Election 2026: League of Women Voters Primary Candidate Forum

0:00 [ Music ] >> Welcome to the League of Women Voters Primary Election Candidate Forum. My name is Rachel Bancroft. I'm the moderator for this event and a member of the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan group focused on voter education. Thank you to our candidates for their participation in this event, and special thanks to CVTV for hosting. This forum will be aired on CVTV and online at CVTV.org. Our first forum today features candidates for Clark County Auditor. The auditor's duties and responsibilities are diverse and wide-ranging. The auditor is the county's chief financial officer and also oversees four major functions, elections and voter registration, recording and maintenance of permanent county records, vehicle and marriage licensing, and financial services, including internal audits.

0:58 Joining us are candidates Mitchell Kelly, Eileen Quiring-O'Brien, Sharon Wiley, and Ty Stober. Welcome to you all. >> Thank you. >> Candidates, please watch the League timer and stay within the timelines for each question. You will have 60 seconds to answer each question unless instructed otherwise. You'll first answer in the order that you appear on the ballot and we will rotate after that. All questions are prepared by the League of Women Voters of Clark County and we are providing the timer. We'll begin with candidate Kelly. For the first time in many years, Clark County will have a new county auditor. What experience or approach best prepares you to lead an office with such broad operational responsibilities? >> Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters for holding this forum so that the public can get more familiar with all the candidates. My name is Mitchell Kelly. I have currently worked in the office under Greg Kimsey for the past 10 years as deputy county auditor

1:56 and reporting and analysis manager where I oversee the countywide reporting for Clark County. Prior to that, I was an auditor for the state of Washington where I audited local governments throughout Southwest Washington. My skills and abilities have really prepared me to assume this role. I've learned a great deal under the current auditor, Greg Kimsey, and my background aligns with what this role requires. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien? >> Thank you. The auditor's office is an executive agency managing millions of public funds. As a former state legislator, Clark County Council Chair and an executive board member, I bring years of proven real world governance to this role. I offer a concrete track record of clean audits, structural stability, and balance books.

2:54 When we're managing taxpayer dollars, administrative mistakes cost the public directly. I don't need a learning curve and this county simply cannot afford one. My extensive executive experience is the taxpayer's insurance policy against fiscal mismanagement and operational chaos. I know how the system works from day one. Thank you. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley? >> Thank you to the League of Women Voters for having this forum. Counties are also an element of the state under the state constitution and a lot of what they do, they have no choice about. I have worked as an internal and external consultant for five counties over a long period of time working with all of the departments of those counties, including auditor departments.

3:51 I have responded to complex audits on the county's behalf and designed risk management programs in order for a county to satisfy the requirements of an audit that found deficiencies. I have also served in the state legislature. We are facing a crisis in our election systems. The other part of the auditor's office manages the election system. Thank you. >> Thank you. Candidate Stober? >> Thank you very much. Thank you to the league and thank you Ms. Bancroft for leading this. So most people know me from my 11 years on the Vancouver City Council. But the reality is I have a long private sector career that predates my time on council. I've had the opportunity to lead large complex teams.

4:48 I have led operationally implementing the computer systems and process and procedures that help organizations run efficiently. I have in addition to helping oversee the billion dollar year of city of Vancouver budget, in the private sector, I have had profit and loss responsibility for $13 million. I have had to work cross functionally across organizations and of course, I have a public facing experience. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien, public confidence in elections has become increasingly important in recent years. What steps would you take to maintain security and trust in Clark County's election process? >> Real election integrity demands immediate action

5:46 and no excuses or political displays-- delays. Drawing on my experience of executive governance, background in the failure of our local system that no independent election third party audit has taken place in this county in 26 years, that's unacceptable. We must put an end to unchecked bloated voter rolls that disenfranchise legal voters and we must do it immediately to ensure fair elections. I will mandate a strict enforcement of real election integrity protocols and insist on full public transparency. We must secure the chain of custody in mail-in voting and ensure that only legal registrations receive ballots, period. Trust must be restored in our ballot box. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley?

6:44 >> Trust in our election system in the past has been very high. I served in the Oregon legislature during the beginning days of vote by mail and I've seen how effective it is, especially for people that do not have good mobility and ability to get to the polls. There have been many checks and balances on our election system over the years and our vote by mail system and the accuracy of our voter rolls has stood up very, very well. I believe that any criticism or concern should be addressed. Any new threats should be addressed. But our system is not broken. What we do need to do is establish more points of contact so people that don't trust the mail, for instance, can have access to a ballot box. Neighborhood polling places probably won't work this time. >> Thank you.

7:42 Candidate Stover? >> Thank you very much. So, number one, it is the responsibility of the county auditor to follow the law. And our election laws are very clear in the state of Washington. And they include many checks and balances. They include audits that are built into the system. And that's the first thing. Number two is communication. Communication about the process. Communication about the security of our elections, how your ballot is handled, how your ballot is secured throughout the process. And number three is I want to highlight that the concern I hear at the doors is people feeling insecure that they will no longer be able to vote the way they want to. And that is through mail-in voting.

