Election 2023: Q&A with Beaver County Treasurer candidates
Two candidates are seeking one four-year Beaver County treasurer seat in the Nov. 7 municipal election.
Incumbent Treasurer Sandie Egley, a self-described fiscally conservative Republican, is seeking a second term. Democratic challenger Leonard Seanez is on the ballot seeking his first term as treasurer.
The Times asked each contender to share their thoughts on the top issues facing the treasurer's office.
Here’s what they had to say.
(Responses have been lightly edited for space and clarity.)
Q: What are the top challenges facing Beaver County that your office can address? What are the top issues facing this office, in particular?
Egley: The most vital project that I will address is implementing a completely new tax collection program next year that I have been working on for the last several years. This system upgrade is due to the court-mandated re-assessment. The Treasurer’s Office will need to work with the Tax Assessment Office and the Tax Claim Office to be sure that all the system migrates cohesively. There are a few other large projects I will be looking at in my next term, if given the opportunity to serve another four years. I would like to work with the Beaver County Courts to revamp the way juror checks are distributed and work on retrieving files previously stored at the mines to scan them. This will eliminate the need for taxpayers to pay for files that have been stored over the last 20-30 years.
Seanez: I think one of the salient challenges that is confronting government these days is the troubling erosion of public faith in the ability and willingness of elected officials to deliver effective and beneficial results. As treasurer, I will do everything in my power to attend to the people’s business in a way that will help to restore that faith. Perhaps the most important promise I make is that everything in the Treasurer’s Office will be conducted in strict accordance with ethical principles. Those principles include, but are not limited to, integrity, objectivity, professional competence and confidentiality. A public official must never use their position for personal gain, and must avoid even the slightest appearance of having a conflict of interest. I believe that elected officials are public servants, and upon taking office they enter into a covenant with the people to promote the public interest without favoritism or discrimination. The particular relevance of these ideas has been amplified recently here in Beaver County because of the property reassessments. Faith in our elected officials and our system of government can be restored, but it will have to be earned. As treasurer, I will work every day to prove myself worthy of the public trust.
I believe the issue that concerned residents of Beaver County the most this year is the court-ordered reassessment process. As I talked to people this summer, the results of this process were unsatisfactory for many homeowners for one reason or another. Some were comforted by initial assurances that their property taxes would not see an increase of much more than 5%, only to discover that it is actually going to be substantially more than that. It's therefore to be expected that there will be hardships when it comes to meeting property tax obligations, especially for retirees who are on a fixed income and who are just getting by financially. The Treasurer’s Office is responsible for collecting property taxes, but unfortunately, this administrative function does not include making policy. Although there may not be anything that the treasurer can do to mitigate financial hardship, my focus will always be to ensure that taxpayers are dealt with fairly. To this end, I will be working closely with the Assessor’s Office to make this transition as smooth as it can possibly be.
Q: What makes you the best candidate for this office? What personal and/or professional experiences will make you most effective in this role?
Egley: While talking about how much has been accomplished in the last four years, I feel it’s a team effort. My team is headed up by two deputies, Cebran Netherland and Pamela Hupp, and six fiscal accountants that take great pride in making the office function efficiently, timely and being helpful to all taxpayers. I am proud of the work that my office has accomplished over the last four years. I feel that I have earned the trust and respect of taxpayers and I am committed to keeping the county finances in order with a proven track record.
Some of my accomplishments are as follows:
Since coming into office, I have focused on using tax dollars to collect the best bank interest rates possible. In the last four years, I have earned more than $6 million in interest on your tax dollars. Yes, you read that correctly, SIX MILLION DOLLARS. This money can be used for funding for desperately needed nonprofit programs, maintenance and upkeep of the county facilities or enhancing our parks.
Since coming into office, the tax collection rate has been above 95%. That is the highest it has been in the last 20 years.
Prior to coming into office, there was not an online dog license option for new or renewal license. In 2020, I expanded services to include an online option, speeding the process and making it easier to obtain a dog license.
