Adams County Commissioner District 2

"I'm looking to make a change," Hank Rivard said. "I believe that we need to get the power back to the people. We've got a few people that have been running the county for years, and I think we need new ideas."

Does he believe county residents are disenfranchised?

"If you're talking about Adams County, yes, they are," he said. "Everything has been done the same way for so many years, and it's been the same group of people that have been in there, and things aren't getting done."

"We need to vote. When you look at the percentage of people that actually do vote, it's very small. In the Othello area during the primary we had approximately 400 people vote."

What is in Rivard's list of priorities for Adams County?

"I would like to see it run more like a business," he said. "When I talk to some of the employees in the county, they don't do evaluations. I don't know how you how you can run an organization if you're not doing evaluations, let your people know every year how they're doing. How are you going to select who you want to promote? How can you help people improve their job and what their goals are? I don't think there's anything better than you hire the best people, the smartest people. You train them, you get them additional education in one of the best things you can do, and it's happened to me a couple times in my career in business, where I've actually trained people and worked with them, and they've actually become my boss. I think that's the greatest thing you can do for a person."

Are you aware of any deficiencies in the Adams County government?

"I was pretty much like everybody else, pretty complacent living my life, having a good time, retired. Then one night some people called and said, 'Would you run for county commissioner?' And that's pretty hard to turn down."

Rivard said the calls came from business folks in Othello, but he has not divulged their names.

Rivard said he grew up in Northern Minnesota, near the Canadian border, and right after high school he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and received an honorable discharge.

Rivard said he married his wife while in the service and they have four daughters.

He said he retired after 34 years of employment with Delta Airlines, where he was a station manager.

He also said after the Delta job he worked for Ace Hardware and Quantum Development in Seattle. He said he worked at a funeral home in Othello for a while, "so I've got a very varied background of different things."

"I played a lot of sports," he said. "I coached slow pitch and stuff in the Seattle area."

"As far as budget experience goes, we have a lot of problems to take care of in Adams County," Rivard said. "We need to get a new contract negotiated with the Othello and Adams Fire Departments. It makes no sense to have two separate departments. I'm looking to mark my business standpoint rather than a government standpoint. When you look at how budgets are done and procedures are done, I like the private industry better... It's frustrating from an outside standpoint to see how government operates.

Regarding business practice, Rivard said, "We need to do a review of every department's budget and see what reports can be eliminated. I think our commissioners should be available every day in their office, not just in the weekends and stuff. We've got so many unnecessary regulations for building permits. The permitting process takes forever, and then you look at housing, if you want to do a building permit, about a third of the cost right now are with permits and inspection fees."

Rivard said, "We need to get the jail in Ritzville open," and he confirmed money will be needed to do the job.

Rivard said he lives in Othello.

His contact information is (509) 331-6000, [email protected].