Nothing to Rebuild

Asked what he would rebuild after 41 years in the Clerk’s office, the incumbent couldn’t name one thing. His own budget paperwork suggests a few.

On October 7, David T. Lewis III sat for an on-the-record interview with Tawnee Cowan, an independent journalist in Port Orchard. She asked him the same five questions she asked me four days earlier. Quotes were checked against the recording, and he confirmed the edits.

I said in that same series that he knows the daily work of the office better than I do. I meant it. The question in this race is a different one: can anyone, including the person running the office, tell you how it’s doing?

Read his answers next to the budget deck his office presented to commissioners two weeks earlier, which I broke down in my last post, Copy, Paste, Present. The answer is no.

What he said, and what the record shows

1. Nothing to rebuild

The reporter asked: after 41 years, what’s one process he protected because it was familiar, and now thinks should have been rebuilt? His answer:

“I can’t think of a process that needs to be rebuilt.”

His example of good service was a former front-counter employee who worked in the office for about 20 years. He said customer service is at that level now. (Oct. 7 interview, Q6)

The office’s own paperwork tells a different story. Its three goals for 2027 are copied word for word from 2026. The accomplishments slide recycles last year’s bullets. The office reported the same 12 months of digital kit sales as 386 in one deck and 258 in the next, and the latest year is the lowest figure yet. (2026 and 2027 budget decks) An office with nothing to rebuild doesn’t report the same year two different ways.

Both of his voters’ pamphlet statements, in 2022 and 2026, say the court system is difficult to navigate. Asked this month what he would change so a person without a lawyer leaves the counter with the right form, he said he wouldn’t change the counter work. (2022 and 2026 voters’ pamphlets; Oct. 7 interview, Q2) Four years of naming the problem, and no fix on the table.

2. No performance report, and no audit

He said the office doesn’t publish a performance report. He said there is no audit of the clerk’s office, asked what one would change, and said he didn’t know how a review would check that filings and payments are done right. (Oct. 7 interview, Q5)

Here’s what one would change. A review would have caught that the 2026 budget column in his own presentation comes up $1.6 million short of its stated total. It would have caught kit numbers that don’t match from one year to the next. And it would tell commissioners how many filings, protection orders and jurors the office handles, which his budget presentation never does.

The tools already exist inside county government. The County Auditor’s 2027 budget presentation describes that office as the county’s independent internal auditor. (Auditor 2027 budget deck)

3. No number, no target

Asked what share of Superior Court filings still arrive on paper, and what the 2028 target is, he said he’d have to look it up. He set no target. (Oct. 7 interview, Q1)

To be fair, I didn’t have an exact percentage either. But using technology to streamline processes has been his office’s Goal 1 in two straight budget presentations, word for word. Two years into a goal, the person who set it should know the starting point. You can’t streamline what you don’t count. And it’s a promise he has run on before. His 2022 voters’ pamphlet statement looked forward to “enhancing our services with new technologies.” His 2026 statement says he has “worked to modernize the office by supporting technology improvements such as e-filing.” Four years from promise to accomplishment, and this month he couldn’t tell a reporter how much of the court’s filing still arrives on paper. (2022 and 2026 voters’ pamphlets) Is this really the best that the voters of Kitsap County can expect?

4. Revenue that matters, and never appears

He said passport work brings in revenue, and that’s part of why he wouldn’t cut it first if hours get reduced. I agree passports shouldn’t go first, and I said the same thing. (Oct. 3 and Oct. 7 interviews, Q3)

But if passport revenue is worth protecting, commissioners should see it. His 2027 budget deck lists $0 in new revenue in both scenarios and never shows what the office collects at all. (2027 budget deck, slides 8 and 10) There’s no plan to grow revenue: no mention of the passport photos the office takes (his own 2022 pamphlet statement brings them up), nothing on past offsite passport events, and no concrete plan to drive more sales. At a time when our county is facing serious funding challenges and reserve drawdowns, every penny counts.

