Dawn Scarborough, Oglethorpe County’s new tax commissioner, said she follows the “golden rule” — as she did in her previous career — but with a twist: treat others the way you’d want your grandma treated.
Scarborough followed this same philosophy as a paramedic. EMS deputy director Josh Robinson worked with Scarborough while she served as a paramedic and saw her kindness first-hand.
“She treated every patient with the most respectful compassion,” Robinson said. “We've seen her cry more over patients than most paramedics would, just because of how much she's cared for them.”
Scarborough began her career in public service as a paramedic in Oglethorpe County after transitioning from the banking industry. Scarborough worked in EMS services for 17 years, but she decided it was time for a change due to the mental toll the job had taken on her.
“I wanted to be able to go home at night and sleep every night because the older you get, the harder it is, going down in all the ditches and crawling around in cars and doing all the lifting we needed to do,” Scarborough said. “And it was an emotional struggle, too. The older I got, the more I ended up with people I knew as patients, so I was just ready for a transition.”
Timing lined up for Scarborough, as she was on the job hunt when former tax commissioner Sheila Arnold announced that she would retire at the end of 2024. Scarborough heard about the position from community members who encouraged her to run.
“I had a couple of people come and ask me if I would consider running,” Scarborough said. “I just laughed, because at the time, I hadn’t really given it much thought, but then I started thinking about it, and I thought, well, that might not be a bad idea.”
After winning the Republican primary in May and then running unopposed in the general election, Scarborough was able to train under Arnold, which helped with the learning curve of her new role.
Even before taking office, Scarborough said her main objective is to provide service with a smile and limit expenses.
“I plan to make the right decisions, according to how I would want my money spent,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough does things like buy her own organizing folders and limits the use of paper. Additionally, she teaches her employees to “treat people the way they’d want their grandma to be treated.”
Scarborough has kept a family tradition of serving Oglethorpe County alive. Both of her parents served the county as paramedics and her grandparents also lived in the county most of their lives.
“My parents both grew up here, and graduated from here, where they were high school sweethearts,” she said. “They both ended up working here, which is something not everybody has the luxury of being able to do.”