Wahkiakum County Assessor heading north

Wahkiakum County Assessor Falon Hoven’s last day on the job was Friday, June 7, 2024. She was offered and accepted the position of Chief Deputy Assessor for Whatcom County and will be starting in that position on June 17. Her new office will be in the County courthouse in Bellingham. That leaves the Wahkiakum County Commissioners with the decision of who to appoint to fill her position on an interim basis until the election in November, 2025.

“My recommendation to the County Commissioners for an interim assessor has been Bill Coons, who served as the assessor prior to me,” reported Hoven. “The Commissioners did open the position up to the public and will be making their decision on the interim position at their meeting on Tuesday, June 11.

The last time I checked, we had received submittals from five applicants. My recommendation to put Bill in place comes from number one - knowing what the office entails and number two – knowing the office itself, despite my departure, is going through a transition because we have Marsha Souvenir retiring at the end of July. Marsha’s retirement will leave the office with a great loss of historical knowledge and means the most seasoned person in the office has only been here for eighteen months. I firmly believe having a department head that knows the job and the office and can do it very efficiently and also train staff is going to be really important.”

According to Hoven, the interim assessor would serve until a special election is held in November of 2025 to fill the position. Whoever is elected at that time would then have to run again in November of 2026 during the regular cycle.

“The decision to leave was not an easy one for me,” said Hoven. “But, now that it’s made, I’m excited to start the new position and the challenges ahead. A benefit of the position is that I don’t have to run for election. It is an “at will,” non-union position that is the decision of the Assessor. As long as the current assessor is there, I will have a job and most likely I’d be just fine if she ever wasn’t re-elected.”