The Coroner's office handles public money.
When most people think of financial oversight in county government, they picture the Auditor or the Treasurer. But every elected office manages a budget — staff, equipment, contracts, training — and every dollar comes from the taxpayers of Skagit County. The Coroner's office is no exception.
Transparency is not a policy preference. It is a promise.
I have spent my career in environments where precision and honesty were not optional. At the West Wing and at NIWC Pacific, the stakes of getting it wrong — financially, operationally, ethically — were real. That discipline does not leave you when you step into local office. It follows you in.
If I am elected Coroner, Skagit residents will be able to see how this office spends its budget. Not after a records request. Not buried in an annual report. Clearly, regularly, and in plain language.
Accountability belongs to every office, not just the ones people are watching.
County government works best when every office — not just the high-profile ones — holds itself to the same standard. The Coroner interacts with families on the hardest day of their lives. Those families deserve to know the office they are trusting runs with integrity from top to bottom: in its investigations, in its communications, and in how it manages the public's resources.
Accountability is not a campaign slogan. It is a daily discipline. And it starts before anyone is watching.
Truth. Transparency. Trust. These are not just words on a yard sign. They are the operating standard I am committing to — for every family, every case, and every dollar this office touches.