Saturday Janet Trujillo came by my house campaigning. She left me a card with her website on it. Just because you CAN run for an office doesn’t mean you should. I pulled up her site and the home page has her EXPERIENCE on it. She is a high school grad, and is a dental assistant (yep, like cleans your teeth). She has had 6 courses in house appraisal. They look like pretty good classes to learn how to evaluate the value of property. Since Ms. Trujillo said she worked for the county, I suspect she is one of those people that come around to appraise houses, and works in the Assessor’s Office. 1) Property appraiser, 2) high school grad, 3) dental assistant.
Later a fellow who likes Mr. Hansen came by, and I told him that Ms. Trujillo said her big concern was that Mr. Hansen had spent money on outsourcing. His response seemed like outsourcing was a good decision. He said the county had instituted a new direct deposit tax collection program, where a local bank collected the mail, processed it, and deposited the checks immediately. That allowed interest to be earned immediately on the taxes collected, and it also saved the county money by eliminating the need to hire extra people. He indicated the county actually earned about $10,000 interest on the taxes because they were deposited immediately.
After the fellow left, I got on Mr. Hansen’s website. I learned the Treasurer’s office is the MONEY MANAGEMENT arm of the county, NOT the property valuation arm. I guess you might call Mr. Hansen the “accountant” or CFO of the county. I learned that if county money is invested well, it actually can lower or at least hold property taxes level. After reading Mr. Hansen’s website it looks to me like the Treasurer’s job is the ONLY government job where if done well, can actually earn back the salary in good decision making on investments. In the end, THAT SAVES ME MONEY! Mr. Hansen’s EXPERIENCE says he has an 1) accounting degree, 2) 6 years accounting experience with Kingston Enterprises, 3) years in the real estate lending and accounting banking industry, 4) ran a farm business, 5) and has rental property, so he sure knows about paying property taxes.
I am one who of those who hates property tax. If good investing will curb taxes, I’m all for it. As I said, just because you CAN run doesn’t mean you should. We have a lady who works in the Assessor’s office, is a high school grad, and a dental assistant, asking us to “hire her” as the CFO/Accountant for the county, and replace a man who has years of business, accounting, managerial, and investment experience. The thought of the blonde appraiser with the ponytail taking over the money management of the county scares me. PLEASE be informed, don’t vote emotionally, use logic on this one….it’s important.
Popularity: 1%
. Plus that leaves me a day to spend money elsewhere, so yes, there is money to be made on Sunday.
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This article is way old now, need to publish quicker.
Janet lost the race, for obvious reasons as stated above. There was another article here she posted trying to drum up support, but she wasn’t answering the obvious questions about her supposed education and experience. Don’t know if Mark Hansen is dirty or not, but at least he’s not completely out of his element for the job like Janet was.
Janet must have thought she could capitalize on some investigations of Mark (however those turn out). She thought she could regurgitate some conservative buzzwords and waltz into office despite her lack of experience and education. What was she thinking?
Then again, Idaho elected someone with a GED for state comptroller over someone with a Master’s degree in Finance. Why? (R) vs (D).
Janet probably hoped voters dumb enough to pick a GED over an advanced Finance degree for Idaho’s CFO position would also be dumb enough to pick her over Mark Hansen. Not a bad gamble actually, but in this case it didn’t pan out for her.
Maybe she should run for state comptroller, she can pit her diploma against the incubment’s GED.
Top ↑I’m all for candidates like Janet running for office. Who would you rather have in office; somebody who’s in touch with the people, community, etc. or some slick politician who’s only in it for themselves with no interest is actually serving the people, the public and it’s best interests? This is the problem with our government today over the past few decades, on both a local and national level; too many slick, fast talking “politicians” that promise the world but end up making things worse once in office. This city, county, state, country needs more “Janet Trujillos” in my opinion.
Top ↑Either the author was working for Mark Hansen’s campaign, or needs a life. There’s no way the average informed voter would know all of the facts listed above. This definitely was written by Hansen’s team.
Top ↑You are so right, Guest three, this was written by Mark’s camp. The post came in pretty late in the game. This article is another fine example of one of many “tricks” used during the campaign. You can bash Janet all you want, but it won’t help their situation with the state’s investigation into the real estate dealings of the Hansen family. It will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals. I am glad that Janet had the guts to run for office. It says something about her; she wanted to inform the public and make responsible changes. But, the complacent majority made their decision to remain status quo. Oh, and by the way, Mark is not an accountant and Dani is not a realtor! Do your homework!
Top ↑I hope she runs again, too. She has enough time in 4 years to gain the real credentials needed for the office, and may get the opportunity to gain some managerial experience as well.
I dispute the claim that the majority was complacent- the Treasurer’s job is one that requires a professional, just like the County Prosecutor’s office. Hansen was viewed as being the professional. He wasn’t exactly Mr. Popularity, after all- the investigation began before the election.
Since the Post-Register listed all the candidates with their qualifications and reasons for running, I think that for most voters, at least some homework was done. There is always an advantage in name recognition for any incumbent, but don’t make the mistake in thinking voters are frivolous or complacent with how they cast their votes. Name recognition and incumbency only go so far.
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