Meet the Candidates: David Lerma - Supervisor District 5

Name: David Lerma

Age: 50

Office running for: Yuma County Board of Supervisors District 5

Family: Three sons: David, Abel and Erick; four daughters: Maribel, Janette, Maritza and Jocelyn; two grandchildren: Isaac and Alyssa.

Party: Democrat

Education: Northern Arizona University, B.A. Liberal Studies and Enterprise in Society; Arizona Western College, A.A., A.S. Business Administration, Yuma and Flagstaff; Paralegal Studies Certificate, Professional Career Development Institution, Atlanta, Ga.

Employment: Current: Legal Professional Services, U.S. Pavidale Enterprises and Lerma Enterprises, administrator and chief accountant, executive director and president; previous: founder and former president of El Popular Magazine, former general director of Noticias newspaper, consultant/representative for Aguirre International INC., a private research company contracted by the U.S. Department of Labor, certified legal document preparer, and legal assistant for the Weil and Weil Law Firm and Joseph Mbacho Attorney at Law.

To what organizations do you belong? AAIP-Arizona Association of Independent Paralegals, Phoenix

What in your past experience helps qualify you for this seat? For the past 25 years, I've held different positions in areas of accounting, financial management, administration, leadership and legal assistance. My administrative and supervisory skills have allowed me to direct and manage all aspects of my businesses and profession, performing budget planning and control, financial analysis, accounting, marketing, implementations, projections and operational procedures, while overseeing personnel and client relations. Overall, through my supervisory experience, I have been able to make important decisions, while incorporating financial, economic, social and even environmental factors in order to secure productive and successful results as I carried out responsible and essential leadership skills. Moreover, in order to meet the great demand of legal assistance needs within the community, I have also assisted a great number of people with many different legal documents and supportive information.

If elected, what is the one issue on which you would focus to improve Yuma's quality of life? How? If elected, I would focus my attention on the improvement of our economy. We all know that this is a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with rising costs in a bad economy. Many businesses are facing financial problems and families are facing great hardships through reduction of wages, loss of jobs and homes which in turn amounts to higher unemployment rates. That is why I will dedicate much time and effort to the economic resolution issue with strong and steady leadership, promoting and supporting new infrastructure and projects while exerting new and effective strategies to make us strong and competitive so that our community will be able to save and create new jobs, while keeping our property taxes from increasing. Through stronger economy, Yuma's quality of life will be improved greatly, restoring opportunity and prosperity to us all.

What do you think is the biggest challenge right now facing Yumans, and how would you change it? Economic resolution. With high unemployment, many Yumans are uncertain and anxious of what the future will hold. That is why, through the essence of good leadership traits, business administrative experience and strategies, I will support economic development and promote new business attraction within our community. I will also seek and promote new resources for stronger education, stronger agriculture and greater business support in order to improve our economic condition which will be essential to the creation of new jobs, while establishing security to Yumans.

What would you do to make government more accessible? More transparency is essential for our government. Upon taking office, I will listen to you and will keep you informed of our agenda items. Moreover, I will make sure that our meetings are made available to you through different forms of media such as TV, Internet, radio and even Twitter. Furthermore, I will always be available at my office for any questions or concerns.

Who is your personal hero and why? My mother. My mother always encouraged me to be successful in life. She was my adviser and mentor. She was very knowledgeable and inspired me every moment of my life with her words, as she spoke to me about how to face the struggles of life, about how to survive in times of hunger and about how to overcome obstacles. Moreover, she taught me how to make wise decisions. And even if things were not going good, she would always give me hope for better times. She did everything to give me, my brothers and my sister a good life. And I always think of the reasons why she is not around anymore, but her memory and her words still remain in my mind, encouraging me still even more. I'm so thankful that God gave me a very responsible and loving mother.