A MOTION confirming the director of elections's appointment of Nathan Valderas as deputy director of elections.
We all appreciate your work. All right. We're moving on to motion, not motion. We're moving on to there is a King County code, so motion 2018 0087. The next one and this is our final item today as council members will recall, the position of deputy director of the Department of Elections is a position that is designated as requiring council confirmation in the code. I thank you, my colleagues who have stayed. We are going to hear from Julie Wise and our staff about Mr. Nathan Valladares, who has been and you'll tell me if I've not heard your name, who's been proposed for the position. He's been working here for a little while already and he's up for confirmation. And I will just quickly ask Heidi Poppycock from council staff for a brief report. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think he summed it up very well, what I was going to say. Okay. I want to turn it over to Director White. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for having us this afternoon. I have known and worked with Nathan Valadares for just about 12 years before I appointed him. My deputy, Nate, was our operations manager at King County Elections. He's been a steadfast fixture at elections. And truly, Nate is really the epitome of professional public servant. He's acquired experience in all aspects of election administration since 2006, has supported King County elections and conducting more than 50 successful elections, including three presidential elections. And he's also a Washington state certified election administrator. He's a longtime shoreline resident where he and his wife live, a robust and busy life with their two young daughters. Nathan out there has been a rock for me since I've taken office in 2016. I've come to rely on him. It's my pleasure to introduce to you all today, Nathan Balderas. Thank you so much and welcome, Mr. Balderas, who I now know is pronounced Balderas. Thank you. Anything you'd like to share with the committee? Well, I know. We just finished. A long debate, so I will make my comments brief. But thank you for the record. Eight Others Deputy Director Designee for the Department of Elections. I believe my paramount duty as an election administrator in King County is to ensure the security of our elections. And so that's one of the top topics that we care about. I'm also excited about continuing our work, removing barriers to voting. When Julie took office in 2016, she quickly prioritized voter access, increasing voter access as a priority. And I'm excited to continue that work with her. Lastly, I'm excited to balance the day to day operations of our department with while simultaneously looking at the future of elections, what our election is going to look like in five, ten and 15 years in King County as technology changes, as our society changes. What will our the voters of tomorrow expect and demand? So those are the types of challenges I look forward to working with Julie in the elections tomorrow. Very good. Be happy to answer any questions. Councilmember Gossett almost always has really good questions for the candidates, so I'm going to call on him first. Thank you very much for our return. I had the opportunity to meet individually with Nathan, so I know from talking to him almost an hour that he is extremely experienced. That is education and and technical training for elections. Work is the pur. And then the last thing I liked about him is that he's a that those two things usually don't go with being a people person, but he's a people person. My staff and I really enjoyed just talking to him there, the ease within which he spoke with us. And I'm sure that when people call the elections office and they're pushed up to his office because they're upset because somebody lost their down ballot, he's going to be able to hammer them for that. So for all those reasons, I think we're getting a really excellent deputy director for our elections office. Thank you, madam. Thank you, Mr. Kemp. That's high praise. Usually he grills the people sitting in your seat, so you're lucky you got that offline. Any other comments or questions? I will add my welcome. Elections is, of course, one of the most important functions of King County government that we provide fair, open, transparent elections that are accurate. And it's been a real challenge for us in the past. And I know that our former elections director and our current elections director have been working very, very diligently over years to make sure that our systems are what they need to be. I read over your experience. It's very impressive. We're really lucky to have you here. So thank you for. I'm going to King County and working in this role. I will say that if you're going to be King County in a King County elections, you need to get used to me repeating my Battlestar Galactica thing. So if you're going to work on technology, recall the lessons of Battlestar Galactica. Why was Battlestar Galactica the ship that survived the attack of the Cylons? Because it wasn't connected to the network. They got. They got hacked. So let's make sure that our our system is safe from hacking anyway. All right, before we lose our quorum, I think we should just go ahead and accept a motion if someone would make it to confirm, to recommend confirmation of Mr. Nathan Valladares with a do pass recommendation to the full council. And I'm sure he will have a do pass recommendation. The motion 2018 87. It has been moved. Any comments? All those in favor please signify by saying I do need a roll call. I'm sorry. We need a roll call. Roll call. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett Oh, Councilmember Commonwealth. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. Madam Chair. AI Madam Chair, the. Vote is seven. Nice. Two Nos. Two. Excuse me. Thank you. The motion passes unanimously and we will. Let's expedite that and put it on consent so you don't need to come. We'll take our final vote on consent. And congratulations. Welcome formally and we look forward to working with you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. With that, that brings us to the end of our agenda. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 21st, when we anticipate discussing an additional and, I believe, final gender neutral code ordinance, the E911 one strategic plan, our federal legislative agenda, and a briefing about the county's priorities.