GOSHEN COUNTY – Growing up in Torrington, Goshen County Treasurer candidate Leticia Dominguez graduated as a National Honor Student at Torrington High School. Dominguez’s father was a carpenter and mother a homemaker.
When Dominguez was a youth her father would take the family to Guernsey Reservoir to camp, but math was her passion.
“My favorite teacher was the accounting teacher,” Dominguez said. “He influenced me to go into accounting. How he taught is what inspired me to be an accountant.”
Dominguez participated in the Community Renewal Team which helps students find an affordable path to a stable future. With a passion for accounting, she was placed at the Courtney Agency, the local H&R Block office, where she worked a few hours after school and was hired part-time for tax season.
Her next job was at Pamida, now Shopko, working part-time while in high school. After graduating in 1991 she was moved up to manager position.
Working as a teller at US Bank, she found an opening at Vandel Drug, where she trained to become a Pharmacy Tech. Dominguez was given a chance to return to her first love via an opening in the County Treasurers office.
Dominguez worked there for a few years as a clerk under then-County Treasurer Sharon Knaub. She then moved to the WIC office until Maxine Mitchell was voted in as County Treasurer and Dominguez was chosen to be Deputy Treasurer. But Dominguez missed working as a clerk in the treasurer’s office.
“When I left for those two years, I missed being there,” Dominguez said. “The people and the work, making sure everything is correct. The whole aspect of the office.
“We do taxes every year. I call it my baby, because that is what I do,” she said. “I balance the tax for the year. I get the information from the assessor’s office and I have to make sure we are balanced when we send it to all our customers. I monitor that throughout the year until our tax sale. I am in charge of making sure everything is done correctly for the tax sale.”
Dominguez has worked in the county treasurer’s office for 15 years, seeing everyone who lives in the county every year. She likes getting to know people in the community.
In the job, the treasurer must make sure all the monies are distributed to all the right entities. Dominguez sees this as the position of her career taking little interest in any other office.
“I don’t see it being stressful, it is something you want to do,” Dominguez said. “I love this job, I don’t mind getting up in the morning going to work.”
Right now, Dominguez is comfortable with her position because she knows what must be done as deputy.
“If elected, going in as Treasurer, I will be excited about what I am going to learn,” Dominguez said. “I always thought of the idea of being Treasurer at some point in my life.
“I wanted to show my children that if you work hard at something and continue you can achieve your goals,” she said. “I want them to be proud of their mother for trying to better herself and for being there to make a better life for them.”
Dominguez said the ongoing campaign hasn’t affected the atmosphere in the office.
“At first, it was difficult just not knowing that (Roberta Goeken) was going to run,” Dominguez said. “But I guess you have to look at it like the sheriff’s office, there are two that are running as well.
“You can’t make it difficult because you still have to work together,” she said. “You still have to work in the same office and as one office.”
And outside the work environment, it hasn’t impacted the personal relationship, either, she said.
“Our friendship is still there,” Dominguez said. “We still laugh together, we still talk about our families together. We talk to each other about the problems we are having.”
Dominguez and Goeken are not permitted to discuss the election in the treasurer’s office. But it is still uncomfortable for both of them when someone brings the election into the office.
“It is uncomfortable when people come in the office and say something or make a comment about the election,” Dominguez said. “We talked at the forum and were both relieved when it was over.”
It was a new experience for both candidates to speak in front of a live crowd about themselves and their jobs. “I hope that we can keep our relationship and the friendship that we have,” Dominguez said.
