The Thurston County Clerk’s Office has spent the year reeling from the Thurston County Board of Commissioners’ latest round of budget cuts.
Garrett Cady, a deputy clerk with the department, had a front-row seat to the deteriorating relationship between the clerk’s office and the county Board of Commissioners as they each grappled with the realities of cutting $9.84 million from the county general fund for 2026-27.
“Watching what happened before the budget got implemented was kind of like watching this slow train wreck that you just couldn't stop,” Cady said. “This is a typical thing that happens during any budget deliberation because we all know, and especially with that big of a deficit, something bad is going to happen.”
The Thurston County Clerk’s Office saw a $777,478 budget reduction in Thurston County’s 2026-27 budget.
That, combined with budget cuts from previous years, made it impossible for the clerk’s office to maintain in-person services, according to current Thurston County Clerk Linda Myhre Enlow.
The clerk’s office closed its public service counters on Jan. 21.
Enlow soon confirmed that she was going to retire at the end of the year when her term expired, raising the question of who would step up to lead the office through this crisis
“She did not want to ever leave the office in this state, and she never thought she would,” Cady said.
Cady said he was talking to Enlow about the future of the office when Enlow suggested that Cady run for her seat.
“I said, ‘Well, if you think I'm ready, I sure would, because somebody has to,’” Cady said.
He has since received his coworkers’ support, and endorsements from 26 different current and former clerks throughout Washington state, including Enlow.
Cady has worked his way through most of the positions within the clerk’s office and maintains that he has the skills to actively perform all functions of the office.
“We just can't afford someone who can't step in and do anything that needs to be done to keep the machine working,” Cady said.
If elected, Cady’s top priorities would be to protect the office from the impacts of future budget cuts, and to restore and enhance critical services.
Those services include the domestic violence liaison program, as well as full-time in-person front counter support.
“Our office has been continuously fighting for restoration of these services and through hard-work and specialized budgeting adaptations, we are experiencing positive movement despite the county's financial challenges,” Cady states on his campaign’s website.
The clerk’s office did reopen public counter services on a part-time basis starting Sept. 21, thanks to a reallocation of county funds.
Cady suggested looking at outside funding sources, such as impact fees for handling the state’s civil cases or a portion of the Public Safety Sales Tax, as ways to stabilize the clerk’s office’s budget.
The funding could also possibly be used to pay clerk’s office employees better wages, which would help with retention.
“We lose clerks to every other law and justice office,” Cady said. “They go as soon as a position opens because they're just gonna get a pay raise for what we still think is a similar amount of work.”
Figuring out a solution to that declining retention rate will be difficult, especially during a budget crisis, Cady said, but “that is definitely something that we have to address.”
For more information about Cady’s campaign, visit https://www.garrettcadyforcountyclerk.com/.
To learn more about Cady’s opponent, Nicole Miller, visit thurstonchronicle.com.
