JoCo treasurer candidates explain what ‘counts’ to them
From our weekly issue dated October 22, 2008
John Harelson
John Harelson
A certified public accountant and self-professed “numbers guy,” John Harelson has made business accounting, banking and management his life’s work.
“It’s always been very understandable to me,” Harelson says, “I had no difficulty understanding the concepts of accounting and the work was enjoyable to me. I won’t say it is easy because that diminishes what it takes to be successful at it.”
Given his experience, the 65-year-old was first elected to run for county treasurer 12 years ago. The duties of tax collector, balancing some 57,000 accounts daily and turning monies received over to the treasury, also fall with the county treasurer’s office.
The treasurer, as the county’s banker, accumulates the money and redistributes it to 14 tax districts and the county itself, which receives around 8 percent of the total.
“The county is not our biggest customer, but it pays our salaries,” Harelson said. “It determines the level of customer service we have.
“We are working for all the districts and not just the county. As those accounts get paid down we have to track that every dollar we get is applied to the right place. We’re very missionary about doing that, it’s not something we take lightly,” he asserted.
“Certainly,” he stated, “it’s not something that amateurs can manage.”
Most of the money is promptly paid to the districts; weekly during the height of tax season; monthly through the rest of the year. But while in the treasury, it’s invested.
“We invest for safety and liquidity, and then return,” Harelson said. “We don’t go after return to the detriment of the safety of investments or liquidity and not being able to access the money.”
In addition to these duties, Harelson can often be seen in attendance at other county meetings, often providing background or input.
“I consider that the citizens of Josephine County have elected me -- just as they have elected the commissioners -- and when I should comment on something and I don’t, I’m not doing my job for the people who have elected me,” he said.
He describes Josephine County management and governing bodies as part of a “young organization.”
“There have been times in the past several years where another point of view was certainly needed,” he said. “The other elected officials have a responsibility to comment and do what they can to have a good government here. Most commissioners, since the time I’ve been in office, have appreciated having a knowledgeable person involved.”
Not directly involved with county politics before becoming treasurer, Harelson served on the boards of Josephine Community Hospital, Community Development Corp. of Josephine County, and was elected to serve six years on the board of Rogue Community College.
Though not politically minded, he says he’s “public-service minded.”
“In my best days,” said Harelson, “that’s how I hold this job, as a public service job that I get paid for. If I keep that emphasis in my head,” he said, “the job goes much better.”
~Michelle Binker
Dale Matthews
Dale Matthews
Candidate for county treasurer Dale Matthews has stated to commissioners that he doesn’t believe the county’s financial worries are its number-one problem.
“The biggest problem,” Matthews said, “is that people don’t trust that we’re doing the right thing with the money.” If elected, his answer is to shine the bright light of scrutiny, roll cameras during every county meeting, and involve the public in the process of determining appropriate investments for public money.
“And once they’ve said what they like and they see us doing it,” Matthews said, “I think that will go a long way to restoring some trust in (the county). We’ll have wonderful forests and we’ll have wonderful rivers and a government that you can sort of believe in. Can I have a better task that that?”
Matthews’ own distrust of county government developed since he tried to investigate an episode from 2006, wherein the county spent some $11,000 from the Public, Education & Government (PEG) account for video equipment. Concerned persons like Matthews and commissioner candidate Sandy Cassanelli contend that the equipment purchased at near-new prices was found old and unserviceable.
Even the Citizens Financial Review Committee (CFRC), commissioned by the board to investigate the county’s departments and expenditures, reported that it found that the issue warranted an investigation by the state police for fraud.
“We don’t just suspect, we know it for sure, but nothing happened,” he said. “I think I’m probably going to spend the first year and a half doing forensic accounting, digging up the financial skeletons and revealing these things,” Matthews said. “I’m just talking about the ones I’ve seen with my own eyes, where it’s just so obvious. The times where they’ve admitted, ‘Yes, we’ve been cheated, but we’re not going to do anything about it’.”
Matthews espouses an expansive notion about the position for which he is running: “The way I define the treasury is: We have trees, we have water, we have books in closed libraries, we have police cars, we’ve got people, and we have buildings and potential.
“The treasurer is supposed to watch over those things and make sure that they are protected and that they grow.
“If you’re satisfied with the way things have been going in county government you should probably vote for people who represent the status quo. If you are dissatisfied with the way things are going, you should probably take a chance on voting on some of the new people, or as I like to call them, the ‘Monkeywrench Gang.’
“We can’t afford the luxury of the ‘old boys’ way of doing business anymore,” he said another time. “It’s not quaint, it’s not picturesque, it is bad for us and because we are in such dire financial straits, we can’t afford that anymore.”
Matthews is founder of a nonprofit charity, Inter School Television which provides broadcast-quality cameras to teach video skills to youth and for public use.
~Michelle Binker
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