MnCCC Spotlight: Jill Gontarek
MnCCC Spotlight
Jill Gontarek has served on MnCCC's Executive Board for almost 4 years! In honor of her commitment to MnCCC and her role as a board member, we'd like to recognize Jill's outstanding work. Here's a little snapshot about Jill:
What was your first job?
My very first job was working as a busgirl at a small restaurant in Maplewood, then managed the pizza restaurant in the same complex where I did everything from taking orders to making pizza to handling the cash register, great perks though, free pizza!
In 1975 I started working for Ramsey County as a clerk-typist in the Assessor’s Office. 43 years later I’m still with the county but held many positions during those years. I worked as an account clerk in the Auditor Officer for a time, then went back to the Assessor’s as a residential real estate appraiser. Did a stint as a tax court appeal appraiser when petitions hit an all-time high in 1993. A few years later I became the supervisor of the CAMA (computer assisted mass appraisal) section. We had recently converted our homegrown system to a new CAMA system owned by CLT – Cole Layer Trumble, who later was purchased by Tyler Technology. That was in 1996, we’ve been with Tyler for our assessing system ever since. In 2013 I became the Deputy Assessor for the county and remain that today.
Tell us a little bit about yourself:
I have lived my entire life in Minnesota, born in St Paul and recently moved back after living in the northern suburbs. I love living in the city, I enjoy walking my dog around the local lakes, it’s great having a 10-minute commute to work and I love the diversity of my neighborhood. I’m blessed to have two children and 3 grandchildren. I also love horses and riding, a few years ago I taught riding lessons as well as rode myself now I just enjoy riding and being with her and the other horses at my boarding barn.
What interests you about MnCCC?
I enjoy the collaborative atmosphere of the user groups, the benefit of sharing knowledge from many experts from different counties is invaluable. I enjoy being on the Executive Board, working toward providing cost effective solutions for local government and being a part of such a talented group of individuals.
What is something on your bucket list you’d like to do?
I would love to take a long trip to Sweden and visit the other Scandinavian countries with my family. I have distant relatives in Sweden and it would be fun to connect, I’ve even heard my family is descended from Swedish royalty!