Cynthia Miller

I attribute my success to my mother. My mother was a homemaker and never worked outside of the home, but she raised us to believe in whatever we wanted to do. She shaped us in presenting ourselves professionally at all times. My mom was very big on that with all of us. When we walked out that house, we had to be proud on being clean, neat, with good hygiene, and I attribute that to my mother because if I didn't have those qualities, I don't think that I would have been able to get into rooms where most people don't. I do attribute that to my mother because she instilled that into us. And of course, God. I thank God every day that He has allowed me to give back and to be here to give back, and not be talked about, but to actually live it. To actually live it is a blessing. When I was running for my second term as commissioner, I was having really bad sinus problems, and they did a CT scan and I had to get an MRI. I had a mass on my cervical spine and didn't even know it. I had to immediately have surgery, and thank God it was benign. That was another eye-opening for me - that you're here today, you can be gone tomorrow.

The best career advice I've ever received is to stay true to who you are, stay the course, and don't let anyone shrink you. I'm hearing that a lot - that sometimes to fit in, we shrink what we are or who we are and what we bring to the table just to fit in. It's always been women that are older than me to help shape me and give me the self-esteem to push forward, because we all know women already have a hard time excelling when you're in a room with a lot of males. When I first came on the commission, I was the first woman in a long time, along with another, but I had to be the stronger one. I had to not take it personal, and then I had to learn personalities and egos and all of that. These women, my mentors, they really helped me get through that to stay focused on the work that I want to do to give back, not on what other people say. They really helped shape me, and they're still my friends today. I'm so grateful that I had someone to nurture me, and so I have to give it back and pay it forward. I gotta nurture these young women and men.

I'm nurturing a commissioner right now. She's a mom with a full-time job, and she wants to be involved in the community. She's young, she's 30. Time management is very important so you can really plan out your day. You have to plan - for me, I plan out my week on Sunday, and I make sure the personal stuff gets in there as well, time with your family. I try to encourage them to just do time management, and then be true to whatever issue or project or initiative that you're interested in and get help with that. Basically, the time management part is really where young women get in trouble with. You gotta make the most of each day.

Local elected officials have the hardest challenges because on a municipal level, you don't have staff - you don't have a chief of staff, you don't have a personal assistant. The really biggest challenge is that while I'm blessed not to work a full-time job, most of them do. They work a full-time job, and a lot of our meetings with our state and county happen during the day. Some may happen at 5 or 6 o'clock, but a lot of them are during the day. If you don't have an assistant to help you, especially when you're crafting a response or a letter, and some of them are smaller than I am and don't have a communications director, that is the biggest challenge for a lot of local elected officials. We also don't have the budget for a lot of the needs. Even for elections, we really don't get a salary salary - I would say it's a stipend. We're not gonna get that real commitment if you don't have that financial assistance, because now you gotta weigh public service or do I need to work this overtime at my job because I have to pay the bills. Everything has gone up. For elections, we didn't have to spend a whole lot of money - you'd get a flyer printed, go door-to-door, talk to people, send some emails out. But since COVID, people don't answer their doors unless they have an issue or need conversation. So now you have to do mailings, and the layout of a flyer to have it done professionally to go by mail, getting a calling list through VAN - it's not cheap. The challenge for local officials is having the right resources.

Integrity, transparency, and dedication.