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Dolores Vallejos
Elected in 2019 to the office of Cibola County Assessor, Dolores Vallejos led her department through significant change in the county. From a budget crisis to COVID-19, and now the recovery period, Vallejos wants to keep the assessor’s office running smoothly.
Before she was elected in 2019, Vallejos was county treasurer. She switched over to the office of assessor after running unopposed. Once again, in 2022, Vallejos is unopposed and will be reelected to another term as assessor. Vallejos is now capping off four years as assessor, previously she served eight years as county treasurer for a total of two terms.
“I am very honored to serve my community for another term,” Vallejos said.
Vallejos credited County Manager Kate Fletcher for helping to get the whole county’s finances back under control. With assistance from Manager Fletcher the assessor’s office managed to not only regain control of its finances, but implemented a new piece of technology to make assessments of property easier and more accurate. Called “Eagleview Pictometry,” the technology has been a large help to the assessor’s office, with Vallejos commenting about how assessors no longer need to leave the office to do an assessment. “I am very proud of implementing [this] new appraisal program,” Vallejos said.
Through COVID-19 the assessor’s office faced struggles, but they were still committed to their work. “During the pandemic we were still able to operate remotely, it was a little difficult at times but we pulled through. I commend all my staff.”
During her next term as assessor, Vallejos does not see any major shakeups coming to her department. There will be some changes coming that will make the department more transparent and easily accessible to the public, Vallejos said. “I will continue to do the job that I was elected to do to the best of my ability during my next term I am currently working on updating the assessor’s website which would enable property owners, realtors and the public in general to access property information such as value, property profile information and tax estimates.”
Other than the change to the website, which is intended to increase accessibility by the public, Vallejos sees no other changes coming to the department.
Thank her voters, Vallejos said, “I am here to work for the public. I thank my constituents for having confidence in me to perform my job.”