For our Fall 2020 Voters Guide, we emailed Whitman County Commissioner candidates a set of 12 questions on professional experience, local priorities and general issues. We have included those questions and the unedited responses. We have also provided links to candidate websites, campaign funding reports and other local media coverage when available.
Commissioners serve four-year terms on the three-person board of county commissioners, which oversees the county government administration. Commissioners set county policy and approve department budgets, zoning changes and other decisions. They also make of the county Board of Health and the Board of Equalization. The position will pay $74,430 next year.
CANDIDATE BACKGROUND
Website/Social media: Facebook page
PDC campaign funding reports: Swannack, 2020
Running against: Uncontested
QUESTIONNAIRE
How would you describe your current occupation or job title(s)?
As a County Commissioner I would describe the job as much more administrative work, with some legislative and a bit of quasi judicial in the form of Board of Equalization and the occasional rezone request of a specific piece of property. Quasi Judicial means we have to act like a court so pretty specific rules on how evidence is heard before we make a decision and not talking to parties outside of that type of hearing. Most of the legislative work is either county code updates or signing off on items that interface with other agencies or entities. There is also some time spent each year with state and federal legislators explaining how their past or future decisions would affect our county. Honestly most of a county commissioner’s work is administrative in nature. A lot of time is spent working with department heads and elected officials in the county to operate it efficiently while keeping us within budget and managing operations without micromanaging.
What other memberships or community affiliations would you like to share with voters?
I’m a member of Pullman Chamber of Commerce, Farm Bureau, Washington Association of Wheat Growers, Lamont Community Church and National Federation of Independent Business plus some sports organizations that help kids.
What, if any, charities, political campaigns or nonprofits have you donated money or volunteer hours to in the past year?
Whitman County Library, Lamont Community Church, campaigns of Rep. Mcmorris Rodgers, Senator Schoesler, Rep. Schmick, Rep. Dye, Senate candidate Perry Dozier (was a fellow commissioner and friend), Commissioner Kinzer because I think he’s doing a good job for our County.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of and why?
Professionally in the role of County Commissioner, I believe getting us out of the Hawkins development obligations is a big one. With the way in person shopping at Malls had died off and now with the Covid pandemic doubling down on limiting in person traffic to shopping malls, we’d have had a lot of financial obligations and little revenue to cover the costs. Next I’d say working with the Auditor to get our annual audit financial report to meet the State’s standards was huge for our County. The hiring of Sharron Cunningham and Jessica Jensema (who we’ve hired as the new Admin Services Director-a great gain for the BoCC) by Auditor Coker, and now having Auditor Jamison overseeing the Auditor’s office makes this possible. They did great work and our role was to help and support them. Additionally I’d say the improved relations between other elected officials and the county commissioners is a big positive. I didn’t realize how strained things were when I first was elected 8 years ago. We’ve worked hard to listen and work with elected officials and department heads. We don’t make arbitrary decisions, we ask questions and we’ve made changes to operations that include an operating reserve fund so elected officials and department heads don’t have to pad their budgets for unexpected expenses. It’s kind of like having a rainy day fund for small “emergencies” so they don’t become emergencies. We’ve also fully funded our Restricted Reserve fund so if we have a big disaster, we can handle the expenses necessary to keep local government operating until things get somewhat back to normal. The Covid pandemic may be one of those situations where we need those funds, but so far the CARES money has helped a lot. I also believe I’ve developed a good relationship with Mayor Johson and the City of Pullman. There are times when we aren’t both on the same page on an issue and that is fine, but I’ve found I can sit down with Mayor Johnson and others and just talk through the issue together. We eventually come together with a solution. I believe being straightforward and honest is the best approach.
What is your vision for Whitman County, and are there other counties or agencies you would like to emulate?
I believe Whitman County is a great place to live. My vision is for the County to provide the essential services our citizens need using the most efficient and least cost methods available and allowing people to have the freedom to live their life as they see fit, while protecting the rights of others.
Are there specific issues or projects that would benefit from increased collaboration between county and Pullman city officials? How would you approach those efforts?
