MEETING RECAP
Public Service Above Self
By Paula T. OlsonSunday, June 11, 2023
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Public Service Above Self
Paula T. Olson
THE LAKEWOOD KEY
The length and volume of the Aloha horn is testament to the improvement of President Jason Whalen’s lungs as he called to order his third to last meeting. Alas, he was not sporting a Hawaiian shirt, using the change in weather below 75 degrees as his excuse. Shiru Osundwa shared a thoughtful invocation and Andrew Neiditz led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Making the meeting happen included Tom George, James Osundwa, Rob Erb, and Wynn Hoffman. Chuck Hellar was the Sergeant at Arms and staffed the $2.00 table, Leon Titus was at the Foundation Desk, Phil Eng tried using a camera with no batteries, but served ably as the photographer. Yours truly, Paula Olson, was pressed into double duty as the recorder of the fines and the bulletin writer. She was promised double pay.
Visiting Rotarians included Julie Anderson and Jim Merritt. Many guests were in attendance: Jenny Weinand, Jessica (LNU) and Lisa Tucker, Aaron Frederickson with sons Nathan and Evan. A whopping five Puffins were present. No Health and Wellness report from Eric Warn.
Speaking of Eric Warn, he was caught in the member spotlight. Eric entertained us with stories of his college days when he was on the Dean’s List. No, folks, not the one with the good grades. The one where he was in the doghouse for such things as leading a bra and panty raid on the women’s dorm, keggers on the beach, and the off-campus Trini Lopez dances. He nonetheless graduated from college from San Diego State University and got into being both a fun raiser and a fundraiser. He was in the tuxedo business and after hearing many stories of great receptions, he decided to become a minister so he could partake of free food and fun with his wife. He has officiated over 500 weddings in his 14 years of being a minister. He does have a few standards: no weddings in p.j.s, or hot air balloons or Friday or Saturday nights in Seattle. His best advice to engaged couples – give each other unexpected gifts at unexpected times.
Barb Spriggs led off the announcements by reminding everyone that there are still spots open on the Kayak Poker Run on July 16th starting at 9:00 am at the public dock at American Lake. It’s $50 for the map, chance to win great prizes, and a lunch at the end. She was fined $20 for making an announcement over 30 seconds long. And so the fining began.
Mark Edgecomb kicked in $20 for bringing the rain back from his trip to Maine. He also outed Paula Olson who was hunched over taking notes and hoping no one noticed it was her real birthday. Mark helped everyone wish her a great one. Lips are sealed on how many it was. Angela Connelly bragged about her son Luke who graduated from Bellarmine with a 4.0 GPA and received the 100% Student award. He started walking the Camino in Spain. She gave $100. Wynn Hoffman outed David Swindale on zoom. David just returned from the Rotary International Conference in Melbourne, Australia with 5,000 plus other Rotarians. He reported that it was wonderful but came back with a nice case of COVID. He paid $100.
Steve Mazoff told us that Rachel Mazoff’s daughter (Steve’s granddaughter if you were having trouble figuring that out) got engaged in Barcelona to a nice young man from the Pellegrino family (but not the water family). Troy Wilcox paid $100 because his son graduated from Linfield University with an accounting degree. Rob Erb hosted five Rotarians Running in his Yard but noted that Rick Selden needed to learn how to tell a tree root from an irrigation control line. Ouch!
Rounding out the last donors was Carl Bronkema proud of Veronica and son finishing a triathlon for which he paid $20. Tyler Parker announced that he is giving away stuff that doesn’t sell from his estate sales and donating part of sale proceeds to Rotary. His sale last week earned $200 for the club. Andrew Neiditz’ guilty conscience got the better of him and he paid $100 as penance for all of the missed meetings. Then he tried to make excuses like he was in Mountlake Terrace as the interim City Manager for five or so months. But his sad news of wife Marie’s cancer diagnosis helped us have better understanding. We wish her the best in her treatment and recovery. Bud Montgomery paid $20 for having fun in Arizona for the past six months. Whew, Pres. Jason, that was quite a haul!
