Candidate Interview: Moni Grushkin — LPC Treasurer

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• Transcript

  Hello everyone. My name is Moni Grushkin and I am running for re-election as your Plata County Treasurer. So I actually wear two hats. I am the Treasurer, but I am also the Public Trustee. So as your Treasurer, I’m responsible for collecting and recording and distributing all of the monies that come into La Plata County. That includes making disbursements to the school districts, the fire protection districts, the library districts. There’s over 70 taxing authorities in La Plata County that receive monies that come in through my office. And why that’s important to county residents is you are paying your property taxes, your sales taxes, and that money flows through my office. And so you want to have a Treasurer that understands how important that is, why I need to accurately distribute the money and to whom it’s going, so that you have confidence that it’s being done accurately and correctly. Your hard earned money is going to pay for all the services that you enjoy in our community. So as I mentioned, I am running for re-election. I’ve held this position now for almost three years. I started in November of 2023, when I was selected from by the Board of County Commissioners from a pool of candidates after my predecessor retired or excuse me, resigned. And then I was elected in 2024 to finish out that term. And now I’m running for another four year term. And I’m doing it because I honestly, I love the job. I get to work with a great group of people within my office, within our building, within the county, I get to interact with the residents of La Plata County. I’ve lived here for 21 years and I know a lot of people, and so it’s just I love the challenges that come. I can honestly say no two days are exactly the same, and I, I want to keep doing it. I would say experience, experience actually doing the job. I smile when I think back on when I interviewed for this position in 2023. I have the qualifications to do this job based on working in financial services and banking for 25 years, doing all kinds of other things, but I really didn’t fully grasp what was involved in being the treasurer, and I can honestly tell you it’s very different. And so what sets me apart is I’ve done the job now for three years. I actually know what I’m doing. And as I said earlier, I love what I’m doing. And the monies that are going out where those disbursements are going because I’m responsible for reporting, you know, the collection and disbursement of revenues. The challenges that we have is prioritizing a lot of needs with a unlimited, not a let’s say. I mean, how would I say this with a limited pool of monies, right? So there’s a lot of great things that the county is doing and wants to do. And so it’s important to prioritize how that money is spent. Last year, the taxpayers voted on a 1% increase in the sales tax, which was a huge boost to the the revenues for the county, which. Is very, very helpful. It has it’s kind of a double edged sword. So I and I say that because we have incremental monies, an incremental stream of monies, but we have to be very prudent. And how we spend that money is we are trusted stewards of taxpayer monies. And so it’s really important that the county is diligent in ensuring that we’re spending that money, in the most beneficial way to benefit the most people within our county. My favorite thing to do outside of work. That’s hard. I actually it’s hard for me to choose favorites, although I have chosen a favorite type of flower, which are dahlias. I tried growing those last year and I absolutely love them. So I love gardening. I love to play golf, which I don’t do often enough. I enjoy reading and playing games. But most importantly, I’d love to be with my family and friends. I belong to a book club. I belong to a cooking club. My family teases me that I’m addicted to playing board games and card games, but just being with people and enjoying good food, good friends, and being outside.