Prior to coming into office, all the property owned by the county was mailed a tax bill to themselves. The Treasurer’s Office no longer mails tax bills to themselves.
I have expanded the ways to pay county taxes by installing credit card terminals at the window in the office and also accept e-checks as an online payment option that only cost 20 cents to pay your tax bill. That is cheaper than a stamp to mail your payment in.
I have reached out to escrow companies to pay thousands of tax bills at one time via ACH. Instead of an escrow company mailing in single payments for each parcel they now send one file that pays hundreds of parcels at one time.
I have created a Document Retention Policy and no longer will send paper documents to the Wampum Mines for storage which would be an additional cost to taxpayers. My office now scans everything that needs saved according to the Retention Law.
I constantly review the open payment report. If someone has been sent a check from the county and they have not cashed it, my office will try to contact them before they are mandated to submit it as a stale check to the PA Department of Treasury. In some cases, I have personally called school districts and borough managers and re-issued over $100,000 in checks they mistakenly did not cash.
I have demonstrated that I am the best candidate for treasurer in the next four years by my accomplishments, my experience in financial management and my dedication to transparency and accountability.
Seanez: My experience as a brokerage operations specialist more than qualifies me to take on the duties incumbent upon the treasurer. While I was employed in the back office of Charles Schwab, I was responsible for reconciling ledgers for millions of dollars of trading activity every day. My familiarity with the procedures that were routine but critical to daily balancing enabled me to compose the first procedures manuals for each of the stock exchange desks in the Purchase and Sales department. Later, in the aftermath of the catastrophic market crash in 1987, I was the liaison between the back office and software designers who needed our input as Schwab made the transition from paper ledgers to a computerized accounting system. It was a project that I am proud to have contributed to. The ability to find creative answers to problems through cooperation is a trait that I have demonstrated which I believe will serve the people of Beaver County well.
In addition to the time I spent at Schwab, I was a postal worker for almost 18 years at the General Mail Facility in Pittsburgh. While there, I was a mail handler, a maintenance mechanic, a clerk in the Maintenance Support Office, and even an acting supervisor on the dock. Although I wore many hats in the course of my employment, one thing remained constant: The importance of collaborative effort. Without teamwork, it would have been impossible to succeed in our daily mission of delivering exceptional service to our customers. Communication and cooperation are essential components of every successful endeavor, and those are two things that I want to prioritize as treasurer. In addition to utilizing the expertise of my staff to its best advantage, I intend to cultivate good relations with the heads of other departments and our elected officials. It’s what the people of Beaver County deserve.
Q: What else should voters know about you?
Egley: As the county treasurer, I feel it is important to know that I self-fund my own campaign. I will never ask for a donation for my campaign. If you see my yard signs, T-shirts or campaign material, know that I have personally paid for the items. I am grateful for your vote that has allowed me to accomplish so much in the last four years. I have not wasted any time and I now ask for your support and vote on Nov. 7 to continue my work in the Treasurer’s Office as your county treasurer.
Seanez: Voters might be interested to know that I grew up in Pittsburgh and attended Perry High School. I saw the final two Pirates games at Forbes Field and the first one at Three Rivers Stadium. I have enjoyed living in Boulder, Colo., San Francisco, and even for a few months in Hamburg, Germany, prior to the reunification. I was living in the Northside of Pittsburgh and was working for the post office there when I met my future wife in 2011. Pam and I were married by Judge Janet Swihart in Hopewell Township in 2013, and I’ve been a resident of Baden for 10 years. I enjoy golf with my friends and my sister and brother-in-law at the various golf courses here in Beaver County, and I like to play Scrabble with my wife. My brother is a talented musician and I love hearing him play the fiddle with his bluegrass friends. My family is the best support group anyone could ever hope to have. I love it here in Beaver County and I’m proud to call it my home. Not a day goes by that I do not count my blessings.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Election 2023: Beaver County Treasurer candidates tout their capabilities
