Because, quite simply, it is the position that most closely aligns with my knowledge and varied life experiences. It will challenge my questioning nature, and most importantly, I can — and will — bring a level of integrity and accessibility to the office.

Throughout this forum, I’ll share more about what I bring to the office, my platform, and how we can partner together. For now, I simply ask for your open ears, your support, and your vote.

Question:
In recent years, Walla Walla County has experienced the departure of several long-tenured employees and managers who possessed valuable institutional knowledge, strong relationships with employees, and years of experience serving the public. When experienced managers and employees leave, the county loses knowledge, continuity, and expertise. The cost is ultimately borne by taxpayers through turnover, recruitment expenses, training costs, reduced productivity, and potential impacts to public services. How would you assess the role leadership plays in employee morale, retention, and organizational effectiveness?

Answer:
Leadership is critical. I’m a firm believer in the adage, “People don’t leave employers. They leave managers.”

Strong leadership creates trust, stability, accountability, and a workplace culture where people feel respected and supported. Poor leadership has the opposite effect. When employees do not feel heard, valued, or empowered to do their jobs well, morale suffers — and eventually, people leave.

County government depends on institutional knowledge. Retaining experienced employees matters because the public ultimately pays the price when knowledge, relationships, and continuity are lost. Good leadership is not just a personnel issue; it is a taxpayer issue and a public service issue.

Question:
Many elected officials come into office with expertise in their profession, but may have little formal training in personnel management, leadership, organizational culture, conflict resolution, or employee engagement. Would you support requiring newly elected county officials to complete leadership, management, and workplace culture training as part of their transition into office?

Answer:
Absolutely.

That said, I do have specific training in the areas mentioned, including workplace culture assessment. Even more important, I’ve put that training into practice. My experience has led me to conclude that leadership, management, conflict resolution, and employee engagement are all heavily influenced by workplace culture.

While serving as a Managing Director with Charles Schwab, our CIO initiated a program called 6-in-6: identify the top six onerous problems and fix them. I heard about the program, proactively provided a plan for how to approach and manage it — including a logo — and played a key role in its implementation.

As part of that work, I received extensive training in process management and led the redesign of process workflow across Schwab Technology Services. Every process design project included an assessment of corporate culture.

So yes, I would support leadership and workplace culture training for newly elected county officials. Elected leaders are responsible not only for policy, but also for the people and systems that make public service work.

Question:
What skills and experience do you have that make you the best person for this job?

Answer:
The first two questions you’ve asked point directly to management and leadership skill sets — and those are areas where I have deep experience.

I have successfully led multifaceted teams. As a Managing Director with Charles Schwab, I managed 17 to 24 project managers in a division where the minimum project budget was $1.5 million. I managed an IT department that covered multiple operational areas in a global bank. I managed bank branch operations in a small, four-branch bank. I managed client support for a company that provided core processing for small savings and loans. I later became part of a team that created testing standards, and then moved into a role as Programming Manager.

I am also the only candidate for Auditor who has held the title of Auditor in two different non-government organizations. I have worked with regulatory agencies and managed audits that identified fraud and resulted in executive management receiving lifetime bans from banking.

I have worked as both an employee and consultant/contractor for Barclaycard, and as part of the team involved in the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch acquisition. That experience proves my ability to function, assess, and quickly adapt in complex environments that are new to me.

The Auditor’s office requires integrity, systems thinking, accuracy, leadership, and a willingness to ask hard questions. Those are strengths I would bring to the role.

Question:
As Auditor, how would you ensure that taxpayers have a clear understanding of how county funds are being spent and the impact those spending decisions have on both county services and county employees?

Answer:
This is a tough but important question. In order to explain how money is being spent, you first have to understand the spending and its impact yourself. Government — or public — accounting is different. The standards are different.

The county budget is published on the Auditor’s page. It is 109 pages and totals $157.3 million. I would like to see more information made available on a smaller, more digestible scale.

Dashboards are important. Snapshots are important. And finding a way to get those to the public is important.

The answer is not always social media. While social media is used, it is not used by everyone, and the information is not always easy to find. You have to look for it, and you have to be prepared to digest it in large amounts.

I would like to see a summarized monthly budget-to-actual report presented by the Auditor to the Commissioners.

I would like to see how each contract signed impacts the budget.

I would also like to see benchmarking. We have instituted a hiring freeze, yet each Commissioners meeting includes multiple approvals for exceptions to that hiring freeze. Have we benchmarked those positions? What are our efficiency ratios? Have we analyzed workflow to know whether we are working as efficiently as possible?

Some simple, graphic depictions would go a long way toward helping taxpayers understand how county dollars are being spent.

Question:
The Auditor is responsible for conducting fair and accurate vote counting for elections in Walla Walla County. Going into the 2028 election year, the Secretary of State anticipates increased scrutiny with vote counts and elections. The candidate who wins the Auditor position for Walla Walla County will also be under increased scrutiny during the next presidential election in 2028. As Auditor, operating in this environment, how will you ensure fair and accurate reporting of vote counts and reassure the public?

Answer:
Transparency. I know that word gets used often, but it is truly important.

A performance audit completed by the State Auditor in 2022 found that counties could consider innovative practices to reduce ballot rejection rates and disparities.

