To depart at end of month: Assessor Joe Reynolds resigns

County Assessor Joe Reynolds, who has been in office since 1995, submitted his resignation to the county commissioners Monday. Reynolds will depart at the end of the month.

He has a courthouse career which would have marked 45 years in December.

A member of the 1967 class at Colfax High School, Reynolds had about five years of credits at Eastern Washington State College when he opted to go to work for Assessor Bob Repp.

“I was flat broke, and I needed money to finish college, so I decided to work there for 15 months, and then go back to college,” Reynolds said.

He was majoring in accounting and psychology.

“That turned out to be about right for serving as assessor,” Reynolds noted.

He said his first order from Repp was to get a haircut.

Reynolds noted at one time he was the only employee in the courthouse who knew how to use a computer. At that time he was using a floppy disk with a screen which measured 1x7 inches.

Reynolds said the county opted to move toward computers after using a punch card system to keep track of records. He recalled one instance when he and the late Mary Crawford were carrying the punch cards across a parking lot in Clarkston, where the cards were processed, and she dropped a box of cards and scattered them.

Reynolds noted former Superior Court Clerk Shirley Bafus, who started her courthouse career in the treasurer’s office, ranked as the second-longest employee by a year before she opted to retire before the last county election.

He believes Dan Cook of Yakima is the only county assessor in the state who tops him in years in office.

The county will undergo an appointment process in which three nominees selected by the County Republicans will be submitted to the county commissioners to select a replacement for the balance of Reynolds’ term.