Meet the Candidate: Yuma County Assessor
Editor’s Note: Election Day is Nov. 3. There are several candidates running for office, including Victoria Morris Clarkson and David Alexandre, who are running for Yuma County Assessor. These stories are part of an ongoing Yuma Sun series called “Meet the Candidates.”
Name: David Alexandre
Age: 47
Office running for: Yuma County Assessor Political experience: Candidate for Yuma County Assessor
Family: A family man of three children and loving supporting wife. All born and raised in Yuma.
Please describe your platform.
The core of my platform is my belief that Yuma County voters have every right to expect fairness, ethics and transparency from the Assessor’s office.
I’ll be coming with strong leadership and organizational skills. If elected, I want to modernize the office’s system and protocols; this will ensure assessments are done right the first time. Data mining is a key element to predict future property valuations, and my “smart industry” approach would help centralize operations at the Assessor’s Office. I have a vision to turn this department around by having an open door policy. I want my staff to know that I am one to be in the middle of the game. Be the first boots on the ground and the last to leave.
What is your background? What in your past experiences helps qualify you for this seat?
The assessor’s office could benefit from an outsider who “understands real-life economics” as a past local business owner that faced the economic downturn in 2008. I want a proactive office that treats residents with compassion. I’ve held leadership positions such as being a sergeant at the Arizona State Department of Corrections, a Captain at Civigenics and becoming State Certified Staff Instructor. Experience in multi-million dollar budgets and Government and State contracts along with Federal and State audit compliance inspections. Public Relations and logistics.
Beginning of this year, I left my employment with Yuma County working at the Elections and Recorders Department of four years in order to pursue the position of County Assessor.
If elected, what is your first priority?
My first priority is creating accountability and trust. I have a strong belief in empowering employees. Empowered employees are loyal, committed and potentially more productive.
When you empower employees to step up, make their own decisions and pave their own path to success, you create a better workplace culture for your staff and for the Yuma County Community.
What sets you apart from your opponent(s)?
Possessing Empathy and Self-Awareness, as the County Assessor you need to be aware of your actions and how they affect others, from having strong communication to being able to lead and motivate a team to succeed and feel value in their role. Leaders help followers identify hazards, navigate obstacles, and learn to avoid them in the future. Leadership is resourcing answers for the formation on their path to accomplishing the mission.
What do you think is the biggest challenge right now facing Yumans?
The voters of Yuma County are passionate and outspoken, it’s the Yuma blood. Voters have expressed a strong and clear message that fairness, transparency, and integrity are not too much to ask of elected officials and I agree with them. The biggest challenge facing is complacency, staff have become accustomed to doing things in certain way or tasks flowing a certain way and grow oblivious to the potential setbacks that be ever present around them. I want to ensure the confidence of my team and empower all to succeed.
What would you do, if elected, to help change that?
To listen, make the hard decisions that would benefit everyone in Yuma County. Modernize technology, more training, and most importantly accountability and trust. General Colin Powell says it best: “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.” I am not afraid to introduce a change, which will benefit my team, the residents and the Yuma Community.