Veteran officials try for county clerk job

Two people who want to be the next elected Snohomish County clerk boast plenty of government experience.

It will be up to the voters to decide what kind of experience they want in a key office dealing with law and justice.

Sonya Kraski, 42, a veteran of the clerk’s office, worked her way up from file clerk to a management position there.

“I have 22 years of experience with the court system,” Kraski said. “I understand the inner workings of the court.”

Her opponent, Bob Dantini, also has government experience, including 12 years as the elected county treasurer and another dozen years as the Snohomish County performance auditor.

“I’m a known commodity,” Dantini said. “People are familiar with what I can do and what I would accomplish.”

A nonpartisan job, the clerk is charged with overseeing the Superior Court’s records. The office is the hub agency connecting lawyers and the public to the justice system. The office also manages juries and collects court-ordered fines and restitution.

The county clerk oversees nearly 90 employees and a budget of about $6.7 million.

Twelve-year clerk Pam Daniels will be forced out of a job at the end of the year by term limits under the county charter.

Dantini faces the same term-limit fate as county treasurer. He has served a maximum 12 years and can’t run for a fourth four-year term. So he wants to move across the county campus to the courthouse and into the clerk’s job.

The Nov. 6 general election features the top two finishers in a three-person race that started in the August primary.

Kraski led the field, garnering more than 40 percent of the vote. Dantini was close behind with a little more than 37 percent of the ballots. Kraski finished 2,787 votes in front.

Ron Ledford, the chief deputy clerk, was eliminated in the primary.

Both candidates in the general election say that solving a sticky labor problem in the office is a top priority.

The deputy clerks dropped out of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and formed their own association nearly three years ago. Since then, the clerks have not been able to negotiate a contract with the county executive.

In August, the clerks won a big victory when an examiner from the Public Employment Relations Commission ruled that the executive’s office “delayed, frustrated and avoided” coming to an agreement with the clerks.

Executive Aaron Reardon appealed that decision, leaving the clerks still waiting for a resolution.

The clerks are left with wages frozen at the 2004 level while other county workers have received cost-of-living pay increases. The clerks also fork over higher medical premiums than other county workers.

The longer the labor situation continues, the more it will affect the operation of the office, Kraski said.

“We need to attract well-trained and qualified employees,” she said, and the labor problem has hurt that effort. She said she would work with the executive and county council to “one way or another move this thing forward.”

Dantini said his good relationship with the council and executive would help him in a push to resolve the labor stalemate. He added that he has a good relationship with organized labor, and that also should help.

The candidates are relying to a great degree on their endorsements.

Dantini, for example, has been endorsed by a host of state legislators, Reardon and several former county council members. Although it’s a nonpartisan race, he’s also gotten the nod of county Democrats.

Kraski said she’s proud of the endorsement list she’s assembled, including numerous attorneys, law firms, labor unions, fire departments and county deputy sheriffs.

Also, she lists about 40 current and former clerks, Daniels and eight former Superior Court judges.

Dantini, who already has a lot of name familiarity, has raised less than $12,000 for the campaign, according to state Public Disclosure Commission records. Kraski has nearly $40,000.

Kraski has experience in nearly every aspect of the office, and that would make her the better clerk, she said.

“I’ve risen from the ranks and I have a different type of relationship with the staff,” Kraski said.

Although he doesn’t have hands-on experience with the operation of the clerk’s office, Dantini said his leadership style would be to make sure he had good people in the office.

“A part of that is gaining the trust and confidence of the people working for you,” Dantini said. “After that, you set the goals and get out of the way and let them work.”

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