THE PROGRAM
Andrew Neiditz introduced our speaker, Brian Sonntag, our retired State Auditor. Andrew told us that Brian is a local boy raised in the Tacoma area. At the young age of 26, he was elected Pierce County Clerk and then in 1981 when the county voters adopted the Home Rule Charter, his position was changed to a department head, as the Pierce County Superior Court Clerk. He was elected Pierce County Auditor in 1986, and thereafter became Washington State Auditor where he served five four-year terms. His last election earned him over 70% of the vote.
Brian started his presentation by reminiscing about his start in government in 1972 as a Pierce County Clerk’s office exhibit clerk, fetching files for lawyers. He looked out at the membership of Lakewood Rotary and recognized many old friends, such as Julie Anderson, the best County Auditor next to his dad, Angela Connelly who is rehabbing the Highland Hills Golf Course and Scott Buser. Scott got Brian interested in serving as an umpire because Scott was such a great umpire, calm and dignified even under the worst pressure. So Brian went to umpire school and after working a few games had a new appreciation for the abuse taken by umpires.
Brian then talked about events that happened during his 40 plus years of public service and what being a state auditor was all about. Two weeks after he was elected as Pierce County Clerk, he was watching television and saw the Pierce County Sheriff led away in handcuffs. He wondered how that would affect his job. Then a few other people in government got arrested, like an embezzling city treasurer, and Brian started worrying about if he was next somehow.
After about six years as Pierce County Clerk, then Governor Booth Gardner changed the voting system. Then there were long wait lines to renew driver's licenses because of the slow system. After numerous complaints, a new system was implemented but it didn’t work well and the lines got even longer. Everyone assumed it was Brian’s fault but he was just as frustrated over the archaic equipment his staff had to work with, like manual typewriters. Governor Gardner paid Brian a visit to see what was going on. When Booth left the office, Brian came out, patted him on the back and loudly thanked him for the new system. Amazingly, changes started happening and the bugs got fixed within a week or two!
Generally, the State Auditor is responsible to the People of Washington, not the Legislature. It is an independent office to act as a check on other offices for performance and financial compliance. The office is a creature of the State Constitution and oversees 2,500 local governments and numerous state agencies. Some examples of the audits that he was a part of involved the state Department of Transportation. There were countless complaints about the traffic and congestion on the highways. Nothing was being done to improve things. At a meeting of the legislative Transportation Committee, a Senate leader asked Brian what he was doing there. Brian replied that the people wanted him to look into what was being done to improve traffic conditions. Ironically, a State DOT official apologetically showed up late and said the awful traffic had held her up!
A juicier story involved the Port of Seattle and a third runway. About 100 tons of dirt had to be moved and an invitation for bids went out for the work. Some bids were pretty high and certain port officials visited bidder friends and assured the bidders that if they lowered their bid, they would be awarded the contract. Then they could do change orders and get more money. And so a $10 million budget for that work turned into a $120 million budget without any oversight. When Brian’s staff finished their work, many people lost their jobs at the Port of Seattle and money for their mismanagement.
Brian implemented risk-based auditing by looking at the risk areas, such as contract compliance, purchasing and other areas where the people’s tax money could be at risk. Brian commented that he didn’t know how the Auditor’s Office could be independently funded, maybe through the initiative process. But Brian observed that people can relate to funding the fire department but not a nebulous office like the auditor.
Greg Horn commented that Brian spoke to the club about 12 years ago and he thought of Brian as one of the top 10 speakers we’ve had. He was interested in Brian’s different perspective after 10 years of retirement. Brian has served since retiring as the interim Director of the Tacoma Rescue Mission, making it more sustainable. Others said that Brian was a great example of service above self, including Julie Anderson. Thank you, Brian, for your many years of public service. You served us so well.
Ron Irwin won the raffle which held a massive $1,200, but no luck. He drew the white chip for $5. There’s always next week, folks.
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