8:38 And so, ensuring people that we are here to continue to ensure that their ballots are counted securely. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly? >> Thank you. Election security is one of the most important roles of the auditor's office. My experience has been evaluating internal controls and making improvements where I see improvements need to be made. I've spent my career doing that, both as an auditor for the state of Washington throughout Southwest Washington and also currently in the auditor's office where I oversee the internal controls over financial reporting. The concepts of evaluating internal controls are part of my career. And I've had a strong career and very successful audits at Clark County throughout my career. But the important -- one of the most important things is to remember is

9:33 that Clark County has had a strong track record of election security. I want to build on that and make sure that it remains a nonpartisan issue. It's about we need to make sure that people trust the system, follow the law, and ensure that every voter can have confidence in the election process. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley, what role should technology play in improving election administration and public services while maintaining security and reliability? >> Technology has played an increasingly important role. One of the things that happens in people registering to vote is that the last four digits of their Social Security number are checked so that we hear a lot -- I've heard a lot of concern about whether people are able to vote legally. Our system has lots of tools like that.

10:32 The vote counting machinery is updated on a regular basis. It's maintained on a regular basis. And people can watch their votes being counted. There's a viewing section. That machinery is tested very rigorously right before an election and anytime there's any concern. Overall, county government would be much bigger if it were not for technology. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover. >> Thank you. So, first and foremost is technology shouldn't be adopted just for technology's sake. And it needs to be adopted in the right portions of the system. Right now, and it's very important, the core functions, the core computers that run our voting tabulation are sequestered

11:29 so that they cannot be accessed from the internet. And that is a key thing. And the important thing is that those computer systems function, not that they have the latest and greatest. They need to have the software that is certified. Where we find opportunities, recently the county purchased new ballot sorting machines. Those machines allow us to process through the initial sorts much more quickly. And we were able to in the same amount of space fit two machines. So, increasing our throughput. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly. >> Can you read the question again? >> Certainly. What role should technology play in improving election administration and public services while maintaining security and reliability? >> Thank you. Thank you.

12:25 Technology is really important and I can definitely improve customer service, election integrity, efficiency and security when it's implemented. I was a key member of the implementation of the finance software at the county where I oversaw the implementation of Workday, the current finance software. I evaluated the system, evaluated the processes of our finance software, previous finance software, and made improvements to streamline the process to make it more efficient. We now have a much more reliable financial system for reporting at the county. Because I was able to work with teams to make this system work the best it can for the county. In regards to election integrity and the election software, we also have purchased and are going to implement mail sorters for the election process

13:19 to make the process much more smooth as it continues once we implement all of the software that's been purchased. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien. >> Thank you. Technology in government really does serve a very clear practical purpose and increasing the operational efficiency while strictly protecting public data. It shouldn't be used as just a buzzword or something that we need to do as a toy. Really, I've led major public budgets and served on executive boards, and I know how to evaluate technology contracts, protect against major cyber threats, and prevent wasteful spending. I'll advocate for smart, vetted, and cost-efficient upgrades to streamline the services for our citizens without exposing our county

14:17 to massive liabilities or hidden IT costs, which often happens. >> Thank you. Candidate Stober. What principles guide your approach to election accessibility and integrity? >> First and foremost, the right to vote and the opportunity to vote are a -- is a key foundational value of mine. What concerns me in this county and has long concerned me is that we underperform the rest of the state when it comes to voter turnout. And one of the things that I would want to work very closely with the Elections Department on is setting targets and developing strategies to try and reach more voters that are inactive, but how can we make them feel more tied

15:12 into the process, more empowered to participate in our voting system? That's the most important thing for me. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly. >> Government services should be accessible to everyone. Voting should be accessible to those that are qualified to vote. Whether somebody and other government services should be available to everyone who wants access to them. Throughout my career, I made it a point to make financial information more accessible to the public. I recently created a new financial report called the Popular Annual Financial Report that takes complex financial information that Clark County provides and makes it in a more consumable way. And it's available on the Clark County website. It's also available here at the libraries throughout the county because I am working to make sure that this information is accessible to the public.

16:07 With accessibility for voters, I think it's critical that everyone has the ability that they should participate in democracy and everyone should have the right to be able to voice their opinion. That's very important to me. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien. >> Thank you. The fundamental principles of an election is that it must be fair and lawful and transparent ensuring that only legal registrants receive ballots. To achieve that, the auditor must be completely a completely neutral arbitrator. Backed by my record of lawful public service, I will put an end to the auditor being hyper-partisan by speaking at no kings rallies and participating in project indivisible forums. My election principles demand strict enforcement of real election integrity protocols,

17:03 zero partisan bias in our administration. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley. >> Thank you. The question for me is how do we make sure that the voting process is built into our civic knowledge. I think that the auditor's office could do more with schools and could do more with developing educational materials. I do know that in our city, we have the school for the deaf, but we have sometimes a lack of deaf interpreters in public spaces. That's an area that we probably could do more, we really could do more to make our voting and our elected officials more accessible to people who are deaf. We have many, many languages spoken here, but a lot of people don't even know

18:02 which languages are available. So making sure that people know that it's available, connecting with the schools, and making sure that there are opportunities for young people to get involved and to see how it works. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly, the auditor's office oversees both elections and document recording. How would you balance public access to information with privacy and security concerns? >> Yeah, the auditor's office has a lot of responsibilities, and some of those responsibilities, as mentioned, was that they oversee public records, including documents that may contain sensitive information. My approach is to balance transparency with privacy. Government records belong to the public, but also have the responsibility to protect information that could expose residents to identity theft, fraud, or other harm. That means following the state law, using technology to protect sensitive information,

19:02 and continually reviewing our processes to ensure records are handled appropriately. Residents should be able to access public information while also knowing that their information is being safeguarded responsibly. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien? >> The auditor's office does handle massive amounts of highly sensitive personal information belonging to all of our residents. Protecting that data takes continuous executive oversight, the exact kind of strict compliance infrastructure that I've managed throughout my career in public service and executive boards without deep administrative experience, hasty changes invite catastrophic data breaches. I have built a secure public system before and understand the legalities of data protection. I will never compromise a resident's privacy for the sake of flashy tech trends

20:01 or political shortcut, protecting your private information is a non-negotiable duty. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley? >> The issue of data privacy is a moving target. I've served on the technology committee of two different states and have participated in strengthening our state's laws about data privacy. Most people don't realize that your data can be put together with other pieces of data to give information out that you wouldn't voluntarily reveal. And we've passed laws at the state level to secure that but what we find is that there's always something else and the first thing that I would do as the auditor would be to look at the county's history of data breaches.

