Candidates for various county offices gathered at an Oct. 8 candidate forum held by the Elma Chamber of Commerce at the GuestHouse Inn &Suites in Elma. Each candidate made a brief statement to the room full of listeners and later took questions from the audience in the 90-minute gathering.
The candidates assembled for the main county races were Vickie Raines and Keith Olson for District 3 County Commissioner, Rick Hole and Dan Lindgren for County Assessor and Katie Svoboda and Mike Spencer for Prosecutor.
Most voters should get their ballots by Friday.
Here is a rundown of views and answers on various topics.
County Commissioner
In his opening statement, Olson concentrated on jobs and government regulations he says stifle the local economy:
“I’m concerned about jobs on Grays Harbor, whether it’s resource jobs, tourism jobs, manufacturing jobs – any jobs that we can bring to Grays Harbor,” Olson said.
“I believe that our economy and home building and job production are being stifled by government at all levels – county, state or federal regulations. They’re restricting our expansion. We’re being told by people outside of Grays Harbor how to do things. I think our economy will struggle until we can scale back some of these regulations that are causing this problem.”
“We’ve all heard about the fee process and permit process at the county … well that stifles home building and home expansion or business expansion. We’re being over-regulated to death.
“We’ve got to come together. I think that’s a commissioner’s job, not only to carry out our duties, but unite our county so we can take care of the legislative process above us and actually be in control of things.”
In her statement, Raines focused on politics and the budget:
“I don’t think there’s room for politics at the county level,” she said. “I believe it doesn’t matter what party affiliation you belong to to be able to serve as coroner, treasurer, auditor or commissioner. I have served the city of Cosmopolis the last 15 years in a non-partisan capacity.
She said her background as a financial planner will help in the arduous budget process facing the county.
“One of the first and foremost things … is the budget. We’re looking at probably about a $2 million budget hole going into 2015. We need to step up to the plate, build our reserves and counter that negative balance.”
Both candidates said the crude-by-rail issue was one that won’t be decided at the county level, but needed to be followed because of the possible detrimental effects on the local communities and environment.
“As a citizen, I support the Harbor and all along I have supported bringing oil via pipeline as opposed to rail,” Olson said. “I think today there was another (oil train) accident somewhere. I think it also impacts businesses in Elma. Montesano and Aberdeen too. I would support oil coming here via pipeline, but, in all honesty, when I talk to different people in different levels of government, I’m not sure how interested people are in that but, again, that’s not our decision to make. And looking and listening talking to people I think it’s a pretty volatile situation.”
Raines noted that it’s not an issue that is decided at the county level.
“We won’t have a vote,” she said. “We will have a voice to be able to express our opinions, concerns, etc. I have not been an advocate of crude by rail, nor have I been an opponent of it for the simple reason of we won’t decide. I’ve asked my council in Cosmopolis, ‘Do you want to take a stand?’ Some other cities chose to take a stand, but they chose not to. …
“That being said, I think that there are some concerns that need to be addressed before oil is brought here and if oil is brought here. We sit right here in Elma, where the rail cuts the city in half, right through a residential area, and then it drives right on past Montesano and then on into town through the malls, etc. Can it be done safely? Can it be done effectively? I think those are the questions that have to be asked. … But I’m concerned with the jobs that could be lost in the fisheries, shellfish, etc., in the event of a spill could be detrimental to this area, so as a commissioner, I will hold people’s feet to the fire as far as making sure of compliance and that regulations are followed.”
The commissioner candidates agreed that the county’s current battle with big-business forestland owners over permit fees for public access may have not been a battle chose wisely.
“I’m a property rights advocate without a doubt,” said Olson. “That situation changes somewhat when a business or large property owner is getting a tax break for allowing access to their property. And when they deny that access, I think that changes the whole game. Now, it’s kind of been taken out of our hands and is going to go through the court process … But what really worries me about the whole situation is that if government can tell big business how to run their land, how long is it until they can tell us, as individual property owners. I’ll miss the hunting on those lands. That’s for sure.”
Raines focused on the expense of fighting the issue through the court systems instead of through open communication.
“I’m not fond of this leading us into a potential lawsuit,” Raines said. “We’ve had a few of those over these last couple years — with the judges, etc. — that have cost us a tremendous amount of money that the county doesn’t have. I think communication and discussion with the commissioners and those parties involved is going to be beneficial and the most helpful.”
Assessor
In his opening statement, challenger Lindgren focused what he and others consider to be Hole’s mismanagement of grant money that was targeted to convert the office from a four-year parcel evaluation cycle to the annual cycle now mandated by state law.
“The state Dept. of Revenue – back in 2010, when they passed the law that every county in the state had to be on annual assessments — created a funding source for that,” Lindgren noted. “In our office, that money was spent on an in-house software system. I don’t agree that was a wise decision. In fact, I know it wasn’t a wise decision. It cost a lot more money than if we had purchased the software off the shelf, and I intend to scrap it. The systems that were attempted to be upgraded didn’t work out. They’re not functional and not complete and we still need new software. That’s my intention — to get to that new software and make the right decisions going forward.”
Incumbent Rick Hole defended his term in office during his opening remarks, saying he was putting the taxpayers first.
