Both Assessor Candidates Cite Experience For Office One Has Run Office For 6 Years; One Worked In Real Estate, Law

Sadie Charlene Cooney is glowing. A new state auditor’s report applauds the Spokane County Assessor’s Office for dramatic improvements since 1994.

It’s taken her six years, but Cooney says she has overcome antiquated systems and a backlog of unappraised property.

“You know, I am very pleased where we are, we’ve come a long way,” said Cooney.

But not far enough, according to her Republican opponent, Randy Brandt, a political newcomer challenging Cooney in the Nov. 3 election.

Brandt said the assessor’s office needs new direction.

“I’m offering a concise management team and a change from the inefficient structure in which the office has been managed under the incumbent’s administration,” he said.

“I think the fact that the department was 3,000 segregations in arrears showed that something was seriously wrong,” he said. “It deprives all the county taxpayers of tax income.”

When Cooney took over the office from George Britton in 1992, she assumed $400 million in newly developed properties that hadn’t been assessed. She struggled with budget and staff cuts during a surge in new construction.

Public sentiment turned against her when property taxes spiked because of changes in tax levels, reappraisals and increased house prices.

Eventually, county commissioners helped her dig out of the hole with a cavalry of temporary workers.

Cooney says her office is finally taking shape. A new computer system will go on-line next month, and the backlog of assessments has finally been cleared up.

“I’m on a mission,” said Cooney, who has worked in the assessor’s office for 35 years.

But there is discontent within Cooney’s office.

Richard Weber, one of the assessors in the office, recently sent letters criticizing Cooney to the Spokane and Valley chambers of commerce, Spokane Valley Bar Association and the Spokane Association of Realtors.

“She does not have an effective grasp on the comprehensive and interrelated operations of the office,” Weber said of Cooney. “She falls far short of being a good planner, a good problem-solver.”

This is the first campaign Cooney has run without the support of her husband, Joe Cooney, who died two years ago.

“You have to work hard, be committed and determined to get this job done,” Cooney said.

Brandt said hard work is fine, but his legal background and his experience in real estate will bring new expertise to the office.

“I clearly feel I have the advantage in experience, along with the management and technical ability,” he said. “I will apply the laws of the state to individual situations.”

Brandt’s campaign has angered some who link his name to a battle at McFadden’s Private Beach on Newman Lake that dragged on for years and divided the community.

Brandt represented lakefront landowners battling neighbors over beach access and several other legal problems. Brandt eventually sued his clients for money owed. They counter-sued, claiming malpractice. After almost two years, Brandt settled the case by paying $8,000 in February.

He said he thinks he would have been vindicated at trial, but decided it would be more prudent to settle the case and move on.

Brandt said he has considered running for the assessor job in the past, but the timing was never right.

Now he has closed his construction company, reduced the staff of his real estate business to one agent, and is phasing out his load of legal cases.

“I’ve watched what was going on in the assessor’s office for some time,” he said.

“There clearly needs to be something done to get it organized and running efficiently. It is the right time in my life to work in that office.”

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