20:54 Sometimes organizations are targeted very diligently by criminal elements to get that data and knowing how many attempts there are and what's been done to respond to that is very important in deciding next steps. >> Thank you. Candidate Stober? >> I'm going to sound trite by saying ditto to a lot of things that have already been said. But the first thing is we operate in a system of laws largely governed by the state. And so one of the core things will be as was mentioned data privacy is continuing to evolve. Things that we weren't concerned about 20 years ago are concerned now and it's identifying ongoing identification of what those issues are

21:47 and developing a legislative agenda to seek help from the state to strengthen laws to ensure that there is good data privacy. The flip side as well is making sure that we have the systems in place that where appropriate that make it easy for our residents to access the data. If possible, for that data that's not protected, it's better to allow people to get the data themselves than have to go through a public records request. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien, how would you ensure equitable access to auditor's office services for residents in rural, elderly or underserved communities? >> My entire career as legislator and council chair has been defined by holding departments accountable and protecting your hard-earned tax dollars.

22:45 The fact that no independent third party election audit has been conducted in 26 years is a failure of the government oversight. We're going to clean up the office by ending the era of unchecked bloated voter rolls that disenfranchise legal voters. My oversight will be bold, completely independent and fully transparent to the public ensuring every tax dollar is accounted for. And because there are a lot of front facing offices such as licensing and everything else, this should be accessible to the public with professional courteous service always. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley. >> You've put your finger on a real problem. It used to be that people could walk down their street and cast a ballot at their local elementary school and those days are done. I think that vote by mail is going to be, continue to be the main way

23:44 that people cast their ballots and I know that there are better ways that we could collect those ballots and remind people and make sure that people have access. Collaboration with the state and with the post office is essential and my understanding is our current auditor is already doing that to help make sure that those ballots aren't delayed in getting to the county so that they can be counted. But this is going to be an ongoing problem with our aging population. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover. >> Thank you. Access to the ballot box should not be dependent on location and should not be dependent on language and it should not be dependent on socioeconomic status.

24:38 Number one is ballot box locations need to be continually evaluated and as we face a situation where the U.S. postal service is now processing all ballots outside the state, we need to make sure that we have ballot boxes easily available to people in rural parts of our county. There needs to be, was already mentioned, we need to think about accessibility in different ways. It was mentioned that many people sign that don't actually read English but they sign and we need to be thinking about how we are translating for people who sign as their primary mag. And then finally as an elected official being out in public to continually explain these things. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly. >> Can you read the question again? >> Certainly.

25:38 How would you ensure equitable access to auditor's office services for residents in rural, elderly, or underserved communities? >> Thank you. I think it's really important that we inform the people where they are in their jurisdictions, in their location. As was mentioned, people that may not read English and have either deaf or other English language barriers, I think it's important that we help people have access to voting where they are. I think that making sure that the auditor is a public facing figure, communicating with people, informing them of what's available for voting and making sure that we continue to evaluate our success in the ballot boxes that we currently have and safeguarding the ballot boxes so that people feel comfortable and confident

26:36 that when they place their ballot in a ballot box that it will be counted and their voice will be heard and working with a postal service to make sure that the mail can be delivered timely is also something that we need to make sure we communicate and make sure that people know that their voices will be heard when they vote. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley, how would you respond if a proposed law improves security but significantly increases administrative burden? >> That happens all the time. As a lawmaker, you know, there's always good ideas that sound like they'd be really wonderful but local governments rightly come and tell us how much it will cost. One of the things that was under consideration this last session was

27:30 to make some changes in the auditor's office powers in checking ownership of buildings when deeds are changed. Most of us have seen the TV ads where deed theft is being discussed and insurance that takes care of it after it happens is considered. This particular law would try to prevent it by having better checks and balances at the front desk of the auditor's office but auditors were not uniformly supportive of that and there was reluctance to inflict another mandated cost to local government so that law didn't pass. That's something that still could be worked on and I would like to see work done that makes it possible for that to be done in a cost effective manner. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover. >> Thank you very much.

28:27 Number one, again, the auditor's job is to follow the law. If a law gets passed, whether there's an administrative burden or not, it's up to the auditor to follow that law. That being said, it's also incumbent upon the auditor to lobby whatever government body has made the law to let them know the burden that it's placing on it. And finally, it involves-- if there is a burden, it also involves lobbying the county council because ultimately, they control the purse strings and are going to be critical for implementing any law that comes down. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly. >> Yeah, security and efficiency are both very important. Of course, we need to follow the law and at times, that does cause an administrative burden.

29:22 Throughout my career, I've had to implement changes to reporting requirements that government oversight has put upon local governments. And when that's happened, I've managed teams to evaluate how we can streamline the process, make it less impact-- as least impactful to the bottom dollar of what the county has to spend and making sure that we have qualified people on the staff that can help comply with those new mandates. Also, I have taken time to advocate for the county's position on certain rules that have been proposed. And they have been changed from a financial standpoint where we work with our federal-- our financial oversight committees such as the government accounting standards board. I've worked with them to help them understand the impact of what they are changing and how that would impact us.