Passport fees aren’t the only revenue on the table. The office also sells kits for common case filings, and that line is moving the wrong way. Digital kit sales fell from 258 to 214 year over year, the lowest figure the office has reported. (2027 budget deck, slide 6) The deck gives commissioners no explanation for the drop and no plan to turn it around.

As a homeowner here, I know every dollar in the county budget was earned by someone who lives in Kitsap County. A budget presentation should show residents exactly what they’re getting for it. If I’m elected, the 2028 presentation will.

5. Who owns the delay

Asked where a fee, trust account or restitution payment sat too long, and who owned it, he described a slow trust account request. If that delay was on the office, he said, it would fall on the financial analyst, who has since retired. On fees and restitution, he said he didn’t have a good response. (Oct. 7 interview, Q4)

I didn’t name a specific delay either. But I told the same reporter that the Clerk doesn’t set the fees or the budget, and is still responsible for both. The elected Clerk owns the delays. Pointing to someone who has already left doesn’t prevent the next one.

6. Why would anyone run?

He suggested the seat usually isn’t contested because the work isn’t going wrong, and asked why anyone would try to remove a clerk who is doing a good job. (Oct. 7 interview, Q5)

Because it’s an elected seat, and the voters own it. He was appointed in 2021 and ran unopposed in 2022.

And saying it’s going well is a claim. The office doesn’t publish a performance report, and its own budget deck can’t add up its 2026 column. Going well by what measure?

Same five questions, side by side

The reporter asked us both the same five questions. Here’s the short version of each answer, including the ones where I didn’t have a number either.

Question	Lewis (Oct. 7)	Kennedy (Oct. 3)
Share of filings still on paper, and the 2028 target	No number, no target	No exact share, no target. Named a short e-filing video and a clearer website
One change so people without lawyers leave with the right form	Would not change the counter work. The packets already exist	A video guide on what happens after the packet, including the informal trial option
Passports if hours are cut	Would not cut passports first	Would not cut passports first
A payment that sat too long, and who owned it	A trust account delay. Would fall on a financial analyst who has since retired	Named no delay. Flagged restitution written off without ever going to collections
How the office should report performance	Doesn’t publish a report. Questioned what an audit would change	Annual public report, monthly office hours. Won’t seek re-election if he doesn’t deliver

What I’d do instead

Everything below is already on the record, in that interview and in my platform:

• An annual public report on the office: workload, budget against actual spending, what the office collects, and last year’s goals graded honestly
• Monthly public office hours, and a phone number on my materials that I answer
• A line-by-line review of the office’s spending, down to the copy paper, shared with clerks in other counties so we can learn from each other
• A simple accountability test. If I don’t deliver in four years, I won’t run again

None of that needs new money or anyone’s permission. It needs a Clerk willing to measure the office and publish the results.

The gap

Forty-one years in the office, and nothing to rebuild. I’ve been there a little over a year, and I just spent two posts walking through what needs work, all of it from public documents anyone can open.

That gap is the choice on your ballot. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.

Brien Kennedy

Sources

Interview citations refer to the question numbers in each article.

• Tawnee Cowan, “David T. Lewis III, on the record, for Kitsap County clerk” (interview Oct. 7, published Oct. 8, 2026)
• Tawnee Cowan, “Brien Kennedy, on the record, for Kitsap County clerk” (interview Oct. 3, published Oct. 8, 2026)
• Kitsap County Clerk, 2027 Budget Presentation (Sept. 22, 2026)
• Kitsap County Clerk, 2026 Budget Presentation (Sept. 17, 2025)
• Kitsap County Auditor, 2027 Budget Presentation
• Kitsap County Local Voters’ Pamphlet, November 8, 2022 General Election (Clerk statements, p. 15)
• Kitsap County Local Voters’ Pamphlet, August 2026 Primary (Clerk statements, p. 36)
• Democracy Watch: Kitsap County Clerk races, 1998 to 2026 (sourced to Kitsap County Auditor official results)
• Copy, Paste, Present, the first post in this series