By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
From sending out tax payment reminders to informing residents of unclaimed property under their name, the Saline County Treasurer's Office affects the daily lives of nearly every citizen in the county.
Next October, after a dozen years as the Saline County Treasurer, Jim DuBois intends to retire after turning around the county's idle funds, bringing more critical storage space for the office and working closely with other county departments on security and assistance.
Once DuBois finishes his term, he intends to refocus on the Salina community while spending more time with his church and family.
"I would like to spend more time helping our church," DuBois said. "I've also always thought it'd be great to do a mission trip. Obviously, with our time and the things we've had, we've never had an opportunity to do that, so that's another goal."
However, before he gets to the quiet days of retirement, DuBois will continue his term until the second Tuesday of October next year, following the fiscal year rather than the regular election schedule.
The path to Saline County Treasurer
DuBois said his family moved to Salina in 1964 when he was six years old after the Air Force relocated his father to Schilling Air Force Base.
"My dad was deployed to Vietnam, so we came here through Schilling," DuBois said. "I graduated from Sacred Heart High School, went to Barton Community College, went to Kansas Wesleyan and got my master's through Nova Southeastern University."
Once DuBois finished his master's program, he began teaching as an adjunct instructor for criminal justice courses at Kansas Wesleyan University.
In 2012, he changed his profession and ran for the Saline County Treasurer's Office, taking over for Brenda Siemsen. She was treasurer for two terms before DuBois ran for office.
"It's a big learning curve. I will say, having the right staff and the right people in place and providing the tools for them to do their jobs is the way that we've progressed all the way here," DuBois said.
An office focused on cash and community
As DuBois entered office, he began building a team and looking for ways the County Treasurer's Office could improve.
One significant aspect DuBois oversees that impacts nearly every Saline County citizen is the County Tag Office, and he said he immediately recognized a way for the county to save cash.
"The thing that kind of bothered me was that we were paying rent to an out-of-state owner, and I figured that the money that we brought in should be spent locally under local ownership," DuBois said. "I did make that move and we saved quite a bit of money."
Although the move temporarily saved the county cash, tag offices operate solely from the funds generated through tag renewals and title fees. Due to stagnation in increasing those fees year after year, the satellite tag office will close on June 7.
READ MORE: Saline County announces closure of Satellite Tag Office
DuBois said when he began his position as Treasurer, the county's idle funds were in debt. Still, through careful planning and changes in the various departments, the county now boasts $2 million in savings for emergencies, projects or miscellaneous needs.
"The other thing we did was develop policies," DuBois said. "To make sure that whoever takes office in the future, hopefully, doesn't squander those."
Through close relations with the other County departments, DuBois also acquired more storage space for required tax documents and other information, benefiting departments like the Clerk's Office.
The Clerk's Office requires significant storage for election equipment and other required documents.
"We work very closely with all the departments in here," DuBois said. "We all get together fairly often — myself, the Register of Deeds, the clerk, the sheriff, the county attorney — and we visit with each other and look at ways that we can help each other."
"I feel like we are definitely a family of sorts."
The upcoming local election will determine who replaces DuBois, but until then, he intends to continue diligently serving Saline County residents.