EVERETT — John Lovick began his tenure as Snohomish County executive last year with an outpouring of good will.
Picked by Democrats after the previous executive resigned, the former sheriff brought about immediate improvements in government transparency and employee morale. In March, Lovick’s administration led the response to the Oso mudslide, the worst natural disaster in the county’s history.
The enthusiasm that buoyed Lovick during those extraordinary events hasn’t always translated into support for his day-to-day management.
A Republican challenger, Sultan Mayor Carolyn Eslick, is trying to capitalize on political discontent as she and Lovick compete Nov. 4 for a special one-year term in office.
“I’m proud of the work that I do and I’m proud of the work of this community,” Lovick said Thursday, sounding characteristically upbeat. “We shouldn’t have to apologize for having good government in this county.”
On campaign stops, Lovick says he’s honored and humbled to serve as executive. He describes a three-point vision: safe schools, good roads and “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Eslick accuses Lovick of avoiding tough questions about his leadership.
“John’s a really nice man, he really is,” she said. “All he says is ‘How honored and humbled I am’ ” to be executive.
She’s made an issue of pay raises Lovick’s administration awarded top managers, plans for a new $162 million courthouse and his oversight of the county jail when he was sheriff.
Eslick likely faces long odds, given a nearly six-to-one fundraising disadvantage and elected experience that’s limited to helping run a city of about 4,600 people. County voters also have never elected a Republican executive.
In the Aug. 5 primary, 46.4 percent of voters supported Lovick and 39.8 percent backed Eslick. Another Democrat, attorney James Robert Deal, of Lynnwood, received 13.1 percent of the vote.
Lovick was appointed in June 2013, days after the departure of Aaron Reardon, who left following years of successive scandals. Reardon’s resignation came after The Daily Herald linked his staff to anonymous attacks on his political rivals via public records requests and social media.
The resignation came less than halfway through Reardon’s third term, setting up the appointment and the special election.
Lovick brought a resume long on public safety and public service. Raised in rural Louisiana, he arrived in Washington state as a young man in the Coast Guard. He went on to enjoy a 31-year career as a Washington state trooper.
Lovick served five years on the Mill Creek City Council, nine years in the Legislature and more than five years as county sheriff.
In his first days as executive, Lovick’s leadership style contrasted with Reardon’s aloofness. He walked the floors of county government buildings, shaking hands with front-line staff. Some of the county’s other elected leaders got their first look inside the executive’s sixth-floor offices — an opportunity they’d never had during nearly 10 years of Reardon’s secretive administration.
For his second-in- command, Lovick convinced Mark Ericks to leave his job as the U.S. Marshal for Western Washington, a presidential appointment. Ericks’ background included experience as a police chief, an assistant city manager, a homicide detective and an elected state representative.
Lovick said he’s proud of progress his administration has made to include more women and minorities in management.
The new leader didn’t make a complete break with Reardon’s administration. He kept many of the former executive’s top managers on the payroll, at least initially. Two members of Reardon’s inner circle were allowed to take $96,000-a-year jobs in the Public Works Department.
Eslick’s campaign has emphasized her experience running and starting up small businesses. Raised in Troutdale, Oregon, she moved to Portland as an adult and worked in logistics for a trucking company. In 1981, she moved to Sultan and operated the Dutch Cup restaurant until selling the business in 2002. She helped start the local chamber of commerce and now runs a nonprofit to help local businesses.
She has served as Sultan’s mayor since 2008 and was on the City Council from 1995 to 2001.
Eslick has run an issue-oriented campaign. At almost every opportunity, she’s brought up the 10 percent raises Lovick awarded some top managers, many of them already among the county’s highest-paid employees. Two were new hires from Seattle and Edmonds city government.
The issue goes beyond the selective outrage of election season. Three County Council members, including two Democrats, sent the executive a letter last month questioning the legality of the pay hikes under county code, because they were granted without the council’s approval.
Lovick defends the move.
“We did exactly what every county executive has done for the past 20 years,” he said. “If you’re going to attract those quality people, you’re going to have to offer them a competitive salary.”
Eslick also disagrees with plans to build a $162 million courthouse across the street and a block east of the current 1960s court building.
Though mostly contained on a county-owned parking lot, the new building’s footprint on Wall Street between Rockefeller and Oakes avenues would displace six landowners, including three law practices.
Eslick wants the county to consider scrapping designs for the new building and returning to $75 million plan to remodel the old courthouse and add a new wing.
“I just think the timing is bad,” she said. “We’re just coming out of the recession.”
Lovick stands by the future courthouse’s size and location, which the County Council voted on last year.
“That was the right decision, as difficult as it was, it was the right decision to make,” he said.
Architects told his staff that renovating the old building “would be throwing good money after bad,” he said.
On a different front, Eslick believes her opponent shares management responsibility for a string of inmate deaths at the Snohomish County Jail. Since 2010, at least 13 detainees have died there, the most recent a hanging death last month. A federal expert on jail deaths recently said that number is not unusual for a county lockup of similar size.
“The county jail is not under the county executive’s jurisdiction, but the budget is,” Eslick said.
Lovick noted his decision, while sheriff, to call in the National Institute of Corrections to make recommendations to better manage the facility. He said he’s working with Sheriff Ty Trenary to find ways to treat mentally ill offenders and reduce risk.
With less than a month before the general election, Lovick’s campaign has a huge cash advantage: $118,000 with about half of it spent. Eslick reported raising nearly $20,000 and spending about $5,800.
“My question comes down to, regardless of what my opponent has said, it’s going to be hard to convince a voter why John Lovick should be replaced as county executive,” he said.
Eslick is trying to make her case.
“It’s truly an uphill battle and that’s why it’s important that I’m out here speaking and door-belling and doing all of the things that candidates do,” she said.
Both candidates say they intend to run for the full four-year term in 2015.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
Meet the candidates
About the job: As Snohomish County’s top administrator, the executive is elected to oversee a bureaucracy with more than 2,700 employees and an annual operating budget of more than $200 million. Pay for next year is $161,114. The Nov. 4 election will determine who fills out the unexpired final year of a term. Another election for the full four-year term is scheduled in 2015.
John Lovick (incumbent, appointed)
Party: Democrat
Age: 63
Experience: Executive, 2013 to present; county sheriff, 2008 to 2013; state Legislature for nine years; Mill Creek City Council for five years; retired Washington state trooper; U.S. Coast Guard
Website: www.electjohnlovick.com
Carolyn Eslick
Party: Republican
Age: 64
Experience: Sultan mayor, 2008 to present; Sultan council member, 1995 to 2001; owner of the Dutch Cup restaurant, 1981 to 2001; local chamber of commerce co-founder; founder and director of GROW Washington, a nonprofit
Website: www.eslick4exec.com
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