by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
If Tammy Rackley’s bright voice is the only one callers ever hear on the phone, they might get the idea the sun never sets on Jacksonville.
“I love working with the people; I love helping them,” said Rackley, receptionist at the Service and Information Center in the City Hall Annex. “I enjoy working directly with the public.”
Rackley has been working for the City for almost three years. She started out at the information desk at City Hall’s St. James Building. She then moved to the City Hall section at Regency Square for a few months.
“It’s set up with all the City information, a lot of magazines telling about the city, senior citizen guides,” said Rackley. “Two computers are set up so citizens can check job openings or apply online with the City.”
Information services available at the Regency Square site, she said, “are pretty much the same as we do here. But, instead of people having to come all the way downtown, they can stop by City Hall at the Mall.
“It’s a great assist to the public.”
Rackley also worked briefly at the City Link call center in the St. James Building. She asked to be transferred to the Annex when the receptionist’s position came open.
“I’m a people person,” she said. “I’m working with the public by speaking with them over the telephone, but I like direct contact as well as over the telephone.
“I give them as much information as they need. Sometimes I give them more information so they have something else to fall back on. If one lead doesn’t go this way, they can take the other way.”
Before going to work for the City, Rackley spent 12 and a half years with the Duval County School Board. She worked at several schools as a teaching assistant in classes for special education students:
“They found out I had multiple skills, so they placed me in the vice principal’s office, dealing with disciplinary problems.”
She left the school system when her daughter, Kimya, graduated, “and there was no need to have mom near.”
Kimya is Rackley’s only child, though she also cared for a host of foster children over the 10 and a half years she was a foster parent.
She feels she’s found her calling and plans to stay on the job “as long as the City’ll have me.”
Not everyone can do her job. A person needs plenty of patience to do it well, Rackley agreed. And that is why she is so well suited for it.
“Lot of the time, when they get to my desk, they’re frustrated because maybe they’ve already gone to three or four other buildings,” she said. “But when they come to the information desk, I’m able to get them to where they need to be at.
“They leave my desk with a smile.”