When Lesley Sootoo, the new interim chief appraiser, was a little girl, she dreamed of growing up and becoming an appraiser...well that is a bit of stretch. A big stretch really as she didn’t even know what an appraiser was.
“I don’t think anyone growing up wakes up and says I want to be an appraiser,” she said.
But now she is one and the chief one in Milam County.
“I was working in Pfugerville and living in Rockdale. I came home one day and dad said, ‘I found you a job’.”
It was an opening in the Milam County Tax Appraiser ’s Office .
“I don’t know anything about being an appraiser,” she told him.
He looked at her and said, “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
And she did.
She researched what being a Registered Professional Appraiser was all about, and set up an interview with Pat Morgan and Dyann White, whose position Sootoo was promoted to at the Feb. 26 meeting of the appraisal district board of directors.
She got the job in 2007 and 10 years later she was the deputy chief appraiser.
White announced at the end of November last year she was leaving the office to take a position in Brenham.
Sootoo’s job first and foremost she said is ensuring the district sticks to its motto: “Fair and uniform.”
She is settling into her new position just fine, she said.
“I like to work with the public. I like to take the time to explain what we do and why we do it,” she said. “It is all about educating the public what ad valorem taxes pay for.”
All those things like schools, police departments, fire departments, roads and road maintenance to name a few of the things taxes on citizens fund of the government services tax dollars pay for.
She and her husband currently are enjoying the country life on a farm between Milano and Caldwell, she said.
Out on the farm she enjoys fishing for catfish in the pond and watching the deer.
She has a daughter and three sons all of whom are grown, with the youngest boy now training in South Carolina for the National Guard.
And for anyone out there aspiring to be an appraiser, the county currently has an opening. Just go to the website at Employment Opportunities – Milam AD – Official Site to check it out.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.