Randy Feenstra, currently Sioux County's treasurer, is on the June 3 primary election ballot to fill the District 2 Senate seat vacated by Dave Mulder. Feenstra has some ideas about reforming state government. [Click to enlarge]

Feenstra, of Hull, is running unopposed in the June 3 primary for the Republican nomination to the Iowa Senate seat vacated by Dave Mulder.

The Dordt College graduate, now the Sioux County Treasurer, worked seven years as the head of sales at the Foreign Candy Company.

From there he made the transition into government as Hull's city administrator.

"I realized that government was really dysfunctional," he said. "We needed to serve the customer better, to be more responsible with the taxpayers' funds. We needed to run more like private government."

He served in Hull for seven years, then decided to run for the Sioux County Treasurer's position. He was elected in the fall of 2006 after completing the previous treasurer's unfinished term.

"I wanted to try outcomes-based government at a county level," he said. "We lowered our budget, which is pretty much unheard of."

Outcomes-based government, he said, involves setting specific goals and objectives for each area of government. Programs are shaped to meet those goals and forms of measurement are set to decide how well those goals are met.

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"We ask, 'Did we achieve the results we wanted?' If not, we discontinue or modify the program," Feenstra said. "This form of government needs to happen at all levels and agencies. We need to ask, 'Are we meeting the criteria we are setting?'"

Feenstra said he tuned into the idea of results-based government while he was working on his master's degree in public administration. He finished the degree at Iowa State University this year.

"Cynthia Eisenhower, who was then Governor Vilsack's chief of staff, taught a class on it, and that's where the light bulb turned on: 'Hey, I can change government,'" Feenstra said.

So, after nearly two years as county treasurer, Feenstra is ready to try out the outcomes-based model on the state level. That means starting at the basic principles where both parties agree, he said.

"If we create programs, they better create results," he said. "If we can agree on the results, then we can reform the government. If the program isn't creating results, then the program has to go."

Iowa's government, he said, hasn't done a good job of this lately.

The state of Washington's government has moved toward an outcome-based approach, he added, and the state has seen little to no tax increases in the past three years.

"I feel there's got to be a way to manage government," he said.

If elected, which is likely since no Democratic candidate has filed election papers, some of Feenstra's priorities in the Senate would include education, rural hospitals and economic development.

"In education, we need to look at where our children are at," he said. "When we rank 19th or 20th in the world in science and math, we've really faltered, not only in our schools but also at home."

The focus in education, he said, needs to not only be helping students that struggle, but also working with students that excel in school.

"We should not be working toward the middle," he said.

As for rural hospitals, Feenstra said they are one of the foundational units of northwest Iowa communities.

"I will work hard to keep their doors open and make sure they have what they need to serve our citizens," he said.

In the area of economic development, Iowa needs help, he said.

"I think the state does a poor job with this right now, specifically in Western Iowa, where we're competing with other states -- South Dakota, Nebraska," Feenstra said. "We need to be looking at income tax and property tax with commercial businesses."

He also sees keeping agriculture on the forefront as a key to Iowa's economic success.

Carrying over from the legislative session that just ended, Iowa's roads and bridges could also be a big topic next year.

"We need to do a better job of understanding where the money is spent and how it's spent. Part of that is defining what we want the (Iowa) Department of Transportation to do," Feenstra said. "We need to say, 'These are the important things that need to be done.' If we only have $5 million to pay for $10 million of work, we need to prioritize projects."

Beside acting as Sioux County treasurer, Feenstra also serves on several boards including the Lewis & Clark Regional Water Executive Board, which involves traveling to Washington D.C. three times a year.

"That helped me learn about the process of how lobbying works and how things get funded," he said. "I learned how, as a Senator, I can control the process, doing what's right for people rather than for political outcomes."

Stepping into the Senate spot means Feenstra won't fully finish his first term as county treasurer. He'll likely step down mid-summer.

But that doesn't mean this summer won't be busy for Feenstra, his wife Lynette and their four children

He'll be at the Ice Cream Days parade and the Plymouth County Fair, he said, and he's already started going house-to-house to meet people.