Lauer steps down after eight years as clerk

Tammy Lauer has served as Lincoln County’s clerk and recorder for the past eight years. She was recently defeated in her bid for reelection and is leaving office, possibly even leaving Libby.

She sat down with The Western News’ Bob Henline to talk about her time in office, the past, the present and the future.

Tammy, you’ve been in office for eight years and now it’s over. What is your legacy?

My legacy? Hmmm…I’m not sure I know how to answer that.

Let’s back it up a bit, when you took office eight years ago what was your biggest goal. What did you really want to do?

Well, probably one of the things that I faced during the eight years was the huge reduction in election workers, like outside the courthouse. And election costs have increased, so we had to decrease polling places, to cut back costs and to allow for less people being willing to work elections.

Was that something you were looking at before or did it just hit you when you got there?

It was something that Coral had mentioned beforehand.

Coral, I assume, was your predecessor?

Yeah, she was one of the previous elected officials who talked me into running. And she told me that was something I’d be up against.

Let’s talk about that, the decision to run. Why county clerk and recorder?

Because a huge part of it is numbers, and I love numbers. That’s my thing, the math and the numbers, balancing things. It’s what I love to do and it’s the bulk of the job.

 I think most people would look at the numbers and say that’s the treasurer’s job, but the clerk and recorder handles the budget for the county.

That’s the biggest part of the job, the budget.

 And that’s the charter, right, from the county the clerk manages the budget.

It’s state law, all county clerks are responsible for the budgets. And it definitely turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the job, the budget. I’ve had a bunch of people come up to me in the last few weeks to talk to me about their budgets.

Talk about the eight years, what kind of changes have you seen?

Definitely the revenue. We had very substantial reserves, savings if you will, when I came. Yeah, and it’s just gone down and gone down.

The first year I did my budget there was like $23 million in reserves, and also $1.1 million a year in interest. And you know what the interest rates of done. Now it’s like $100,000. We’ve lost a million dollars a year in interest.

And part of that’s dipping into reserves?

Well yeah, we’ve had to. With our $13-14 million in reserves we’re just not earning that interest anymore. There’s been a lot of reduction in revenue and unfortunately that’s meant some cuts over the year.

How much of the budgeting, the decisions, fall on the clerk’s office?

None.

So the departments are given numbers and told to prepare budgets within those parameters?

Yeah, the commissioners will tell the departments to stay within last year’s budget or to cut five percent or whatever, and they’ll come back with a budget that hits those goals.

And then they go with that and the commissioners look at them, and tell me what to do with them and I redo them and we get it set.

We talked about this earlier when we talked about PILT and SRS funding, the county budgeted $400,000 or so from timber receipts expecting those funds to not be there.

And it’s good we didn’t anticipate that, we’d have to go back in and find another $2 or $3 million to cut.

How much reserve is depleted each year?

Well, probably a little over $2 million. If you average it out the county’s down about $10 million over 8 years.

So the county’s running about a $2 million deficit each year?

Probably, sounds about right.

What’s been your biggest challenge in the eight years, what issue has stood out other than the revenue?

Probably elections. Just the ever-changing election laws you have to keep up with, the requirements and lack of election judges. The different, we had to move around some precincts and arrange for different accommodations for the elections.

In terms of what you’ve managed to do in the office, what do you think is your most significant achievement?

I think probably education. Inside and outside the courthouse, helping people understand their budgets. I think districts, the different fire districts, the cemetery district. Helping those folks understand their budgets and how to figure out their money and what they can do with it.

What would you say is your favorite part of the job?

My favorite part of the job I would say is the diversity. There are a lot of different aspects of that department, so it’s never boring. There’s something different happening all the time.

What’s your least favorite part of the job?

I don’t know that I have a least favorite. I love the job. Probably, probably the politics.

Diplomatically said.

Another thing I’ve really enjoyed is dealing with the commissioners. But I’ve learned so much from their guests and the people that came to meet with them. About county government and state government, it was very educational for me.

Biggest regret?

Well, my error. I guess the more I checked with people, the people I had checking my work, I guess I didn’t have the right people.

We’re talking about the extra mills, that wasn’t just a Lincoln County problem, it affected other counties, too, right?

Well, there were actually six other counties, and one of them has such a big money-making mine that it resulted in under-taxing, so it was like a good deal for them. I guess now I wish I would have…  well, I don’t know what I could have done.

I regret it happening, I don’t know how I could have made it different. I do regret it happening, but I don’t regret taking responsibility for it, I don’t regret fixing it. I do regret that it happened.

What’s next on Tammy’s agenda?

I have no idea.

Have you been looking? Anything promising?

I’ve been looking, it’s a rough market. I’m hoping to stay in this area, I’ve lived here all my life. My daughter’s a junior in high school.

That makes moving really tough.

I hope we can stay here so she can stay in school. My husband’s the fire marshal, and he loves his job.

And you’re with the volunteer ambulance, right?

Yeah, for fourteen years. Steve’s been with the fire department for 27, 28 years, so, we’re invested around here. I’ve got two grandkids here now. So, I don’t know, I’m hoping to be able to stay in the area and find something, but right now haven’t found anything.

What advice would you leave for Robin, if you had just one piece of advice to give?

I guess the one thing would be to value her employees and to be aware of how very knowledgeable they are and to the degree they all have their expertise in their areas. You are blessed with some incredibly talented people here. Don’t underestimate them.

Last message for Lincoln County?

Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. It was great, I loved it. I loved every minute of the eight years and am grateful for the opportunity to do it.