Departing assessor says heir 'very capable'

EVERETT — Gail Rauch was a new teacher looking for her first job in the early 1970s when she accepted a low-level position in the Assessor's Office.

She never did get that teaching job.

Instead, she worked in the Assessor's Office for the next 32 years, working her way through the ranks and leading the office for the past 12 years.

Rauch, 56, is retiring at the end of the year because of term limits.

She will pass the reins to her chief deputy, Cindy Portmann, of whom Rauch said, "Some people call us clones of each other; we think alike."

The two have similar backgrounds and birthdays just four days apart.

"It's easier to leave office knowing that there's someone very capable," Rauch said.

After serving as chief deputy under Rauch for nearly a decade, Assessor-elect Portmann said she will miss Rauch's self-deprecating humor and collaborative style.

"It will be very, very sad to see her go," she said.

Rauch led the office into the Internet age — when she was elected in 1991, she said, the office had just one personal computer. Now residents can look up their property taxes online and pull up a map showing where specific properties are.

Despite the technological advancements, Rauch said she is not particularly technologically savvy. She "barely makes it" on her own computer and doesn't have the latest "toys."

"You just roll with the punches and do what you can do," she said.

Rauch said she ended up using some of those teaching skills as a manager in the office and in helping the public understand their property taxes.

Those who worked with Rauch said they have appreciated her openness and lighthearted approach.

"Gail is everything you hope a public servant, elected official would be," said Roger Neumaier, the budget analyst in Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel's office. "She's honest; she's straightforward; she has a sense of humor; she cares about doing things better."

When faced with a difficult task, Neumaier said, Rauch showed leadership and got the job done but also saw humor in the situations.

"It sort of indicated it was being done with a positive attitude," he said.

Portmann remembered how Rauch has in years past made a joke of coming to work in costume on Halloween — sometimes so well-disguised, such as the year she dressed as a clown, her employees didn't recognize her.

Rauch won three races for assessor, once unopposed. She faced criticism at times for not making the Assessor's Office as accessible as it should have been, and in the 1995 campaign, she was assailed for putting out an informational flier about a tax break for seniors close to the election. The Snohomish County Republican Party chairman said the flier was a thinly disguised campaign piece. Rauch won re-election despite the controversy.

Rauch won't miss the daily traffic between Everett and her home in Marysville, she said, but it will be weird not to report to the county administration building every day.

"It's been a part of my life," she said. "It's a strange feeling. I have mixed emotions."

Emily Heffter: 425-783-0624 or eheffter@seattletimes.com