Castle Country Radio sat down with Democratic candidate for Carbon County Assessor Robert Olson to learn about his platform, goals and ideas for the Assessor’s Office.
Opening our conversation, Olson wanted to describe his Carbon County background,” My mother and father are Chuck and Linda Olson. I’ve had several people ask me who my father was trying to place my family in Carbon County … I’d talk about my dad a little bit. He’s the one who instilled in me a work ethic. He was one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known. He was a teacher. He did part-time jobs to supplement his income. He managed pools during the summertime. He drove a school bus during the school year. He had paper routes. And I always looked up to my dad as being a hard worker. He instilled that in me and he would always say that education was the key to success.”
Olson shared a story of his father waking him and his siblings up to go and pick weeds,” so my dad would soak the weeds with the hose during the night and then he’d wake us up early Saturday morning, six o’clock, and he’d say, ‘boys they’re ready.’ And my brother and I would look at each other and say, ‘They’re ready?’ And my dad would say, ‘The weeds, the weeds are ready, waiting for you.’ And he’d laugh.” Olson continued,” It was a great lesson, as a kid you don’t realize it; but as an adult, I look back on how I was raised and my dad got us up early. He got us out working hard in the garden, pulling weeds whether we liked it or not.”
One issue that voters wanted to know was what values the candidates wanted to instill in the Assessor’s office. Olson first discussed transparency,” I do believe in transparency, especially considering all the trouble we’ve gone through with this office. To me, transparency means opening up, you know, my office and opening up myself to, you know, an open sharing of what’s happening … I think every candidate should be transparent about the background and the skills that we bring to the office. So I’ve been 100% transparent about my background during my campaign.”
Expanding on this topic, we asked Olson how he planned to rebuild public trust within the Assessor’s office,” Every time I’ve trained appraisers in my past positions at banks and private appraisal companies, I’ve taught them that credibility is everything. When you’re an appraiser, you are figuring out the value of a property based on your opinion. Now your opinion is also based on market data and analyzing the market data properly. But in the end, it is an opinion. So if you have credibility, people will tend to believe your opinion,” explained Olson,” And what develops credibility? Transparency is very important. Honesty is very important. I think that training the staff will be one of the main things that I can do to restore order and a good work ethic to the Assessor’s office. Training the staff is important because I can’t appraise all 13,000 properties each year myself. I will need help. And I’m going to train the staff to be professional and educated, and they’re also going to work toward their license.”
Continuing on the subject of staff training, Olson discussed the leadership styles and strategies he would employ if elected. “The leadership style that I really think is the most applicable and most effective is to teach your staff properly and train them properly. And I have trained people from scratch who they knew nothing about real estate to the point where they’re licensed. I’ve trained quite a few people.” explained the candidate,” And at that point, you give them responsibility and you expect them to complete their tasks. Accountability is important because if we don’t have accountability among the staff and for myself, then nothing really will get done in a timely manner.”
Closing out our conversation, Olson stated,” I would like to tell the people of Carbon County that I do stand for you. I do stand for making this a better job. I will train the staff. I will save the county money, as I’ve described in the past. I will provide effective, accurate, and fair assessments. I will return professionalism to this office so that it is well-respected and well-regarded among the citizens of the county and the state. Those are my promises to you. To work hard, I will work 40 hours a week. I can promise that … I’ve always worked hard. And I promise you that I’ll do the same as your Assessor.”
For more information on Olson’s campaign, you can visit his website olsonforassessor.com