30:20 And I would continue to do that. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien. >> Thank you. Finding a balance between tight security and smooth administration is really kind of the core of modern governance these days. And as you heard, the state-- or the county is an arm of the state and the state does send down rules that we need to comply with. But if you-- if your security is too loose, you actually invite disaster. If your administration burden is too heavy, you paralyze the basic public services. So, from my time in the state house and local government, I have successfully implemented security frameworks that fiercely protect the public systems while keeping everyday workflows efficient, cost effective, and citizen friendly. We can secure our data without creating endless red tape. Thank you. >> Thank you.

31:20 Candidate Stover, describe a time when you had to make a financially responsible decision that was unpopular. How did you handle it? >> On the city council, so the last budget cycle, we had to trim. It's never fun when you have to be the one trimming. In this particular instance, we were looking at outside contracts that were going to be terminated and some very popular outside contracts. We looked to-- those needed to happen unfortunately for the budget, but we also looked to how could we ramp down those contracts so that those organizations had time to prepare for a change in their finances.

32:16 And so, it wasn't popular, but it was necessary in order for the city to maintain its finances, but also try to provide that ramp down for the organization. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly? >> Can you answer the question again? >> Describe a time when you had to make a financially responsible decision that was unpopular. How did you handle it? >> Throughout my career, I've been a data driven person. I look at the-- what's actually happening and make decisions based on reliable data. So, at Clark County, we're currently facing requests to consider possibly reductions in our budgets. I've taken a proactive approach to evaluate our budget to see what could be done and what is-- or what are some processes that could be streamlined if needed.

33:13 Where there's possibility of challenges that could-- the auditor's office could face. And I've worked with collaboratively across the departments to talk with each department head in the auditor's office to have them come with suggestions and ideas. This is a reality that the government needs-- government has a budget and we have to stick to it and our challenging times of reduced revenue need to be-- we are working on evaluating how we can address that within the auditor's office. And I've taken a proactive collaborative approach to work with the departments. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien? >> Yes. Decisions can be hard whether they're legislative or in the auditor's office and they can't-- they should not be driven by emotion or partisan politics.

34:10 They must be driven strictly by financial data, statutory law, and long-term fiscal responsibility. When tough choices arise regarding county budgets or legal compliance, I rely on a lifetime of executive legislative experience and I offer steady predictable leadership that prioritizes financial facts over short-term political wins, ensuring stability for our community regardless of the political climate. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley? >> I had a recent experience in this past legislative session that required what I felt was a very tough decision. There was a very popular proposal that didn't have a lot of money behind it. It was very popular. It had almost all the votes.

35:07 I was a key vote on whether it was going to go forward and it didn't go forward. And part of the reason was that I was able to analyze it and because of my knowledge of county government, I could describe to people what the impact would be on the county level and why that would mean that the program probably wouldn't be very successful and might indeed be harmful for the people it was trying to help and harmful to the communities where that program landed. And that behind the scenes argument was one of the toughest because people I respected greatly were very invested in that program. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly, the county auditor also serves important financial oversight and auditing functions. How would you ensure accountability and responsible stewardship of public resources?

36:00 >> I have a very-- I have a very-- my background is exactly what that question is asking. I have been-- I have been doing that for the past 15 years, the past 10 years at Clark County where I make-- where I proactively make the information, financial information available to the public. I-- it's really-- it's very important that we make the information transparent, easily accessible and understandable that we are open and available to the public if they have questions about any of the finances-- financial situations of the county. I've spent my career doing that both as an auditor and then currently working within the auditor's office where I oversee the countywide financial reporting and have made it an effort to make financial information more accessible and where we report on the trending of the county and the risks-- the financial risks that we are-- that we are experiencing.

37:00 >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien? >> Will you restate the question? >> Absolutely. The county auditor also serves important financial oversight and auditing functions. How would you ensure accountability and responsible stewardship of public resources? >> Well, as the auditor does watch the money that comes into the county from your hard-earned taxpayer dollars, you have to follow that money all the way so that it goes to the respective places that it's-- that it is supposed to be going to. And you have to always be mindful that there could be fraud, waste and abuse and that is one of the functions of the auditor's office as well whether it's performance audits or financial audits and I will strictly be watching that sort of thing. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley? >> Thank you for the question. One of the things that's impressed me in my years of being involved

37:53 in government is how many procedures and good practices have been established and there are professional associations that teach people and teach organizations how to follow those, making sure that they are in place, the people are qualified to do the work and making sure that there aren't any gaps is part of the process. When an audit is done, I always think of a good audit that helps people do better and understand how their work connects to the rest of the organization and the financial processes and the prize of the awards that our county has gotten tell us that we have good competent staff. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover? >> Thank you very much. One of my positions was working in energy efficiency, specifically programs funded

38:53 by utility rate payer dollars, the money you pay Clark Public Utilities or Northwest Natural, highly, highly regulated money and the programs I ran, I was required to set out what is my theory, what do I think is going to change, that needs to change and what are the steps I'm going to take. I am excited to bring that kind of framework to the auditor's office. So the best way to set things up is at the very beginning. What is it we want to accomplish? What do we think are the steps we're going to get there? And then continually evaluating our progress towards that. So it's starting early, it's setting out a framework and then it's evaluating and then adapting based upon the feedback. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien, describe a situation where something went wrong under your leadership. What did you do?

