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(Neb.)-Former Clerk In Dawes County Treasurer's Office To Seek Candidacy By Petition

Another former employee in the Dawes County Treasurer’s office has decided to seek the treasurer position.

Chadron resident Barbara Sebesta, who had been a clerk in the Dawes County Treasurer’s office for the past six years until she was terminated last month, looks to challenge incumbent Lois Chizek, as a petition candidate in the election on November 2nd.

Chizek defeated former employee Rhonda McGannon in the May primary election.

Sebesta says she was fired from her position because of a failure to observe office protocol involving Chizek and Deputy Treasurer Kristi Toof.

Sebesta said Chizek had informed her, on the day before she was terminated, that Toof was going to be her boss, and that if she had questions or if she wanted time off, she should approach Toof.

“We had a title that came in, a Wyoming title, and I had a question with it. We had just discussed a title exactly like this, a few days before, so all I needed was an answer to ‘Do I do this, or don’t I?'” said Sebesta. “So, I went to Lois, and she took it, made a phone call and resolved the problem or the question.”

“So then the next day, I came into work, and Lois presented me my letter of termination and said that we could no longer work together,” she said. “I had broken the chain of command, that I had gone to Lois instead of talking to Kristi, since she was my immediate supervisor and she was the boss in the office.”

Sebesta says she was never told such a scenario would result in termination, although she said she had been reprimanded for multi-tasking and helping more than one customer at a time.

“I loved my job. I enjoyed waiting on the customers, and I felt the customers were the reason I was in the office,” said Sebesta. “Customer service was the number one thing. The reason that I had that position was that I was the customer’s servant.”

Sebesta said, in order to get on the ballot she needs about 800 signatures of registered voters, in good standing, before September 1.

She said, if elected, her leadership style would be different from Chizek’s.

“I would be the direct supervisor. I would be the boss,” she said. “There would be no backstabbing, gossip, jealousies, because I won’t deal with that.”

As a result, she said Dawes County residents would find their experience at the Treasurer’s office to be an efficient process.

“I feel, when I was in the office, that most of my co-workers – we were very efficient with the public, and customer service was my number one thing,” she said.

Sebesta said she will be making one-on-one contact with Dawes County residents, to get the necessary signatures. She will also have a booth at the Dawes County Fair, in the 4-H Building, from 9 to 4 on Thursday, August 5, where her petition can be signed.

She said a signature on her petition does not represent a vote for her, but the opportunity to give county residents a choice.