This is part of a series of Q&As with candidates for local office in the Nov. 4 general election. This Q&A: Gerald Chaney and Dave Peterson, candidates for Kitsap County clerk.
The Kitsap County Clerk is the official record keeper for the Superior Court. The county clerk is paid $112,211 a year and receives the same benefits provided to other county employees.
GARY CHANEY
Residence: Bremerton
Occupation: Real estate broker with John L. Scott Silverdale
Education: BA in education from St. Leo College
Relevant experience: Broker associate at John L. Scott Real Estate; rental property owner/property manager; licensed building contractor; drug store management; biology, physical education, and geography teacher; baseball and football coach.
Q: What are the top issues in this campaign?
Chaney: The position I seek is Kitsap County clerk. Although this is not a political position, it does have top issues. These issues are:
— Customer Service, both to the court and to the public.
— Efficiency.
— Cost cutting without sacrificing quality.
Q: What are your priorities if elected?
Chaney: My priority once elected will be to create a truly healthy work environment where all associates strive to provide service above and beyond the expected.
Q: How would you accomplish those priorities?
Chaney: I am a businessman and have spent most of my life working in the private sector. I thoroughly enjoy working with my associates to bring out their best qualities. Once elected, I will use my management experience to work with each and every associate. My management philosophy is to treat people with honor, dignity, and respect, and use positive reinforcement to bring out the best in everyone.
Q: Regarding bipartisanship: Provide some examples of how you’ve worked cooperatively with someone of another political party to reach consensus or accomplish a goal.
Chaney: As I have stated, the position I seek is not a political position. Nonetheless, I have supporters from both sides of the political spectrum.
Regardless of a person’s political alignment, excellent customer service, efficiency, and governmental cost-cutting are universal ideals.
Q: What experience do you have that makes you most qualified for the position you seek?
Chaney: I understand that the current Clerk’s Office feels that they are doing a great job and no improvement is needed. Based on the number of first- and second-hand complaints I have received, I beg to differ.
The private-sector managerial experience that I will bring to the office, once elected, will give the office staff the guidance needed to make the office truly exceptional. I also have years of experience working in the drug store business, with a multi-million dollar inventory and budget.
I feel that elected officials who have no private-sector business experience do not understand the importance of careful budgeting. The money that government offices spend comes from the people. I am the candidate who has the ability to be the best steward of the people’s trust and money.
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DAVE PETERSON
Residence: Bremerton
Occupation: Kitsap County Clerk
Education: Graduated South Kitsap High School, 1961; BA, political science, University of Washington, 1965; master’s degree, teaching, Whittier College, 1968; K-12 library certification, University of Puget Sound; secondary administrative credential, Central Washington University; certified public official, Washington Association of County Officials.
Relevant experience: 13 years as incumbent county clerk; 35 years administrative, budgetary, and personnel experience in large and small offices; administrator in Central Kitsap School District; served community on boards of Kitsap Legal Services, Dispute Resolution Center of Kitsap County, United Way, Kitsap Regional Library Foundation, Central Kitsap Community Council, Special Assault Investigations and Victim’s Services (SAIVS), and the Kitsap County Historical Society.
Q: What are the top issues in this campaign?
Peterson: The top issue is which of the candidates has the better experience, knowledge, and service-oriented demeanor to do the job of county clerk. My opponent has never been to the Clerk’s Office to find out what we do and has shown little knowledge of the job. At a Kitsap County Bar Association lunch debate before attorneys and judges, my opponent claimed it is time for a change but had no specific criticism about the job I was doing, nor any ideas about what he would do differently if he were elected. He seems to be running merely because the Republican Party paid his filing fee.
Nothing we do in the Clerk’s Office is of a partisan nature. We are a neutral party that follows the laws and serves the public, the court, and the law and justice community. Politics has no place in the Clerk’s Office and will have none as long as I am your county clerk.
Q: What are your priorities if elected?
Peterson: I will continue my commitment to provide excellent customer service and better access to justice for all those needing our services. Continue the work I started to fund and establish a paperless Superior Court where judges can access electronically all court files and additional resources needed while on the bench, in chambers, or over the Internet. And I will work with the State Courts to provide e-filing of court documents once the new Superior Court Case Management System is implemented.
Q: How would you accomplish those priorities?
Peterson: Customer Service and Access to Justice — Most people who come to my office are not represented by attorneys, are facing emotional challenges, and have little idea of how to proceed through the mysteries of the court system. While we cannot give legal advice, it is important we assist those in need with process and procedure. I serve as chair of a statewide committee seeking legislation to allow clerks to provide assistance to citizens needing help with guardianship issues like we do now for those needing family law assistance.
A paperless Superior Court — Final implementation of aiSmartBench software will allow judicial access to electronic court documents that exceeds the convenience of paper court files.
E-Filing of court documents — Transition to the new state-funded case management and document management systems will allow development of e-filing for our customers.
Q: Regarding bipartisanship: Provide some examples of how you’ve worked cooperatively with someone of another political party to reach consensus or accomplish a goal.
Peterson: Our State Constitution requires offices like Clerk, Assessor, Coroner, Treasurer, and Sheriff to be partisan offices, but everything we do is non-partisan. We serve all and never think twice as to whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican. We all work cooperatively to do our best to make sure the public is safe, laws followed, and people needing access to justice accommodated. Just after I took office, I gave some of my clerk’s budget to the Republican coroner to help him hire a needed employee when he did not enough funds in his own budget.
I served several decades with both Republicans and Democrats on Central Kitsap school levy and bond committees where we worked cooperatively for better schools. The same with my time on the boards of United Way, Dispute Resolution Center, and SAIVS. I work closely with the other 38 clerks across the state and no one asks or even cares which party they belong to. We are about service, not politics.
Q: What experience do you have that makes you most qualified for the position you seek?
Peterson: I have 13 years of experience as your incumbent County Clerk where under my leadership we have:
— Established a culture of excellent customer service recognized as one of the best in the state.
— Set up an in-house Public Defender Office saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually instead of completely contracting out attorney services.
— Took over collections of legal financial obligations from the Department of Corrections in 2003 and increased money returned to the state, county, and victims of crime by over 50 percent.
— Provided electronic access to court records through ClerkePass and/or CORA subscription by attorneys, news media, and public agencies (no cost) eliminating trips to the courthouse.
— Offered passport services Monday through Friday without need for an appointment.
— Began offering passport photos as a service to the public and revenue to the county to help run my office.
— Increased the size of the courthouse facilitator program office and staff to better serve those without attorneys with family law matters.
I moved to Kitsap County in 1958 and know the county and people who live and work here. I have a long record of community involvement and service. I have 35 years’ administrative, budgetary, and personnel experience in differing offices and have been a teacher, librarian, and district administrator in the CK School District.
