<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Assessor battling cancer, won’t seek third term

Franklin upset Mielke 'politicized budget process' with jab

By Stephanie Rice
Published: June 3, 2010, 12:00am

Clark County Assessor Linda Franklin said Wednesday that she’s been undergoing treatment for breast cancer and will not seek a third term. She said she’ll stay in office until her term ends on Dec. 31.

Franklin, 64, a Democrat, also responded to a remark made last week by Clark County Commissioner Tom Mielke, who endorsed a Republican candidate for assessor and said, “The Assessor’s office has experienced huge budget increases in the past four years and has not been as transparent and accountable to the citizens of Clark County as it should have been.”

The office’s two primary functions are to determine the assessed, and therefore taxable, value of properties in the county, and maintain mapping data through the GIS department, which also has the responsibility of producing the county’s road atlas.

Mielke said he didn’t want to criticize Franklin personally, so he phrased it as “the office.”

Franklin said it was a distinction without a difference.

“When people attack my office, they are attacking me,” she said. “I’ve never been so disappointed in an elected official.”

She said she and other elected county officials work with commissioners to get a balanced budget.

The budget process is driven by the commissioners, she added, and so it should be “transparent” to Mielke.

Franklin said Mielke can endorse whomever he wants, but she didn’t like how he “politicized the budget process.”

“I’m concerned with what the property owners in the county think. They need to be confident that we are doing the best job we can.”

Mielke said Wednesday that he was sorry to learn that Franklin has cancer, but he stood by his critique.

“I’m sorry she took it personally. Could you imagine how I’d be if I took everything that was said about me personally?” Mielke said.

Franklin oversees 46 staff members and has a 2009-10 budget of $7.9 million.

In comparison, in 1994 the office had 58 people.

During three rounds of budget cuts in ’09, she said she met the goals set by commissioners. The assessor’s budget was approximately $1 million higher in 2007-08 than it was in 2005-06. Franklin attributed the increase to unused funds from the previous budget, the addition of temporary staff members and additional funds for a software update.

Franklin was the former assessor’s top deputy for 23 years before taking the top spot in 2002, then she was re-elected in 2006. In March, The Columbian reported that Franklin had been missing work due to unspecified health issues.

Republicans Peter Van Nortwick and Daniel Weaver have said they will run for the job, which currently pays $92,364 a year. Bill Jameson, a former employee of the assessor’s office, ran against Franklin in 2006 and registered with the State Public Disclosure Commission for this year but said Tuesday he’s not going to run. He endorses Van Nortwick, as does Mielke.

Filing week is June 7-11.

Franklin said she will be endorsing a Democrat who will announce his candidacy today.

She said she decided a few weeks ago that she would not seek another term, and said her illness was the deciding factor. She said she’s undergoing chemotherapy every two weeks to try to shrink the tumors. Her cancer was diagnosed at Stage 2 (the worst would be Stage 4).

“Part of surviving is getting into a mental state that’s positive,” she said.

Loading...