Unopposed Engelhardt shares views with voters

SANDPOINT — Only two candidate races are uncontested this year in Bonner County — the assessor and prosecutor.

Both incumbents, Dennis Engelhardt and Louis Marshall, respectively, are running for reelection. While no one is running against either candidate, their names will still appear on the May 21 primary ballot.

During Monday’s candidate forum, hosted by local media and the Selkirk Association of Realtors, Engelhardt — who became the assessor roughly 10 months ago when the county’s previous assessor, Grant Dorman, stepped down for medical reasons — thanked the community for trusting him with the position and said he hopes to continue his work in the county for some time to come.

Engelhardt said since his appointment, he has created a strong management team in the office, including two employees who had previously left the department, but agreed to return upon his request. The current management team is incredibly strong and everyone on the team works well together, he added.

“We have a great relationship with all the other departments we work with, with the other assessors in the state, as well as the state tax commission,” he said.

The fielding inspection processes have also been tweaked slightly since Engelhardt’s appointment, which has ended up putting 50-100% more productive hours out into the field as opposed to in the office, he said.

The assessor is also working on a new website for the department, as many of the county’s pages have been deemed not user friendly.

Additionally, Engelhardt said he’s working with the DMV to help create smoother processes.

“We’ve put in some changes where we would speed up the wait times and reduce them significantly,” he said.

Engelhardt said even though he’s uncontested, he still wants to hear from the community on how he can be doing a better job.

“I know I am uncontested, but that doesn’t mean your vote is unimportant to me,” he said.

The assessor said by voting for him this election, it will help him know that the residents approve of how he and his staff are running things.

“It’s a way to encourage us to continue to do so going forward,” he said.

Engelhardt will be the only name on the primary ballot for Bonner County Assessor on May 21.