Assessor preparing for retirement after 36 years by Joey Martin - posted Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 @ 1:43 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  Monelle Moseley never envisioned spending 36 years at tax assessor of Concordia Parish. Actually, she had her doubts about one. "I was the only woman running," said Moseley, who was seeking the office along with Hubert Lee McGlothin, Buddy Spillers, Charles Chauvin, George Eames and Charles Huffman. Moseley served as chief deputy for long-time Concordia Parish Tax Assessor W.A. "Bubba" Beard from 1961 until she was elected in 1976. "I would not run until Bubba retired," Moseley said. "I knew I was qualified for the position." In a run-off, Moseley defeated McGlothin 3,813 votes to 3,000 to become the parish's first female assessor. "I just thought, 'Thank you, God,'" Moseley said. And then the real work began. "We did a lot of modernizing when I first took office," Moseley said. "Bubba was real old school. Plus, the new courthouse was just opening, so that was quite a transition as well. There were no computers when I first started." Moseley said she pondered retiring earlier in her career. "Before my husband (L.C. "Sparky") died in 1997 we talked about going to Italy where he served during World War II," Moseley said. "He wanted to always go back and his troop had made arrangements to go back for one year. But that was an election year and I had opposition." But she continued extending her term, without competition most of the time. "It is very rewarding to see the people with such confidence in me," Moseley said. "I always tried to be honest and treat everybody as fair as I could, But you still have to go by the law where people liked it or not. When they went to reassessment every four years, property values increased and people weren't happy with their tax notices. That was the tough part of the job." For the full story, subscribe to the The Concordia Sentinel's NEW E-Edition!