39:52 >> Well, I could think of a time when it wasn't a very popular decision to not allow fireworks for instance in the rural community and yet the fire marshal and the county chair had to make that decision for that rural community. What you have to do is you have to say we want safety for the entire community and not just for those who are doing things right. When the weather is dry and you can't light fireworks, that's what you need to do. So you have to listen to and collaborate with others about what needs to be done and take the decision. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley? >> Could you restate the question? >> Certainly. Describe a situation where something went wrong under your leadership. What did you do?

40:50 >> When I was city administrator in Tukwila, I was fairly new to the work and I had to take over the budget because the mayor got sick and I made a decision about how to present that budget and frankly, it didn't cover everything that needed to cover in that presentation and I learned to work more closely with the departments in the future so that the budget was presented in a more thorough way and it was more fair to the different departments. It was an early and embarrassing moment, frankly. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover? >> Thank you, Ms. Brancroft.

41:44 The city has been confronted in recent, the last 15 years with an increase in homelessness and housing insecurity. We have responded by trying different things and one of those things we tried was the day center and it is-- was well-intentioned. It had the capacity, capability to make an impact but at the end of the day, it didn't. It caused a lot of impact on the surrounding community that we weren't able to mitigate. So we had to pivot. COVID gave us an opportunity to pivot but we pivoted and now we focus on our safe state communities, things that are more distributed throughout the community

42:43 in order to have one, better outcomes, more personalized outcomes but also less impact on any particular part of the city. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly? >> Thank you. I see each opportunity where I have made a challenging decision as an opportunity to grow and I've worked with teams across the county throughout my career and as an auditor where I've evaluated processes and procedures and made improvements and changes to those processes and procedures to make them run smoother. There are times where I have made mistakes where I've had to pivot and realize that there needed to be additional changes and oversight done with those processes and procedures. I'm always thinking of the best in mind of the county and making sure that we have proper oversight of our precious taxpayer dollars

43:40 and that we are using them responsibly. So I always work together to learn more, to grow and to learn from the challenges that I've been faced with. >> Thank you. Candidate Wiley, what financial risks should county auditor be most focused on? >> I think that-- I actually made a list for that question because there were so many to be concerned about. I think that the risk of caseload changes, inflation for materials that are used in the road department and there's a tremendous risk of lawsuits both in terms of what the police get involved in and our jail. We have a out of date jail. We have constraints that come from the courts and the problem

44:40 with counties is the structural inadequacy of the finance system. And the counties are-- both sue the state and get sued from outside the state for a lot of the issues related to law enforcement and I think that public defense and those lawsuits are some of the biggest risks. >> Thank you. Candidate Stover. >> The thing that I think the county auditor's office is going to have to do a lot of counseling on is there is an imbalance in the Vancouver urban growth area between housing and commercial properties. The housing doesn't pay for itself for maintaining the services and there's just not enough commercial property to make up that gap. It's strangling the county and it will continue to cause major constraints.

45:37 So the county auditor is going to need to counsel the counsel in how to manage through that and is going to have to-- and then the counsel and county administrator or county manager are going to have to work with the city to lobby the legislature on a pathway out of the situation. >> Thank you. Candidate Kelly. >> Can you repeat the question? >> Happy to. What financial risks should a county auditor be most focused on? >> There's a lot of challenges that the county is facing both for funding public safety, how to do that with limited resources of the taxpayer dollars. I think what's really important is that the public has access to reliable information-- financial information that they can make their decisions about how the county should move forward.

46:36 The county has-- provides a lot of services mandated by the state and it's a reality that we have to navigate that challenging financial path to provide the services to the community with the resources-- the taxpayer resources that we receive. I think it's really-- it is very important that we can have accurate, reliable financial information that we can share with the counsel, with policy makers, with the public to help them be informed of the possibilities-- the realities of our financial situation and that we can make the proper decisions moving forward of what the county and its citizens want. >> Thank you. Candidate O'Brien. >> Yes. I think probably the biggest financial risk is managing an unpredictable economy. You've got inflation and rising operational cost no matter where it is within the county.

47:33 And you have shifting state funding requirements and sophisticated fiscal management. If you don't know how to mitigate these risks then you end up with deficits and sudden tax rises. So, I have successfully got-- guided public finances through tough economic cycles before and I know exactly how to protect your tax dollar-- to protect your tax dollar from being wasted on administrative errors. >> Thank you. Now, it's your turn to close. You may want to elaborate on an answer that you've already given or talk about something that we didn't cover and we'll begin with you, Candidate Stover. >> Thank you again, Ms. Bancroft. And thank you again to the league for putting together this forum. It's really a pleasure to be here. I break the office of auditor down into five functional areas.

48:30 The number one, they are a leader of teams of professionals. We've talked about the four different teams. In my professional career, in the private sector, I have led large complex teams. Number two, they need to understand systems and processes. And in the private sector, I have implemented the computer systems and written the policy and procedure manuals to help organizations operate more efficiently. Number three, they need to understand budgeting. And at the City of Vancouver, I help oversee a billion dollar a year annual budget. And in the private sector, I've had profit and loss responsibility. They need to work cross functionally because they own the accounting software but they need to get the rest of the county to use that software. And number five, they've got to be able to go out and interact with the people of Clark County which I have done over the last 11 years on the city council. Thank you.

