Pam Daniels* - Snohomish County Clerk
Age: 57
Residence: Edmonds
Occupation: County clerk
Education: Fellowship graduate, Institute for Court Management of the National Center for State Courts; 29 years in legal profession
Community/political experience: Eight years, Snohomish County clerk; director of legislation, Washington State Association of County Clerks; Snohomish County Law and Justice Cabinet; Cocoon House board member; Everett Rotary; Washington State Federation of Business & Professional Women; Methamphetamine Action Team; Youth Courts; founder, Edmonds Parent Co-op Education Program, YWCA
Campaign Web site: pamdaniels.net
Questions:
1. How will you address your top three priorities for the position?
1. Seek methods to improve our customer-service surveyed satisfaction rate from 97 to 100 percent. 2. Implement processes that permit access to court-case information while protecting individual privacy. 3. Doing more with less; meeting legislative mandates and increasing workloads without additional resources. These issues will be dealt with by utilizing technology to work more efficiently, more effectively and more economically.
2. What service/staff member/capital project would you most want to add to the department you'd head?
Any additional resources provided to the clerk's office would be used to: expand collection of court-ordered monies owed to victims of crime and to the county for costs incurred; expand support to the victims of domestic violence; and assist people who can't afford an attorney when dealing with civil legal issues (e.g., family law, guardianship, landlord-tenant, probate).
3. The majority of the budget goes to criminal-justice expenditures. Should they be scaled back or other services cut instead?
All county services need to be continually examined to ensure they are highly effective. While public safety is very important to everyone, other services should not be reduced until all alternatives (e.g., use of technology and streamlining processes) are reviewed/implemented.