Two of the three candidates for Pierce County Auditor debated their platforms for the office last Thursday during a public affairs forum at Cottesmore of Life Care in Gig Harbor.
Incumbent Jan Shabro and challenger Julie Anderson discussed ways to reduce expenses and streamline the elections process, as well as other duties for which the office is responsible.
The debate, geared toward the Nov. 3 general election, was sponsored by the Gig Harbor Peninsula Area Chamber of Commerce. The business association will host Gig Harbor City Council candidates Tim Payne and Mark Hoppen in a debate at 7:30 a.m. Thursday at Cottesmore, 2909 14th Ave. NW.
While Shabro and Anderson defended their positions last week, the third candidate, Will Baker, did not attend.
Shabro was appointed to the position amid some controversy in January when former Auditor Pat McCarthy won the county executive seat last fall. Because McCarthy is a democrat, state law would have required a democrat to replace her, but the position has been changed to nonpartisan.
Shabro represented the republican party when she served both on the County Council and as a state representative.
Since she took office, Shabro said she’s trimmed nearly $1 million from her budget. She’s also been developing an emergency plan, and she reinstituted annual performance evaluations, among other accomplishments.
Anderson, a Tacoma City Council member and deputy mayor, also is a senior policy adviser for the state Department of Commerce and a past executive director for the YWCA of Pierce County.
Shabro said one of the ways she’s helped the department save money is with the Pierce County Voters’ Pamphlet. Candidate statements have been reduced from 200 words to 150 words, and the pamphlet no longer uses color for its pages. Those combined changes saved $74,000, she said.
Yet Anderson has been critical of Sharbo for placing her name on the cover of the voters’ pamphlet, something Anderson called “a long tradition that has to stop.”
“The (public disclosure commission) will decide later this year whether it’s unlawful,” Anderson said. “At the very least, it’s inappropriate.”
Anderson said she believes the job is about serving the public.
“It’s service above self, not self-promotion,” she said.
Shabro countered by saying it’s a statewide issue, and that previous auditors also have had their names on the front of voters’ pamphlets.
“As the elected officer, the buck stops with you, and people need to know who you are,” she said.
Another hot-button topic lies with county charter amendments and how they are written.
For example, Proposed Charter Amendment No. 1 contains two issues: Whether County Council members’ and the county executive’s races should be moved to odd-numbered years by 2015, and whether their term limits should be increased from two four-year periods to three.
Proposed Charter Amendment No. 2 asks voters whether the other elected county offices — auditor, assessor-treasurer and sheriff — should be moved to odd-year elections by 2015.
Anderson said if either of the two propositions passes and the other fails, it will cost taxpayers additional money because it would split county elections — some on even years and some on odd years.
Shabro said she can see the value in odd-year elections because, in presidential election years, votes in local races “really drop off.”
“We call it ‘voter fatigue,’ ” Shabro said.
While she agreed with Anderson that county elections on both cycles would cost taxpayers more money, Shabro said there may be options — such as a pilot program which would print ballots as the county needed them, or state grants that allow for 15 additional ballot boxes — that could help reduce costs.
The department has seen its share of budget reductions, including six-day furloughs planned for 2010.
“If we have more cuts, there will be services that will be affected,” Shabro said.
Anderson said one thing she would like to do, specifically regarding the county’s Ranked Choice Voting system, is to look at the contract it has with a software company and look for options.
“The challenge is to do it faster, cheaper and more efficiently,” she said.
Outside of the Pierce County elections process — registering people to vote, putting ballots and voters pamphlets together and making sure elections are run and ballots are counted fairly — the Pierce County Auditor’s office handles the following responsibilities:
Legal document recording
Marriage licensing
Passport services
Pet licensing
Vehicle and vessel licensing
Public disclosure information
Business licensing
Excise tax information
For more information on the individual candidates for Pierce County Auditor, visit their Web sites:
Jan Shabro — www.janshabro.com
Julie Anderson — www.julieanderson.org
Will Baker — www.thetruthrocks.com
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