While Walla Walla County was not one of the counties selected for detailed analysis, one of the findings was that the county where the ballot was cast was the most significant variable related to rejection.

What would I like to see?

More frequent results. RCW requires posting results every three days. We comply with the minimum. Why not post daily? Why not exceed the legal minimum?

The numbers we currently report do not tell the full story. How many ballots were collected from drop boxes? What part of the process are they in?

I would also like to see us adopt processes outlined in the audit, including:

1. Contact voters sooner and more often, educate them, and ensure voter information is correct.

2. Make sure ballot boxes are appropriately located.

3. Contact voters immediately, in their preferred language, when requesting signature verification — and follow up aggressively.

4. Collect different versions of voters’ signatures.

There is a wealth of information available. We need to use it.

Question:
The Federal Government is threatening to eliminate mail-in ballots, requesting voter information from states which Washington refuses to provide, and attempting to force voters to re-register in some situations. The latter will have a negative effect on rural voters. As Auditor, how will you protect local elections and better educate voters? What would be your response to requests for voter information that are not authorized or approved by the Washington Secretary of State’s office?

Answer:
There is already an incredible amount of voter information available publicly through the Secretary of State’s office.

As for releasing additional information, I would rely on direction from the Washington Secretary of State unless the request is directly submitted and falls within the boundaries of a public information request. If there were any legal discrepancy, I would rely on County Legal Counsel and our County Commissioners.

To better educate voters, we need to go where the voters go — whether that means colleges, senior centers, the fair, Walmart, or other community gathering places. We should have a nonpartisan presence where people already are.

We also need to ensure voters know the status of their ballot. We should be proactive, not reactive.

I would like to reduce reliance on signatures as the only way to confirm identity, make it easier to cure a challenged ballot, and ensure voters understand the ballot review process.

Lastly, we should find and use grants to improve voter outreach and education.

Question:
The next census is in 2030; the county will redistrict probably the next year based on that count. Although the term in question concludes 12/31/2030, the next Auditor still plays a role in preparing for county-level redistricting. County districts must be equally proportioned based on population. Right now each district includes a portion of the urban core of College Place and Walla Walla, diluting the vote of these cities where half of the county’s population lives. Do you have a philosophy about the role of public input in the design of these districts?

Answer:
I believe the public plays a huge role in redistricting.

Some background: I participated in the last redistricting exercise held in 2022 by Commissioners Kimball, Mayberry, and Tompkins. In addition to the advisory committee, an open house was held along with public hearings. About two dozen citizens attended.

Of the proposals presented, the adopted districts ended up being very little changed, with each district balanced at about 20,800 residents.

The plan that appeared most favorable to the public contained the entirety of College Place and a single precinct of Walla Walla. It was not adopted. Incidentally, if that plan had been adopted, two of the commissioners would have ended up in the same district. That identifies another issue: if redistricting impacts commissioners’ own representation, is there not a conflict?

While I believe the process followed in 2022 was appropriate, there needs to be recognition when there is a conflict that impacts commissioners’ representation. Personally, I believe this should be a ballot issue decided by the voters.

Question:
The County is currently transitioning to a new payroll system that will fundamentally change the county’s system. Recent feedback from the County’s technology department highlighted challenges with this migration, in which the Auditor plays a major role. How do you understand this project and plans for its completion? Is there anything you would do differently?

Answer:
As background, the Workday contract is a 10-year, $2,349,000 contract, excluding tax. While I have not been provided access to the implementation plan, I have read the proposal by Chad Goodhue dated February 21, 2025. Using standard RFP best practices, Workday was selected.

First, let me clarify something. When you hear “payroll,” you may think, how hard can that be? You enter the people and what you are paying them. But it is far more complex than that. There are 19 modules being implemented, from pay and benefits to training, projects, and grant management.

Unfortunately, I do not have access to the project plan. But in my career, I have managed similar projects from start to finish.

Prior to even the RFP process, best practice is to map the existing workflow and identify gaps, which then feed into the project requirements. If that has not yet been done, it should be. That mapping then feeds into the end goal, and change management and controls are identified.

The biggest issue with implementing new systems is that change is hard. People often want the new system to look like the old system. As a result, many of the features that sold you on the system are bypassed.

A successful implementation requires clear workflow mapping, strong requirements, good communication, proper controls, and leadership that helps people adapt to change.

Question:
The Auditor oversees the budget process. Last year the budget was approved on the last day of the calendar year because the original budget was delayed in being submitted by the office. How would you go about improving the timeline of the budgeting process?

Answer:
I would improve the budget timeline in several ways:

1. Implement a rolling two-year budget, as directed by our Commissioners.

2. Provide monthly actual-to-budget reports.

3. Increase budget interaction with department heads throughout the year.

4. Make sure everyone understands that budgets are projections and need regular review.

5. Start the process earlier.

The budget process should not be rushed at the end of the year. It should be ongoing, transparent, and connected to real operational needs.

Question:
The Auditor is responsible for the voters’ guide for local elections. A few years ago, the Auditor chose not to prepare this guide, citing cost, despite the fact that the state reimburses the county for these costs. Do you commit to ensuring that each election has a voters’ guide? If not, can you explain your reasons for not producing a voters’ guide?

Answer:
There is no reason not to publish a voters’ guide.

I would 100% commit to doing so.