Retired pastor, farmer steps into county commissioner role

Danny Stone, a retired pastor (church in Chewelah) and semi-retired farmer, said he’s spent his whole life in eastern Washington.

The Republican stepped into the Grant County Commissioner District 1 slot in January. The seat was left by Richard Stevens who decided not to run for re-election.

“It’s a matter of just stewardship as a citizen,” Stone said of his reason for running.

The Hartline resident added it was his way of showing charity and community. It was only in the last 10-12 years Stone said he became interested in politics, and when he heard a commissioner was retiring, jumped at the chance. Upon taking office, Stone said he considers it “basically a full-time job,” and now will have time for it.

He said he announced his candidacy early, which allowed time for him to sit in commissioner meetings before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. He also attended the online meetings, after the pandemic hit, as well as picked some people’s brains on operations. However, he said he had information overload.

“It’s kind of like drinking from a fire hose,” Stone said in December.

He reiterated the sentiment with the Herald in March. This article is the combination of interviews before and after Stone took office.

“I’ve been very busy,” he said. “One of the reasons is because I’m on the Washington State Association of Counties steering committee.”

He’s in various other groups and is determining with other county officials when to reopen various offices, which were closed or partially closed last year due to the pandemic.

“When you talk about working as a county commissioner, you have to work with the bigger organizations that affect our county,” he said.

He said he watched the health district’s website through the pandemic and thinks “they were doing as much as they could do.”

He also said the district faced “lots of legal roadblocks.” But it and commissioners needed to communicate with state leaders “and push to get our kids back in school,” he said.

With the state legislature back in session Jan. 11, Stone said he wanted to communicate with them, especially on decisions about COVID-19. He said Gov. Jay Inslee has made decisions without the legislature, which virtually left residents out of the process, as their representatives weren’t included.

“I think they feel like they’re not getting support,” he said of constituents.

Another topic Stone touched on briefly when asked was whether defunding the Grant County Sheriff’s Office should be considered. Officials in some cities nationwide have chosen to redirect money to things like having more on-call crisis counselors respond to calls if deemed a better option by dispatchers than police officers.

Stone said he didn’t think redirecting funds away from the sheriff’s office was an option and he wanted to ensure the office had what it needed to do its job.

Commissioners in July 2020 released a statement on the matter.

“We believe it is incumbent upon us to stand up and courageously declare that in the face of portions of our country & certain cities who desire to disband or defund law enforcement, we vehemently oppose those misguided & nonsensical ideas,” it stated.

However, a more pressing matter existed in getting a new disposal site for the county. The Ephrata landfill, expanded in 2004, soon will be at more than half-capacity and could be full within the next decade if the county’s population continues growing. No money was set aside in previous years, he said, so prices for dumping were recently raised and likely will continue to go up.

“This is a big issue for us to deal with,” he said.

But Stone mentioned he wasn’t blaming anyone for the oversight.

“I didn’t run for this position to come in and point a lot of fingers,” he said. “If there are things we need to change, let’s change them.”

Part of that could come in managing the county budget, he mentioned.

“We have to make sure we’re utilizing it well,” he said. “That’s a huge job, just watching what the money is doing in the coffers.“

Another priority was communicating with residents, Stone said, so they knew of topics being discussed beforehand to put their views before commissioners. The soon-to-be-launched county website would help, he said, as could social media. He also said he wanted to keep commissioners meetings online, as well as in-person, if and when things returned to “normal.” And, he said he likely would try to meet with people in small groups to discuss issues, in particular with the more rural areas.

“I do think in rural areas sometimes they might feel like they’re being left out,” he said.

Emily Thornton can be reached via email at ethornton@columbiabasinherald.com.