Government : Meet the Candidate: Hayley Rippel

Editor's Note: This week we are running stories about all the candidates for supervisor, auditor and sheriff who will be on the ballot in next Tuesday's primary election. This profile is from Auditor candidate Haley Rippel, who is running unopposed in the GOP primary.

I am Hayley Rippel, lifelong resident of Benton County. I was born and raised in Vinton, Iowa. I graduated from Washington High School in 1992. After High School, I attended Kirkwood College for my general education while working part-time. My parents are the late Kenneth Mahr, and Kathy and Doug Tumilty of Vinton, Iowa.

I have been married to my husband Jeff for 22 years. We own and reside on an acreage north of Vinton. Jeff works for the City of Vinton Streets Department. We have three sons, Dylan, Tyler and Chase. Our oldest, Dylan just finished his sophomore year at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Tyler a 2016 Graduate from Vinton-Shellsburg High School will be attending Mt. Mercy University in Cedar Rapids this fall. Chase our youngest is a 6th grader at Vinton-Shellsburg Middle School. All three being active in numerous sports, 4-H and other activities has kept us very social in our community. We are members of the Vinton Presbyterian Church, Vinton Country Club and the Vinton-Shellsburg Athletic Booster Club. I enjoy volunteering at various events such as concession stands to post-prom fundraising, Vinton Fireman’s convention and other local events.

I have worked in the Benton County Auditor’s Office going on 18 years as a Deputy Auditor. I have experience in all areas of the position. When people hear the title Auditor, they assume accounting and taxes, but that is very minimal considering all the duties this office does. I have learned more being in this office getting hands on training than I could ever get out of a college degree. The Auditor is not just the Commissioner of Elections, other responsibilities such as providing human resource services to all our county’s employees. We do the payroll, payables and receivables and other auditing/budgeting duties for the county. The Auditor also serves as Secretary to the Board of Supervisors. I’ve learned to write resolutions, pass ordinances along with providing minutes and various publication requirements. Another big part of the Auditor’s office is the Real Estate Transfers for property taxation. Along with applying the levy rates, we are in charge of providing the Valuation report to the state every year. I volunteered to be one of the testing counties with the states software system. I was also a big part of the start-up of our (GIS) Geographical Information System and I am a Beacon Certified Administrator. Beacon is our Website Host to our county’s public GIS layers. I oversee the uploading of the county’s data and manage the subscriptions to this site. Over the years I have attended numerous conferences and certified training sessions. I am a member of (ICIT) Iowa Counties Information Technologies. I have served on our district committee whom had to plan and run the conference. Most recently I am serving on the( ITAG) Iowa Technology And Geospatial Conference committee. It is a combined conference for ICIT and (IGIC) Iowa Geographical Information Council members. I feel serving on these committees and attending off site sessions and conferences is time well spent. Along with gaining better knowledge of my duties, I have developed relationships with other county officials, whom I feel comfortable enough to rely on them for help or advice at any time.

I am a very honest and approachable person who works well with others. I feel it is in Benton County’s best interest, to elect someone with experience. I will continue to provide my best effort as I have serving as Deputy Auditor. I am truly grateful for the support I’ve received from all of my family, friends, and members of the community. I look forward to the opportunity to continue giving Benton County experienced leadership and appreciate the support.