Candidate Matt Kuhl: The rest of the story

By Diana Zimmerman

(Editor's note: The ending portion of an article about county auditor candidate Matt Kuhl was accidentally omitted from last week's print edition. Following is a summary of the beginning of the article and then the complete conclusion.)

Matt Kuhl is running for the position of Wahkiakum County auditor.

Kuhl graduated from Wahkiakum High School in 2003. He attended community college in Wenatchee and worked for the forest service, but his mind was on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kuhl joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, which included two deployments to Iraq. He was promoted from private to specialist, and when they returned home after that first tour, he was promoted to corporal.

Kuhl got out in 2009 and decided to try big city living, so he moved from Colorado Springs to Denver. It turned out that the big city wasn’t a good fit, but some classes at a local college made him realize he wanted to be an accountant.

Missing family and home, he returned to the northwest and continued his education at Clark College before transferring to Washington State University, Vancouver, graduating in 2015. He began working as an accounting assistant for a private company. Eventually he was promoted to staff accountant and took on more duties.

After seeing a listing on Craigslist for a job at a CPA firm in Kelso, he walked into the office in Kelso and asked about the position. The managing CPA came out to meet him, and they talked about Kuhl’s goals. He was invited to return the next day to meet the other partners, and a day later he had a job offer.

“I wanted to get my CPA, I wanted to study under some great CPAs before I considered opening my own practice,” he said. “I do a little bit of everything.”

Just as Kuhl had begun to study for his CPA exams, he found he was drawn to the opportunity at the auditor’s office.

“It kept with my passion and love for the accounting side of things, and helping decision makers make the proper decisions,” Kuhl said. “I’m really a supporter of people doing what they need to do and to perform their jobs well. I really care about this community. I consider myself a really hard worker, who pushes for new skills and learning. I would love to do that in a capacity that supports the people I have grown up with and want to do well. It would be amazing for me to take on this role and take on this challenge in trying to find ways to improve not only the department but the way the county does some of their accounting reporting.”

“I want to secure the financial future of this county,” he continued. “I want to try to find efficiencies in the courthouse. Budgets change every year. The revenue that is received changes every year. It shouldn’t be when things are bad we should be looking for ways to do better. It should be a constant goal.”