Adams County Commissioner Candidates District No. 3: Opponent Jessie Dominguez

 

Last updated 10/23/2014 at Noon



Jessie Weno Dominguez

Age: 33

Education: Othello High School

Profession: Business

Owner of DNZ Events

Spouse: Amy

Children: Noah and Elijah Dominguez

Jessie Weno Dominguez is seeking election to the Adams County Commissioner District 3 position after a lifetime of dedication to the Othello area. He is seeking this position because he believes in giving back to the community he has been a part of his whole life.

“I really want to run for county commissioner because I want to bring vision to the county,” Dominguez said, “and I want my kids to grow up in a safe and beautiful place.”

In addition to working for the county for 10 years, Dominguez is currently involved in several local civic groups, including the Adams County Economic Development Council and the Othello Chamber of Commerce.

With his experience in working for the county as well as in the juvenile courts Dominguez feels very qualified to serve as county commissioner. He has experience in writing grants and budgets as well as working with local leaders and legislation to accomplish projects. As a business owner he has also had to manage growth and investments.

“[With] my experience working with locals on groups and community events I think I’m very highly qualified,” Dominguez said.

He believes term limits are necessary for elected officials, saying that it is important to pass community involvement and service on to the next generations.

“Having term limits has the opportunity to bring in new ideas, new passion, new energy,” Dominguez said.

In five years Dominguez wants to unite the county by working with citizens and leaders to set a vision and direction for Adams County.

“Without vision you have nowhere to go, there’s no goals,” Dominguez said. “If something goes wrong we can always go back to our vision and say this is where we’re heading to.”

In 10 years he would like to see Adams County become a leading county in the nation with economic development throughout and with the communities of Lind and Washtucna thriving once again.

If elected as commissioner Dominguez would work with the board and community leaders to identify needs in each community and then find a way for the county to assist in meeting them.

“I really want to be a commissioner for both sides of the county, not just Othello,” Dominguez said.

As a commissioner he wants to make the county more accessible for farmers and one of his goals would be to increase county interaction with farmers by establishing an easier way for them to report roads that are in need of maintenance.

He also wants to look into more intervention and prevention strategies to help public safety in all of the communities. Dominguez also would like to make Adams County more open to the public and developer friendly.

In addition to these changes, Dominguez would also work with county departments to set goals and pursue innovative sources of funding for county projects without going to the taxpayers for additional funding, saying that each county department is underfunded.

He stressed the importance of looking ahead when planning projects.

“We need to look down the road, what’s this [going to] cost us if we don’t do this now?” Dominguez said. “We can save $100,000 today but if they have to spend $10 million in two, three years or ten years, where are we saving?”

He also said he would talk to county employees to help find where each department could save money to free up funding for projects.

As an example of this, Dominguez talked about his experience in the juvenile courts.

“We knew that we had to make a change and we knew that we couldn’t do it on our own so we had to bring in some new innovative programs,” he said.

According to Dominguez, the juvenile problems were costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars. With an innovative strategy to target low and moderate risk youth, the juvenile detention program was able to save Adams County $500,000 by keeping kids out of Martin Hall and reducing juvenile crime rates.

“I think several years down the road we’re [going to] see that savings in our jail through these programs because we were able to get to these kids when they were young,” he said.

Dominguez listed his top three priorities that he would want to address as county commissioner and with his background in the juvenile court system it is no surprise that Dominguez’s first priority is public safety.

“It’s elected officials’ job and government’s job, you have to keep the citizens safe,” said Dominguez, “that’s your number one job.”

Dominguez said to do this the Sheriff’s department would need the correct staffing and equipment to handle any call in Adams County. He also wanted to address disaster preparedness so the county could handle any situation.

His second priority as commissioner would be to increase access to water for Adams County residents.

“We live in a desert and water is gold,” Dominguez said, “with no water we don’t function.”

Dominguez wanted to become very active in the fight for water in Adams County to preserve the agriculture and industry of the county and use any and all means to influence the East High Canal project.

His third priority item was the economic development of Adams County.

“We have to continue to be on the cutting edge of advancing in agriculture and also in new industries,” Dominguez said, “we need to work hard to make sure infrastructure is here, that we’re shovel ready for new businesses to come in and that we’re also active in training our work force.”

With economic development Dominguez also wanted to ensure the county was able to supply business with a welltrained work force and that there was enough housing for people to move into the county. This would ensure the county is prepared to meet the demands of increased development.

As a commissioner Dominguez believed it would be very important to work alongside the Adams County Development Council to promote the county as well as looking to other counties for ideas.

“Grant County has been very successful in economic development, they’ve done amazing, they’re our neighbors,” he said. “How can we partner with them?”

According to Dominguez, a commissioner needs to be a facilitator and bring all of the parties to the table to help economic development progress and to be a leader in the county.

Of all the challenges faced by Adams County Dominguez felt that the most prominent is access to water.

“We could work on economic development, we could do all these great things but without water nothing else goes,” Dominguez said.

He said the board of commissioners needs to show the farmers that the county is committed to ensuring water is available for the future.

“Adams County was established from our wheat,” Dominguez said, “we were one time known as the bread basket of the United States back in the 1800’s.”

He said the county needed to keep agriculture as the number one priority, which means influencing the East High Canal project. Dominguez said that if the board is dedicated to the project 110 percent and appeals on behalf of the farmers at a state and national level they can have a large influence on the project.

“It’s not by a phone call, it’s not by a letter, it’s in person,” Dominguez said, “and it’s saying we’re [going to] do what ever it takes to get this done.”

He also said the county could make use of its talented employees to do as much as possible at a local level to facilitate the project.

In regards to the Adams County Jail, Dominguez called for a unified approach from the communities and the county to come up with the best solution.

“We need to look at our short-term and our long-term issues that we have with the jail,” Dominguez said.

He said to address the issues the county needs to examine the jail to find the most fiscally responsible plan that not only meets the requirements of the state but also the needs of the communities. He also said the county would need to examine other jails to find the best solution.

“My plan, it’s extensive, it’s looking at it from top to bottom and looking at it down the road long term, do we want to have a partnership with other counties?” Dominguez said, “What’s fiscally the most safe, common sense way to approach our issues with the jail.”

As a life long resident of Adams County, Dominguez has developed a large respect for its citizens. “I owe it to the citizens of this county to continue to support our county, to make it a safe and amazing place for generations to come…” Dominguez said. “I want the voters to know that I am passionate that I’m excited and that I’m willing to work with whoever to get things done.”

 

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