I’d say we’re working together on several issues quite well. We’re in the process of getting a county-wide GIS system base layer created so everyone uses the same data and both Pullman and the County have GIS. It is an expensive process to do costing around half a million dollars just to get the base layer made, and then two to three hundred thousand a year for just the County to operate our share. We believe it will make everything to do with land use and election redistricting more efficient and help people looking to move here or develop property have an easier time doing so . We completed the tax sharing agreement for the Pullman Moscow Corridor a couple years ago and that is going well. We’ve worked together to get the Pullman Airport upgraded to better runways and taxiways. We’re in the process of discussing what the future of court operations in Pullman will be. Currently the County provides the services (prosecution, adjudication, indigent defense and incarceration) for Pullman for an annual negotiated fee, which is currently $425,000 and we trade space rent for doing their infraction work. Pullman is evaluating if they could provide most of the services cheaper by doing it themselves and has a consultant hired who evaluated that option. We openly provided our data on what it costs us to provide the service. We plan to keep our communication lines open with the city, but it is their decision to make and I fully respect that.
With COVID-19 impacting county revenue, what is your philosophy for approaching budget reductions or negotiating with department heads on spending cuts? Are there services you would prioritize?
The current philosophy is to use some cash reserves to mitigate the impacts, but only so much as we can see is sustainable over a several year time period. With the 2021 budget, we chose to use $800,000 of cash reserves to offset part of the initial budget’s $1.6m shortfall. We could sustain that kind of reserve use, assuming we don’t have bigger hits from the state funding, for two to three years but we can’t sustain twice that amount over the same period of time without cuts. We’ll actively monitor what is happening with revenues and expenses, continue talking with department leaders and elected officials about their operations and jointly adjust as we go forward. If the state decides to cut more funds from what our departments expected to receive when they created their 2021 budget, we’ll have to cut some more. I’ve always looked at roads, law enforcement, libraries and extension as priorities. You might ask about Public health, especially now. We fund about 25% of our public health department”s budget locally, with the rest coming from state and federal grant sources. During this pandemic Public Health is a top priority, so I don’t see us cutting there except when other funding sources have replaced the need for local funds. The CARES money directed to Public Health for the pandemic response is helping a lot right now.
What aspect of county infrastructure (other than roads and bridges) will play the largest role in the future of the county and what are your plans to support or improve that infrastructure?
Broadband. Simply put, most people need high speed internet to do a part of their job (including farming) or go to school. We’ve helped the Port of Whitman expand broadband services through loans and grants of our .09 economic development money and as long as the state continues to refund that part of their sales tax to us, I see it as one of our uses that makes a big difference in the long run. I’d say the wildcard in most rural areas right now is phone service. Some of the traditional providers aren’t keeping their infrastructure in good condition and outages are becoming more frequent, both in town and in the rural areas. Expanding broadband gives more options for people to have phone service as voice over internet. I’m also exploring other options to fix this problem, but haven’t got a clear answer yet.
An appointed citizen commission has set the pay for all county elected officials since 2005. Salaries for most elected officials have nearly doubled in those 15 years. Do you support the continued use of the salary commission? Why or why not?
I researched this commission when I was first elected. After listening to a lot of people, it is the best of the two options available. The citizens on the commission evaluate the wages and decide if we and other electeds should get a raise or not. With the pandemic, they chose to freeze wages this coming year. I’m good with that. I’ve stayed out of their discussions and never tried to influence them. They make their decisions and I respect it.
Do you support the county enacting policies to address climate change or promote environmental sustainability? If so, what steps would you take?
I’m not a big fan of “climate change” policies. They seem to increase costs of doing business a lot but make very little difference in the temperature and haven’t been fully thought out as to infrastructure and operational realities. An estimate of the carbon tax policies considered by the last state legislature is they would drop temperature by 0,001 degree F over 100 years. Part of that is because we are pretty clean and efficient already. Another part is the big issues with emissions are overseas in large countries such as China and others. When I say infrastructure and operational realities I mean this. If we go to all electric vehicles, where are we going to get the reliable base load power from? Solar and Wind aren’t good base load power sources and everybody will need their car to work in the morning when they leave for work. More natural gas generators emit more CO2, so what’s the gain? Additionally how much is it going to cost (and how much carbon will it expel) to create the extra electrical infrastructure to handle the increased electrical distribution loads? When you start adding the heavy truck industry to this equation, it drastically increases the power draw. And how do we fund road maintenance that is currently highly dependent on a gas tax if no gas is being used? Environmental sustainability is important but it should be evaluated holistically with all factors. As a farmer, I want my land to be productive for future generations to farm it. I do my best to be sustainable.
What do you consider to be the greatest areas of opportunity for expanding recreation and tourism in the county?
Not my greatest strength. People talk about bike trails and photography. I’m not convinced they will generate a lot of tourism dollars, but they would give residents some place to recreate.
If you could wave a magic wand and instantly change one thing about Whitman County, what would it be and why?
Eliminate Covid-19. The longer this goes on, the harder it is for our people and economy to recover and lead a normal life.