Four candidates for commissioner seat
When Jim DeTro first ran for Okanogan County commissioner in 2010, it was in response to a steady drumbeat of discontent about payments for a sewer system on Lake Osoyoos and the purchase of land for a trailhead near Oroville.
“People kept asking me to run — they didn’t like the leadership” that they believed had caused these problems, DeTro said as he looked back on his three terms representing District 3 on the county commission. “People were up in arms,” he said.
DeTro is proud that, by working with state legislators and county officials, he found solutions that protect the county and its taxpayers. Instead of borrowing from one account to cover the cost of sewer connections, DeTro and the legislators used infrastructure funding and refinanced the bond on the sewer system, he said. They also set aside payments in a rainy-day fund.
“It was a big accomplishment to figure it out and get it done — to be financially responsible without penalizing people,” DeTro said.
In the process, DeTro learned that the county didn’t have a bond rating. The county applied and got an AA rating, which enabled it to refinance all outstanding bonds, saving almost $400,000, he said.
When the county bought land for the Whistler Canyon trailhead, the county ended up owning an adjacent orchard that it didn’t need. DeTro said he helped redo the parcel boundaries so the county could sell the orchard.
One of DeTro’s proudest accomplishments has been serving on the state’s Wildland Fire Advisory Committee, formed in 2015. “It was one of the better committees in my entire tenure,” he said. “We got an awful lot accomplished.”
DeTro credits Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz for taking the time to meet with the committee to learn about wildfire. That understanding led to having rotors and engine tankers stationed at the Omak airport for rapid wildfire response. “We’re back to old-style initial attack,” DeTro said.
He’s proud of the way the community came together to achieve this, with help from Franz. “She’s a doer,” he said.
“I’m not an office person,” DeTro said. So, instead of sitting in his office in the county courthouse, he made it clear to constituents that they could call him any time, which sometimes meant calls at 2 in the morning. “It was very fruitful,” he said.
Elected officials get insights into what they can and can’t accomplish once they’re on the inside of county government. DeTro didn’t find many surprises, but there were a lot of difficult situations. “Every day’s a challenge,” he said.
DeTro, who was born in Omak and raised in Riverside, has seen a lot of changes. “I liked Okanogan County a lot more when there were more cows than people,” he said.
DeTro is retiring only from county government. He’ll continue to run his business buying and selling heavy machinery, as he’s done for four decades. He hopes to do more traveling, but his wife, who owns a beauty salon, is dedicated to her long-standing clientele and can’t bring herself to retire, he said.
Four candidates — Kari Alexander, Lloyd Caton, Aaron Kester and Jon Neal — are vying to replace DeTro as District 3 commissioner.
Charleen Groomes
When Okanogan County Clerk Charleen Groomes retires at the end of the year, she’ll not only leave the clerkship, but will relinquish her status as the longest continuously serving employee in Okanogan County government.
Groomes started with the county on Feb. 4, 1980, working wherever the county needed help — from roads to the assessor’s office to maps and the commissioners’ office — before her first stint in the clerk’s office. Then she spent 20 years managing vehicle licensing before the former clerk retired and she ran for the job 12 years ago.
Groomes is retiring after her third four-year term as clerk, where she oversaw the all the legal documents filed in Superior Court, from felonies to juvenile delinquency to paternity cases and adoptions — nine case types in all.
County clerks are charged with protecting the integrity of records and responsible for maintaining all the original records for each case — and they must have a system that allows them to find everything. They also need to follow strict laws about confidentiality, particularly for adoption and paternity cases.
Groomes has seen many changes in the way the county does business. She helped oversee the transition to a paperless system, but even that system combines electronically filed documents and paper documents that staff in the clerk’s office have to scan and preserve for at least a year.
Having worked continuously since she was 14 — including juggling two jobs, seven days a week, as a single parent — Groomes expects retirement to be an adjustment. “I always have to be busy,” she said. She expects to volunteer — some organizations have already reached out, hoping to draw on her legal background — but she’s carving out time to do projects around the house first.
With 19 grandchildren between Groomes and her partner, all but six in the area, Groomes expects to spend a lot of time at sporting events and as a “fill-in” — but not full-time — babysitter.
“I will miss seeing everyone and interacting with the public in a professional manner, but it is time to de-stress and enjoy life,” Groomes said.
The county’s chief deputy clerk, Susan Speiker, is running unopposed for county clerk.
