Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton is a rarity, an elected Democrat in Spokane County government. (Commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan are the others.)
Callie Gee hopes she'll be able to follow Dalton's footsteps. She's the only Democrat in a three-candidate race for the right to replace the 28-year incumbent. Gee is a tax accountant at Baker Tilly in Spokane.
This interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Callie Gee: I grew up in Spokane around Mount Spokane and grew up skiing on the mountain. I also love to go whitewater rafting in the summer with my family and friends and camping and I just think that this area is so special. I think that like with the river running through our city, this is such a beautiful place. I feel so lucky to have grown up here and continue to live and work here.
I just hope that we can continue to push our local government in a way that we can protect our beautiful lands and protect our future as a county, whether that's financials or elections.
DN: So what's the allure of the auditor's job for you?
CG: It's obviously a very important job, not an office that a lot of people think of often unless they wake up needing a marriage license or some election information or it's actually election season. That's when people are really thinking about it.
When I saw that our current auditor was retiring and there was a spot open, I was doing a lot of research on the job. I sat down with Vicky and got a tour of the office and really learning about the responsibilities of the role and I found they really aligned with who I am and what I've spent my career learning and practicing and working on. I found that it aligned a lot with what I feel like I can do to help my community more in a better way than helping just corporations and high net worth individuals pay less at the bottom line. I want to use my education and experience in a way that means more for my community and the auditor's office, it seems like the place for me to do that.
DN: You've alluded to this, but what are the parts of the auditor's office?
CG: There's four departments.
We're going to start with elections because it's top of mind for everyone right now. The auditor's office administers our elections, making sure that they are run according to state law and then verifying the results afterwards and communicating that with the public.
Also, kind of weaving through all of these departments, I'm going to talk about public trust because it is the largest overarching responsibility of the auditor is ensuring public trust. With elections, that means bringing our community in on poll watching, on the education of how our elections are ran, as well as just ensuring that every eligible voter can be confident that their ballot is counted accurately and on time and that's verified. So that is our first department.
We also have licensing. That covers vehicle licensing, vessel licensing, and marriage licensing, which is what a lot of people end up going into the auditor's office to do. So it's a very customer service facing department, very important to keep those services accessible and efficient for Spokane County residents.
And then we've got public records, which is also very, very important. You know, at Spokane County, we keep our records that go back to the very founding of our county and the auditor's office's job is to make sure that all of those records from then on are preserved forever, not just for the next 100 or 200 years, forever.
And then, finally, we have the financial services office, which is really, I think, where my finance and accounting education and background comes in.
The auditor is the chief accountant for the county, preparing our annual county financial reports and sending those up to the state auditor's office and so it's really, really important that we have someone in this role with the professional accounting experience needed just even to understand balance sheets, financial statements. That's what I spend all day, every day doing and so I feel very, very confident that I'm going to be able to manage that department well and communicate our financial reports well to our residents.
DN: Given that the elections gets most of the attention here, what do you feel like you need to learn in order to become proficient in that part of the job?
CG: Yeah, that's a great question. There is a lot to learn.
I am going to the ballot tabulation test today right after this, so I'm excited for that. I toured the elections office with Vicky and I met a lot of people there. I know that they've got an incredible team going on. That process they walked me through is on lock and it's incredible. And so I think getting into that department and meeting more people and just talking to them and learning from the people that have been doing this work for over a decade.
DN: Tell me about an elected official that you particularly admire and why.
CG: Amber Waldref, the county commissioner, she's just an incredible woman, an incredible leader. I really look up to her in the way that she cares so much about our county and is working so hard to ensure equity and working for families in Spokane, working towards better health care. She's just an incredible person, and she has endorsed my campaign, and I'm really grateful for her guidance and leadership in this.
DN: As you try to educate voters about this job, how do you think they should evaluate what the county auditor should be and pick the right candidate?
CG: I think that it really comes down to the person's professional experience. In order to lead this office, this is one of the few elected offices where a person's real professional education and experience can actually affect how our government works day to day and so I think that Spokane County residents should evaluate our options and pick who they feel has the qualifications in order to run this office well, as well as the passion and energy to push Spokane County to be better.
I believe that our auditor's office has done an incredible job over the last decade, 28 years, keeping our elections secure and our county government honest. I think that doesn't mean that there's not room for change and improvement, and I'm always a person who's very forward-thinking, looking for ways to make things more efficient and work better. And so me as a young person, I'm looking at the next 50 years of this county that I was born and raised in and grew up in and love so much.
So I'm, number one, qualified. I have the education and experience working in public accounting to do this job well. I also really have the mindset and the passion for it. So I think that's what residents should look for in all elected leaders.
DN: So as you learn more about the job, are there things that you want to go in and change, tweak?
CG: I think that it's hard from my position right now to necessarily criticize or try to pick out particular things that I think. But there's always room for more communication and just bringing the public more in on the decision-making process, as well as breaking down the complicated financial state that we're in. Our county is in a big deficit right now, and it causes a lot of taxpayers to feel uneasy and a little bit disengaged and disenfranchised and I think that the best antidote to that is education and communication and being out in the community and just, you know, ensuring that Spokane County residents can trust the auditor's office.
It's a big deal, and so you have to earn that trust, and then you have to verify. That's what the auditor's office is about.
DN: Are you getting a lot of questions about what the auditor does when you go out and talk to people?
CG: Oh, yeah. It's the first thing on my website because it's the first question I always get asked. It's been really great to go out and talk to people in the community and educate them a little bit more about how our county government works.
A lot of people, they know about city council, they know about our federal representatives, but the county government is so important and especially when we think about, for example, our elections and the pressure that's coming down from the federal government, right? It's really, really important that we have someone in our auditor's office who's going to stand with integrity and protect Spokane County residents' right to vote and I think that is why local leadership is so important right now because federally things can seem so scary and so out of our reach. But that really is why we have to lock in and pick good leaders this fall. That's my message for Spokane.