49:29 >> Thank you, candidate Stover. Candidate Kelly. >> Thank you. The auditor's office oversees critical functions that every citizen should be very invested in whether it be voting, financial oversight, auto license and recording. These require someone with the capabilities and understanding of how complex the county is that they can provide the information to the citizens so they can rely on it and make the decisions and make informed decisions. It's important that the county auditor is someone that has leadership experience. I have worked with every department throughout the county working on the financial software, making everyone comply with financial requirements that we have to comply with, helping them

50:23 understand the complexities of the county and the different aspects and all of the services that we provide to our wonderful community. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've had to serve the county in the capacities that I have and I'm grateful for this beautiful area that we live in. >> Thank you, candidate Kelly. Candidate O'Brien. >> Thank you. Well, I believe that I have the leadership experience whether it's in the state. I served in the state house and the state senate in the state of Oregon and in the county council in Clark County. I've also led a charitable trust and I have other executive board experience. I believe it's experience that helps somebody to be able to administer and lead the folks at the county. I would just ask for your -- humbly ask for your vote.

51:21 >> Thank you, candidate O'Brien. Candidate Wiley. >> Thank you. Throughout my career, I have alternated between policy positions and implementation positions. We have a representative form of government where we trust that our elected leaders will manage our government and the services that we demand. We are in a place right now in our county where the county is not able to provide all of the services that people want with the existing system. It is up to elected leaders to take the time to do more than just represent the people. They have to educate the people. And I believe that it's up to all of us to boil it down and make it understandable. It isn't rocket science government, but it's very complicated and it's grown more complicated.

52:18 I think linking the complexity with real people's lives and bringing them into the problem solving is important. >> Thank you, candidate Wiley. We thank you kindly for your participation in this forum today. [ Applause ] >> The League of Women Voters has asked candidates to sign the Fair Campaign Pledge. In the pledge, candidates agree to conduct a campaign that focuses on the issues and candidate qualifications and to avoid unfair attacks on opponents and distortions or misrepresentations of fact. Please go to our website, lwvclarkcounty.org to see the pledge and find out which candidates

53:06 have signed. >> How are you today? >> Same physical situation as when we went before the Columbian. >> If you want more space, you can change it over there. >> I'm surrounded by Rachael. >> Hi, Rachael Shapiro, nice to meet you.

54:01 >> We'll go ahead and roll into the next. >> All right, we'll go ahead and get started. >> Our next forum today features candidates for Clark County Clerk. Position of County Clerk is best characterized as the record keeping and financial officer of the Superior Court. The clerk's office attends and assists in all court proceedings, receives and processes court documents, and enters the court's orders, judgments, and decrees. As the court's agent, the office collects statutory fees, fines, and trust and support

55:00 funds, maintains a trust account for monies received, and disperses monies as ordered by the court. Joining us are Rachael Shapiro and Gerald Gray. The third candidate, Gary Webber, was unable to participate in the forum. Welcome to you both. Candidates please watch the leaked timer and stay within the timelines for each question. You will have 60 seconds to answer each question unless instructed otherwise. You'll first answer in the order that you appear on the ballot, and we will rotate after that. All questions are prepared by the League of Women Voters of Clark County, and we are providing the timer. We'll begin with you, candidate Shapiro. What experience best prepares you to manage a complex public facing office that supports both the Superior Court and county residents? >> Well, I'm a graduate from the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. I have been in private practice for more than 15 years.

55:57 I have also founded Shapiro Mediation LLC, and I run that organization. I feel that I have the experience to run the courthouse. There's -- living in several different states, like I lived in Massachusetts and California and now here in Washington, I have seen how different courthouses have operated, and I'd like to take the things that I have learned from California and Massachusetts and bring it here to Clark County. There's so many programs that I want to bring. One is a mediation dispute resolution program. Another one is Lawyer of the Day, which is an amazing program that the state of Massachusetts has. There's so many other avenues that I have seen that we don't offer here in Washington that I want to bring to Clark County. >> Thank you. >> Candidate Gray.

56:57 >> Good morning, everyone. Is it still morning? I think so. Or is it afternoon? It is what it is. My name is Gerald Gray. I have been an attorney for 35 years. I'm licensed to practice in New York, California, and the beautiful territory of Guam where America's Day begins. I'm a former naval officer. I was in the JAG Corps, and I too have observed -- I was stationed in the Philippines and San Diego. I have observed how courts work both in the court-martial system, in the California system, the New York system, and even internationally in the Philippines. So I've seen the pitfalls. I've seen the pros and cons. I also believe that input from the bar is extremely important. I believe that input from four different groups is extremely important. I see the yellow card going up there, so I better hurry up.

57:56 It would be the bar, the judiciary, the general public, and the individuals who work, particularly department heads. >> Thank you. Candidate Gray, court systems can feel confusing or intimidating to the public. What steps would you take to improve the public's experience interacting with the clerk's office? >> Well, there's -- one of the offices is the court administrator, and they deal a lot with relations with the public and making it accessible to the public. I just spoke at a senior citizen's -- fellow senior citizens -- it was an assisted living place. And one of the things I spoke to them about, and they were very receptive, is to a lot of senior citizens, the computer age has passed them by. So a liaison with the senior citizen community, where they, with their arthritis or whatever, walk up a flight of stairs, are already stressed, and they go in and ask a question, and they're like, well, you send an email to this, and you attach this, and blah, blah, blah.