“We have to live within a budget just like you have to live within a budget,” Hole told the audience. “And I’ve lived within the budgets at the county and I’ve seen a way — as we move to annual re-valuation — to use the computer software that we already own, instead of throwing it away and renting something for $50,000 per year. … So that system is up and running for us and it’s enabling us to get our business processes right and serve you.”
The next question centered on current morale and efficiency in the Assessor’s Office.
“I think we’ve been going through a difficult transition in the Assessor’s Office,” acknowledged Hole “Anytime you make the type of change we’ve been going through, we have to work together, but’s it’s not always happy days. … I think we see how the new tools are going to be working and I think morale is improving, but there’s no doubt it’s been low.”
Lindgren laid those problems right at the feet of his opponent for making bad decisions in regards to needed software.
Morale is “definitely the lowest I’ve seen it in the seven years I’ve been there, and in talking with other appraisers, they’ve never seen it as low,” Lindgren said. “I think that stems from frustration. Over the past three years, we’ve known about this transition to annual evaluations and we’ve encouraged the Assessor to make a different decision and not try and re-invent the wheel with a software system in house and with tools that are not efficient when we had the opportunity and money to buy a system where they spent $30 million to build it and they had a team of programmers. We are frustrated, because now the result is the system that we have is basically incapable of doing the job.”
The candidates did not agree on spending money to fix the problems either.
“It’s going to cost the taxpayers, said Lindgren of Hole’s failures. “The system I would like to purchase is actually the least expensive system out there. It’s $117,000 and comes with a maintenance fee of about $45,000 annually. It didn’t have to cost that much: $180,000 was spent on our system now and, I’m not kidding you, you can talk to anybody that’s close to the system – we use nothing that was built by those programmers (hired by Hole). Everything we currently use is an adjustment by our IT department from our IT department. They weren’t paid with any of the grant money. Those were contractors that were paid $50 to $60 an hour and everything they created or tried to create didn’t function and we don’t use it. So, to say that we have spent the money to upgrade our system is not entirely true. It’s disingenuous. We aren’t using anything created with that money at all. … It’s ridiculous that we have to buy new software. We could have bought it with the grant funding and he (Hole) could have come out smelling like a rose. But that just didn’t happen, so I think we need to stop spending good money on bad and move forward and get tired-and-true canned software.
Hole countered by insisting the system he has overseen can and will work for far less money.
“This is $50,000 per year for the Assessor’s Office that we don’t have to spend and we can do that by electing me. We invested in this software, It was a big project. There were lots of little parts being done. The bulk of the heavy lifting was done by our own in-house programmer. We had some outside resources that were also helping us. … It works. We’ll have the assessments out this year much earlier than we did last year and next year earlier yet. So our system is working. There’s no sense to throw it away – the software that we own – to rent for $50,000 a year the assessment software.”
Prosecutor
In her opening statement, Katie Svoboda, the acting chief criminal deputy prosecutor for the country, said her focus on new technology will help her make the office more efficient.
“I think that, right, now, we’re at a really exciting at the Prosecutor’s Office because it’s a time where the technology is really coming into play,” Svoboda said. “We’re seeing lots of ways that we can streamline our processes and become more efficient just by getting rid of some of the paper, doing more by email, doing more via text messaging with our officers. … Also, we’re seeing lots more crimes that are technology aided, such as identity theft via computer.
“I’ve been to the national computer forensics institute; I’ve done some training through Microsoft. Having the ability to prosecute technological crimes and to supervise those I think is really important, especially for folks in the business community. Those kind of crimes are really important to me.”
Spencer, a former prosecutor running for the office again, on the other hand, took aim at problems he sees in the current Prosecutor’s Office.
“I’m getting involved in this because the training and preparation of young deputy prosecutors isn’t what it should be,” Spencer said. “I’m tired of telling people that myself, but now I have somebody who’s telling the story as well. Judge Godfrey just resigned. He’s been on the bench for 22 years. He’s saying what I’ve been saying, and he’s saying what I have felt is so important to this community, and that you deputy prosecutors are not being trained properly. The judges are continually complaining to me, defense attorneys are complaining to me, and that’s why I chose to get involved in this.
“Some people think that I’m crazy, but I know I will make a difference in the way that office has run.”
They were then asked about battling the county’s rampant drug problems.
“I think that the Prosecutor has to be a leader,” Spencer said. “Some years ago, I was instrumental in establishing the county Drug Task force. … In fact, that program is one of the most successful programs in the state and continues to be that way.
“In the past year that my opponent has been there, there’s been no announcement about any type of programs. No one’s targeting anything, whether it be drugs, gangs, metal theft, senior citizen abuse – nothing is happening. Those are some of the things that have to happen, but drugs are a critical problem and I will address them.”
Svoboda said she will bring a fresh outlook to the issue and said it needs to be tackled in a community-based way.
“I’ve been in the office, but I’ve never been the prosecutor,” responded Svoboda.
“So, a lot of what Mr. Spencer says, goes on my predecessor, Mr. Meneffe. I’m not Mr. Menefee. I want to engage with the public. Elma is working on starting a neighborhood watch and I’ve been to their two meetings and offered some help … on my own time because I believe that the way that we solve these problems is for a three-legged stool, if you will, and that’s for the community, law enforcement and the prosecutor. That means that we’re sharing information. … My office is doing pretrial diversion, for people who come in with no felony history on a first-time drug charge, so were getting them into treatment and supporting them, and going harder after the people who are delivering drugs rather than simple possession.”
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