PORT ANGELES — Clallam County employees Shoona Riggs and Kim Yacklin sought to set themselves apart as candidates for county auditor during two recent general election forums in Port Angeles.
The two are vying in the Nov. 4 general election for a position that heads an office with more contact with the public than any other county agency, said current Auditor Patty Rosand, who is retiring and has endorsed Riggs.
Riggs, elections supervisor and deputy auditor, and Yacklin, administrative coordinator for the Clallam County Department of Health and Human Services, appeared at breakfast voter forums Friday before the Nor’wester Rotary Club and Tuesday before the Port Angeles Business Association.
Asked at the Tuesday meeting what distinguished each from her opponent, Riggs, 41, and Yacklin, 50, both of Port Angeles, cited their job experience.
Riggs, who grew up in Chimacum, said her 18 years in the Clallam County Auditor’s Office and six years in the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office made her “ready to take the next step in my career,” while Yacklin said her managerial acumen qualifies her to fill the position.
“Shoona’s had great experience but it’s been more narrow,” Yacklin said at the business association meeting, which included more than two dozen participants.
“What certainly sets me apart is my years of managing and the financial management as well,” said Yacklin, who has worked for 24 years for Clallam County and said she has been endorsed by former Clallam County Auditor Ken Foster.
As administrative coordinator for Health and Human Services, Yacklin is “responsible for the effective operation of [the] department including direct supervision of all administrative personnel” and is accountable to the director “for the efficient and effective performance of assigned personnel,” according to her job description.
The Auditor’s Office audits county expenditures, oversees the county elections division, processes vehicle and vessel licenses for the state Department of Licensing, issues business and marriage licenses, records real property documents such as deeds and land transfers, records community property agreements and processes passports.
The agency also is responsible for submitting for approval by county commissioners a general fund budget that in 2014 is $1.2 million and that covers 12.38 full-time-equivalent positions.
Riggs said she has been “cross-trained and cross-trained and cross-trained,” knows how the Auditor’s Office operates and can fill in when needed in a wide array of positions.
“Kim, not working in the Auditor’s Office, she will not be able to do that for a long time,” Riggs said.
Riggs, who worked in the office’s licensing division for 10 years and has been elections supervisor for eight years, said she manages two full-time employees year-round and between eight and 10 part-timers during elections and, as chief deputy auditor, fills in for Rosand in Rosand’s absence.
“On Jan. 2 [after getting elected], I will be able to walk right in there, and it will be another day for me.”
Yacklin, who grew up in Tumwater and has lived in Clallam County for 28 years, disagreed.
“As a department head and auditor, you’re not paid to back up line staff,” she said. “You can if it’s urgent and you need to. I can learn those tasks if I need to.
“Your job is to manage the resources to ensure the staff is cross-trained.”
Riggs said there is no way around filling in for employees and working the Auditor’s Office’s front counter.
“If Patty is not working at that counter, we feel it,” she said.
“She does not just come in and go to monthly meetings and sit in the office.”
At the Nor’wester Rotary Club meeting, attended by about two dozen participants, Riggs and Yacklin discussed customer wait-times at the Auditor’s Office licensing division, which, according to Rosand, by itself has more contact with the public than any other county agency.
“That’s one of the complaints I heard is long lines at the Auditor’s Office,” Yacklin said.
“We need to be able to look at the resources and look at the high times of when people are there.”
Riggs said processing times have increased over the years since license applicants have to be asked more questions.
A subagent could be contracted to process licenses in Port Angeles in an office separate from the courthouse, as is the case in Sequim, she added.
The candidates also were asked at the Rotary breakfast what their top priorities would be.
Riggs’ would be producing a Clallam County voter guide.
Yacklin’s would be getting car-dealership owners who are currently upset with uncertainty over license processing to have the Auditor’s Office again process their licenses.
“That money should be coming to Clallam County, and I think we can do that with good relationships with them,” she said.
The auditor’s salary will be $70,590 in 2015 if county commissioners do not reduce the pay of seven elected officials for 2015, including the auditor, to $42,106, as has been proposed by county Commissioner Jim McEntire.
Riggs and Yacklin were asked for their opinions about McEntire’s plan.
“Elected officials already make less than department heads,” Yacklin said, adding that the timing of the proposal late in the election season “was a little disruptive to some people,” referring to candidates.
Riggs was not overly concerned, she said.
“Whether or not [the] salary goes down and I have to take a second or third job, it’s not at the forefront.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