58:54 It's very stressful. I've seen senior citizens literally cry in those situations. So I'd like to approve the relationship with the senior citizen community and even have a reduced filing fee without having to prove that they're an indigent. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro? >> Can you please repeat the question? >> Certainly. Court systems can feel confusing or intimidating to the public. What steps would you take to improve the public's experience interacting with the clerk's office? >> Well, first of all, I bring in different programs, and a lot of these programs that I plan on bringing in would be funded by grants from the state and the local government, the federal government, which would implement more -- which would give more opportunities for these programs, some of which would be to have a legal aid department where there is, like I talked about earlier, Lawyer of the Day, which would be a volunteer lawyer

59:53 through pro bono organizations like the Bar Association for the county, Bar Association for the state. There are so many organizations that allow this, and what would happen would be these lawyers would be sitting in the courthouse behind a desk, Lawyer of the Day. It's always a different lawyer, and this is something I learned in Massachusetts, and the people can come and ask that lawyer particular questions on what they need to do, so there's accessibility. And I understand that technology is harder for older people, but it's not something we can do without. I mean, it's going to -- it's here, and it's getting more complicated. We're getting more things, just like with AI, where we can do instructional videos, which I would offer for them to be able to see how to operate and how to do that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Justice Shapiro, Clark County courts have faced backlogs and operational pressures in recent years. What suggestions do you have for ways that Clark County's office can improve efficiency

1:00:53 and timely case processing? >> Well, coming from California and Los Angeles, we had a -- everyone had to go -- anybody in family court had to go through mediation first before they could go in front of a judge. It was done with volunteer mediators who got their education through -- their certification through the Los Angeles Superior Court. And part of that was they didn't have to pay for the class, but they had to give 100 hours of their time. These mediators sat in the courtroom. There was one where I went through that program as well. I was in a courtroom where it was a restraining order case. The judge gave it over to the mediation that the facts of that pattern was that the guy was going to lose his job if he had a restraining order on, and the judge knew that the guy -- if he was -- if he accepted it, it was going to lose his livelihood.

1:01:49 So it went to us after talking to both parties and filling out a document that if he violated anything in this mediation document that we did, he would then have the right to go back and ask for a restraining order, and we solved that problem. The judge wasn't burdened with that, and it cleared up the dockets. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome. >> Thank you. >> Candidate Gray. >> Well, there's an old saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Despite all the proposals someone may have going into the clerk's office, you don't know what you know or you don't know what you don't know until you get there. You talk to people in the field who are going to assist you, such as the tech information, coordinator two, the court administrator, and the deputy clerk. Then you go from there. You respect their input. You value their input, and you make it known to them that you respect and value their input, and then implement whatever needs to be implemented based on the people who know best.

1:02:49 >> Thank you. Candidate Gray, court records are intended to support transparency, but they can also involve sensitive personal information. How would you balance public access with privacy concerns? >> Well, the individuals in the tech department, I'd speak to them because they know what is compromised and what is not, and how to best navigate those waters. It goes back to what I'm saying. Being a manager is the ability to get people together, delegate when you have to, use the information from those people, and proceed accordingly. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro. >> Yes, well, first of all, Washington State has certain regulations with the files for all counties that they have to follow the regulations, so obviously you would have to follow those regulations. For instance, juvenile records are sealed, victims information is also sealed, and if

1:03:45 someone's in front of a court, they have, depending, the judge will decide whether that particular case was needed to be sealed, and those decisions absolutely have to be sealed. But it is, most of the court cases are all public knowledge, and that goes back to making sure that the documents don't physically ever leave the courthouse, but you have to follow the laws of Washington State. Thank you. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro. >> Yes. >> How many communities do you see to modernize court records and administrative systems, and how would you ensure access for residents who may have limited technology or familiarity with online services? >> Well, right now, we've just implemented Odyssey as the program, and I think we were like one of the last courthouses. The clerk that's present now helped with that, and it's the actual program that they use to get information.

1:04:44 How I would help, again, is having a really good self-help desk where the people who are having technology problems, where they would actually have a computer there that could, you know, it would be with paralegals that would be there, volunteer lawyers. All the documents would be online, and if they couldn't figure it out, they could come to the courthouse, go to the self-help desk, and the paralegals there could help them fill out the documents that needed, if they weren't able to hire a lawyer to do this for them. >> Thank you. Candidate Gray. >> Well, like I said before, I think the lion's share of those people are senior citizens. Most, if I want to find help on a technical issue, I'll ask my ten-year-old granddaughter. The older you are, the less you know in that field. It's got to be, there's got to be a personal component where people feel comfortable in doing it, or else they won't even come in.

1:05:42 I would allow people who aren't senior citizens to take advantage of the services so they're not overwhelmed with technology. So that's basically where I stand on that. >> Thank you. Candidate Gray, do you have thoughts about new services you might initiate? And if so, what are they and how would you finance them? >> Well, the chief administrator is the one who does the budgets and all the financing. And I would meet with the chief administrator to see if the money's there. Mediation of, I wholeheartedly agree with Rachel, mediation is good. The non-technologically pros would go to that department with a liaison with the person who deals with individuals like that.

1:06:33 Like I said, when I get in there, I'm going to see what programs are needed. You know, dealing with the people who work there and getting input from them is important, important, important. And that's what's going to be my guide. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro? >> Yes, one of the things that I plan on doing when I am in office is talking to all the individual staff, finding out where is there a need. One of the things that I would obviously is which I talked about is implementing the lawyer of the week. Or the lawyer of the day program depending on funding. A lot of that would be with volunteer lawyers. And then implementing a dispute resolution where the judges can send cases to mediation. Or we can implement where they have to go to mediation first. How this would be funding would be private. There is also legal aid, federal grants, and state grants that you can use to fund.

