Bill Donahue Stepping Down As County Auditor Democrat Leaving After 16 Years In Office; Contenders Step In Line

Spokane County will get a new auditor in January for the first time in 16 years.

After three decades with the county, Auditor Bill Donahue this week announced he will retire when his term expires at the end of the year.

“I passed the 30-year mark last Wednesday, so I’ve been mulling through my mind what I want to do now,” Donahue said.

Donahue said he will dedicate more time to his positions on many civic boards and his involvement in wheelchair sports.

His departure sets up a November election contest to replace him between two other auditors: a fellow Democrat employed by the county, and a Republican who works for United Parcel Service.

In addition, at least two other county employees may be considering a shot at the $59,000-a-year position.

The county auditor oversees the county’s finances, handles marriage licenses, property deeds and license tags, and runs elections.

Democrat Vicky Dalton, 37, who has served for almost a decade as the county’s internal auditor, said her government experience has prepared her for the job.

Republican Matt McCoy, 38, said his four years of financial management for UPS, and his collegiate experience studying state and local finances, give him a fresh perspective.

As the internal auditor, Dalton is one of the county’s chief financial watchdogs, responsible for evaluating the way departments handle money and recommending ways to improve accounting procedures.

“I may be a Democrat, but I’m a fiscal conservative,” she said. “I make Attila the Hun look like a liberal when it comes to handling money.”

Dalton also worked for six years as an auditor for private accounting firms in southern Idaho and Salt Lake City.

While in Salt Lake in the mid-1980s, her company contracted to do audits of spending within the federal Department of Labor. She saw millions of dollars being wasted legally, she said.

“The waste, the abuse that I saw, for me, was gut-wrenching,” she said.

She figured the only way to really help was to get into local government.

Dalton said she knows the job better than anyone, and is eager to make the county more fiscally responsible.

In his job, McCoy plays a role in UPS “operations audits.” He makes sure workers, programs and divisions of the shipping company are operating according to company policies.

“We even have appearance audits,” he said. “It’s no coincidence UPS is so successful.”

An ex-letter carrier with the Postal Service, McCoy also knows customer service - and “the auditor’s office runs a retail organization,” he said.

McCoy was raised in an environment surrounded by politics and money management.

His father was the finance manager for a central Washington fruit cooperative. His mother, Shirley McCoy, was, at one time, vice president of the state Republican Party in the 1970s.

McCoy said his experience would help him bring business sense to the public office.

“I’m very familiar with what an auditor does,” he said. “Someone who has had the array of experiences I have is different from someone who has worked within the confines of the courthouse most of their career.”