Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Jamison
Sandy Jamison of Garfield, Republican, announced her plan to run for Whitman County Auditor Saturday, Jan. 6, at the Whitman County GOP crab feed.
“I’m ready to do it,” she told the Gazette Monday. “I’m ready to be a public servant.”
Incumbent Eunice Coker has announced plans to retire when she finishes her term at the end of this year.
In a press release Jamison stated, “I firmly believe that it’s important to positively immerse myself into my community as a public servant – and I think being a constructive and successful auditor rightly supports that belief. Being a steward of our county’s taxpayer dollars is essential, and I believe that my education and career history will be an asset uniquely suited to this office.”
Raised in the Mead area, Jamison has lived in the Garfield area since marrying native son Rusty Jamison.
She has a bachelors degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting and MBA from WSU. She earned her CPA in college and has continuously retained it.
She has been a financial controller and office manager for several companies, including Cascade Aircraft Conversions in Garfield and Amplicon Express and Atairgin, bio-tech start-ups at the WSU research park.
She also worked at the Department of Biological Systems at WSU and was a cost accountant at Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane.
Jamison worked as a tax accountant at Jon Webber & Associates in Colfax before shifting all her time to the family’s 1,500 acre farm outside Garfield where she has been the financial manager for more than 27 years.
She has also served terms on the Garfield-Palouse school board and Garfield Parks and Recreation board.
Jamison listed three main goals she would have in office, adding she strongly believes in them. Her first goal is to pass all the state and county audits preformed during her tenure.
“I only want to see ‘positive’ comments about these audits in the local paper,” she stated.
Her other goals are to maintain a positive environment for the public when interacting with the auditor’s office staff and to develop a positive rapport with fellow elected officials that establishes mutual respect.
“I would want enough of a rapport with them (cities and towns) so they talk to me,” she said.
Jamison believes integrity of character, responsibility and dedication to being the best steward of Whitman County’s taxpayer dollars are necessary traits of a successful auditor.
“I believe that I possess all of these qualities and will strive to maintain a ‘transparent’ office,” she stated.
Jamison told the Gazette she has always given back to the community in one way or another; the accounting experience means she has the experience to provide the services of auditor.
“It’s time to give back full blown,” she said.
In addition to her husband, Rusty, Jamison has a daughter, Heidi, who works at Northwest Farm Credit Services in Yakima and son, Mitch, who is majoring in ag business at the University of Idaho. Her father-in-law, Hollis Jamison, previously served as a county commissioner.
Jamison is an active member of the Garfield Chapter of PEO and Peace Lutheran Church in Colfax. She is a graduate of the Washington Ag and Forestry Leadership program which is a two-year course that educates and prepares people in the ag and forestry industries to become leaders.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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