six years in the U.S. Navy and another 20 in the Navy Reserves, from which he is retired. That experience, he said, taught him how to manage people, as he managed a 60-person detachment. And his experience as an accountant, he said, taught him what made businesses profitable. And like the other CPA in the race, Lewis wants to bring accounting back into the tax commissioner’s office. Right now, that task is handled by the Hall County Finance Department. After running his own businesss for more than 20 years, the 64-year-old said he’s up for another challenge. And he believes he has more life experience than any other candidate. “I have age going for me, as I’ve dealt with a lot more things,” Lewis said. “I have my military experience of managing people, I’ve run my own business and wrote my own paycheck for 20-plus years.” Aside from his experience, Lewis believes his connections to the Republican Party are also an important qualification. “I’m a proven conservative,” he said. If elected, Lewis wants to be able to make it possible for property owners to receive their tax bills and other communication from the tax commissioner’s office via email. It’s a proposal he said would cut expenses for the office and make it more progressive. But Lewis acknowledges not all residents would want to do business that way. That’s why he said he wants to make the online billing an option and not mandatory. “It’s something they could elect to do and that would save a lot of postage,” Lewis said. Many of Lewis’s proposals include embracing technology. If elected, Lewis says he would promote online renewals for car tags. Though it’s already something Hall County residents have the ability to do, Lewis said he’s learned from conversations with voters that many don’t know it’s possible. “About one-third of the people seem to know it, but two-thirds don’t know it,” Lewis said. Like others, Lewis wants to extend hours at the tax commissioner’s office, staggering employees’ daily work hours so that the office could stay open until 7 p.m. daily without incurring huge overtime expenses. The office currently closes at 4:30 on weekdays. Lewis also wants to add some Saturday hours. He thinks the changes would increase the office’s level of customer service by allowing people to come after work. “That’s what the civilian population does,” he said. “They make it easy for their customers to get to them.” Lewis, like Henderson and Dunagan, also wants to find a way to reopen satellite offices that were closed in the 2011 budget crunch. Unlike the others, Lewis is cautious about saying he will do it, however. Instead, Lewis said he will “investigate” the idea. But on the face, he said putting tax commissioner’s employees in other county offices seems to make sense. Lewis said that he was the first to propose extending tax commissioner office hours and opening satellite offices. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t have satellite tag offices in county-owned buildings like libraries,” Lewis said. Kent Henderson Henderson feels his experience as a business owner sets him apart from the other candidates who have financial backgrounds. Already, Henderson has served on Hall County’s Planning Commission and the county’s impact fee board. He’s also served on school councils. The 45-year-old developer’s campaign platform revolves around his business experience. He said he wants to bring a business owner’s ideas and knowledge to the tax commissioner’s office. In fact, he said all facets of government might be better served by business owners — but he especially feels that way about the tax commissioner’s office. “I do not think this is an accounting job,” Henderson said. “It’s not a job for a CPA. A tax commissioner collects taxes; there’s nothing for you to account for if you don’t collect.” Unlike Eden and Lewis, who think the accounting part of tax collection should be brought back into the commissioner’s office, Henderson said he likes the current system, saying it provides for checks and balances. “Those controls are in place and I like that,” he said. “Just like in the business world, the (chief financial officer) crunches numbers, but doesn’t have the ability to sign checks. I don’t think that all the accounting needs to be done in that office.” And as a businessman, Henderson’s platform revolves around customer service. He wants to make improvements to the office’s website that might cut down on the number of people who need to visit the office in person. Like Eden, he wants the information on the website to be easier to find and payments easier to make. He even envisions a large red “pay now” button on the home page. “It’s the only way to generate revenue,” Henderson said. “We need to make it as convenient as we can to be able to collect taxes.” Like others, Henderson said he wants to figure out how to reopen the satellite tag offices that were closed in 2011. He promises to work with the Hall County Board of Commissioners to find a solution, and proposes locating tax commissioner’s office employees in community centers and libraries. “There’s no reason we can’t go and put someone in Nopone (at a park and community center) or on Martin Road,” he said. “If you have employees there, then you have those satellite offices back up and running without having freestanding rent, power, water. And then the convenience is back to the people.”

I am married to Mary Grant Dunagan and we have three children, Leah, Lindsey and Tyler, and three grandchildren, Maeve, Martin and Lucy Pearl.

L-R (In back) Leah Dunagan Hulsey, Lindsey Dunagan McDowell and Tyler Dunagan

(In front) Brad Dunagan and Mary Grant Dunagan

Our grandchildren: Lucy Pearl McDowell, Maeve Hulsey, Martin Hulsey

My brother and sisters: Michael Dunagan, Sandra Deal, Brad Dunagan and Brenda Rakes

Our father, George J. Dunagan and our mother, Ida Lou Waldrep Dunagan were both life-long natives of Gainesville-Hall County and were career educators. Dad was principal at Chestnut Mountain School and taught school at Lyman Hall, Candler, and Sardis before finishing his career as a guidance counselor at North Hall High School. Mother taught 2nd grade at Airline, the old New Holland School and at White Sulfur Elementary. Both of my sisters, Sandra and Brenda were also school teachers and worked in the Hall County Public School System until retirement.

Family celebrates Lucy Pearl's 1st birthday March 2012

If you can help my campaign with financial support please make your check out to:

Brad Dunagan For Tax Commissioner

1051 E. Lake Drive

Gainesville, GA 30506

Email: taxcommish@gmail.com

Thank you!!!

PRESS RELEASE:

Dunagan joins race for Hall County tax commissioner

By Staff

EMAIL STORYCONTACT EDITORPRINT

Brad Dunagan

GAINESVILLE - Another candidate joins the race for Hall County tax commissioner.

Brad Dunagan announced Tuesday that he plans to run for the post in the July 31st Republican primary.

"My goal for this office and staff is to perform these duties in a timely and efficient manner with quality customer friendly service," Dunagan said in a press release. "Our mission is to be faithful stewards of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with the Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office."

Dunagan is a financial planner and estate advisor, former credit and collections manager, and former financial consultant with the firm, Merrill Lynch & Co.

Dunagan joins J.C. Smith and Charles Lewis in the race to replace Keith Echols, who announced he will retire at the end of this year.