TECHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE COME TOGETHER AT THE TAX OFFICE

By Brad Stager

The Tampa Bay Lightning and The Mosaic Company are proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Goals for Food program, which supports food-insecure residents across the Tampa Bay region.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Goals for Food program in partnership with Mosaic,” said Mark Pitts, chief operating o f cer of Vinik Sports Group. “This program has been instrumental in supporting food-insecure families in our community, and we look forward to continuing this important work with Mosaic to support hunger relief e f orts.”

Mosaic’s Goals for Food program donates $1,000 for every goal and $1,500 for every hat trick scored by a Lightning player during the 2022-23 season. At the end of the season, the total donation will be distributed among 12 local food partner organizations dedicated to ending food insecurity throughout West Central Florida.

Since its inception in 2013, the Goals for Food partnership has profoundly impacted the lives of food-insecure residents, providing more than 9.8 million meals over the last decade.

On February 23, Mosaic employees, community partners and Lightning fans came together to celebrate this milestone and continue to raise awareness about the need to support food insecure families in West Central Florida. Also, that evening, in support of the Goals for Food program, the Lightning hosted a food drive to benefit Metropolitan Ministries at Ford Thunder Alley before their game against the Bu f alo Sabres at AMALIE Arena. Fans in attendance were invited to participate by donating nonperishable food items.

“Mosaic is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, and our partnership with the Tampa Bay Lightning through the Goals for Food program is one way we can make a di f erence,” said Bruce Bodine, Mosaic’s senior vice president - North America.

“We are proud to celebrate 10 years of this important program and remain dedicated to ending food insecurity in our region.”

For more information about the Goals for Food program and Mosaic’s commitment to local communities, visit https:// mosaicfloridaphosphate.com/.

Among life’s certainties is the paying of taxes and fees to government entities that then spend the money for the benefit of residents on things like roads and other infrastructure, or services such as fire protection.

As Hillsborough County’s tax collector, Nancy Millan is responsible for the collection of revenue payments from residents so they can operate a business, own a home, fish for snook or drive a car, as examples.

She was elected to the ofce in November 2020, and while she is the newest Hillsborough County tax collector, it is a position that Millan is familiar with, having served as the agency’s director of community relations for 20 years.

According to Millan, her experience of connecting the community with the county’s administrative and civic processes while working for her predecessor, Doug Belden, influences her work in leading the tax ofce and also played a part in wanting to continue serving county residents by running for election to the position.

“I’m very passionate about this ofce and the work we’ve done, and I wanted to move forward with the excellent foundation to provide excellent service,” she said, adding, “I knew what success looked like.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has afected tax ofce operations over the last three years, and the resulting innovations will continue to do so as Millan encourages adoption of technology that ofers residents flexibility in taking care of routine administrative matters.

“We learned there’s a diferent way of doing business,” she said.

Among the innovations are the ability to take a driver’s license road test in a remote fashion, with the examiner observing and evaluating an applicant’s driving skills via cell phone. Other technologies deployed to facilitate public access to the tax ofce include self-service kiosks located at some Publix supermarkets and a bilingual (English and Spanish) chatbot named Sofie on the tax collector website to provide customer assistance.

The high level of customer service expected of tax collection employees is also reflected in the ofce’s internal culture, resulting in recognition as a 2022 National Top Workplaces Culture Excellence awardee by Energage, a national research company that conducts workplace surveys. You can learn more about doing business with the Hillsborough County tax ofce by visiting www.hillstax.org.