1:07:32 And then of course, there is your funding from the county budget as well. But I think there's so many opportunities and so many grants and programs that are out there that have not been touched. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro, please explain your experience with accounting systems such as that required to accurately track monies collected by the clerk's office for court related fees and fines. >> Well, in my professional business, running my Shapiro mediation, I use QuickBooks, and that was our accounting process. Most of these programs are pretty fairly user friendly and easy to use. Just like I've had to learn a lot of things from creating websites to learning QuickBooks, I feel very confident that whatever system that the courts use, I would be able to figure it out.

1:08:27 And if not, then I would use their, all these programs have a tutorial on how to figure it out. So the information is there and it's out there. And I have no problem feeling that I could figure out their accounting system here in Clark County. >> Thank you. Candidate Gray? >> I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Fordham University in the Bronx, home of the New York Yankees. And I'm not a certified public accountant, but if you have an accountant degree, you're called an accountant. I've managed my own law office, I've had to make budgets for that. I've had to deal with fiscal concerns as I was one of the chief volunteers for Navy Relief, which helps Navy and Marine Corps families, and budgeting for that to get the job done to help people was a great part of my role. >> Thank you.

1:09:21 Candidate Gray, how do the duties of the county clerk differ from those of the court administrator? >> Well, the court administrator, pardon me, but I want to get this right. The court administrator performs executive functions to enable the judges to focus on adjudication of cases, sorry. They deal with the family court services, jury service, civil arbitration service, guardian of light of service, payment for services. Their chief duties are calendar and case management, jury management, budget, which I spoke about before, staff supervision, and inter-agency coordination. So you've gone over in your opening statement what the county clerk does, so that is the difference. >> Thank you. Candidate Shapiro? >> Can you repeat the question please? >> Certainly. How do the duties of the county clerk differ from those of the court administrator? Do we need both?

1:10:21 >> Court, no, no, I'm >> I skipped that. I think we should go back and give Candidate Gray more time to answer the do we need both. I think the court system has worked well enough that at this time we need both. Now when I'm in there it could be studied whether we'd need both. But my inklings are that the county administrator, who I believe is named Pamela Byer, is probably doing a bang up job, and we should maintain the status quo until we see otherwise. >> Thank you. Okay, so Candidate Shapiro, how do the duties of the county clerk differ from those of the court administrator, and do we need both? >> So the county court administrator, again, like he had mentioned, it's the executive, it oversees the judges, it oversees family court, and the jury selection process. The clerk, their duties for the clerk is you oversee the superior court,

1:11:18 the functions of that courthouse and the superior court. Right now we have both. Until I'm in the office I really can't make that decision to see if we do need both or not. I don't have enough information about both the way each courthouse is run, and the administrator's duty and the clerk's duty. And you really don't understand that until you're into the thick of things. So for now I would say we need both. >> Thank you. >> Mm-hm. >> Candidate Shapiro, outside of the clerk's office, which county departments do you anticipate interacting with and why? >> Well, I anticipate on interacting with all of them, because I think we're not an island, we need to work with every single department. And there's so many services that if the superior court has a mediation,

1:12:12 dispute resolution program going, there's absolutely no reason why another department can't utilize those services. And that also decreases the cost of programs. But especially when you're starting something new, it's very important to talk to everybody. We're not an island, we need all of the departments to work together. And I really would implement a monthly meeting for all the departments to talk about and say what's new, what's going on. Just as I would have lunch with the clerk once a month for the people of Clark County to come and meet me. But it's very important to meet everyone and to work with all departments. >> Thank you. Candidate Gray? >> Well, the first and foremost person that I deal with, I believe his name is Mark, I can't really pronounce the last name, is a county-wide IT tech person.

1:13:06 Because he's the one who the clerk of courts, the county clerks calls upon for knowledge. Even though he represent and deals with many agencies. Which is different from the information system coordinator two, which is part of the county clerk's office. But dealing with all agencies, my door will be open. I'll gladly introduce myself and get to know each and every agency head on a personal level, not just on a business level. >> Thank you. Now it's your turn to close. You may want to elaborate on an answer that you've already given or talk about something that we didn't cover. And we'll begin with you, Candidate Gray. >> As I've said before, I have a macro approach to management where I rely heavily on the people under me. One of the individuals under me is unlike the vice presidents of the US throughout the years, who basically are figureheads.

1:14:01 The deputy county clerk is a very, very important individual who I'll work with. I'm going to do whatever I can, I'm going to work as hard as I can. And in the dying words of Susan B Anthony, failure is impossible. >> Thank you, Candidate Gray. Candidate Shapiro. >> Yes. With my mediation background, one of the problems that a lot of people have in the courthouse is there's a lot of people that are not happy. They're scared, they're nervous, and I know how to deal when situations were excavated with the fact that if someone needs support, I know how to deal with that. Given my background, my legal background, my business background, Shapiro mediation, I feel that I am qualified for this position. I plan on making this the best courthouse in Clark County in the state of Washington. Thank you. >> Thank you, Candidate Shapiro.

1:15:00 That concludes today's forum. Special thank you to our candidates for participating in this event, and to CVTV for their support in putting it together, and to everyone watching. >> Please remember, Washington residents do not need to request a mail-in ballot. They will be mailed to all registered voters on July 17th. You can make sure you are registered by going to votewa.gov. The deadline for registering online and by mail is July 27th, but you can register up until 8 p.m. on election day, August 4th. >> We missed the vote. >> If you go in person to the Clark County Elections Office in Vancouver. For more information about all your candidates, please check vote411.org. Thank you, and don't forget to be a voter.