When Linda Riffe was sworn in as the Island County treasurer two months early in 2002, the state auditor’s office gave her a list of deficiencies in the office.

Riffe, a Democrat elected by a wide margin in 2002 over incumbent Maxine Sauter, discovered she had a lot of work in front of her, from improving internal controls to handling the cash and bookkeeping records. Sauter died shortly after the election.

All told, the state auditor identified 26 items that needed her attention. Riffe has spent the last four years addressing every item on that list.

Riffe said fixing those problems are just some of her accomplishments of the past four years.

But her challenger, Republican John Morrow, still sees problems in the office.

Morrow points to a state audit from last year that says the treasurer’s office was not reconciling bank and suspense accounts on a timely basis.

Riffe said she had resolved that issue, and plenty others in the treasurer’s office.

There are other areas of disagreement, however. A major one is the county’s investment policy.

Riffe developed the policy for the county, which won an award.

But Morrow charges that there are errors in the policy and that Riffe does not follow her own policy.

If elected Morrow says he will correct those problems.

“What I see worries me. The information from the treasurer’s office is inaccurate and misleading,” Morrow said. “There are glaring errors in the county’s investment policy.”

Morrow says one of the problems is that Riffe has invested in “government-sponsored investments” rather “government-backed” investments.

“If things go belly up, there is a real difference between government-sponsored and government-backed investments. There is a potential problem with just government-sponsored investments because they are not fully insured. My opponent believes they are all the same,” Morrow said.

Riffe defends the investment portfolio she has created for the county, and said it is sound and diversified.

“It gives us guiding principles on how to invest wisely,” Riffe said.

And she points out the county has already earned $1.47 million in interest from her investments.

Riffe says her investments have been reviewed by the state auditor and have been confirmed as excellent investments by the state treasurer’s office.

Riffe highlighted some of her other accomplishments, such as negotiating a banking contract that has saved taxpayers $22,000 in service fees, plus another $4,500 in savings that was achieved by simply redesigning the tax statements and bar coding statements.

For his part, Morrow has thought hard about what he will do in office. He has a timeline outlining his plans for his first year in office, and those plans include developing an employee training plan, revising the organization’s procedures and further reviewing state auditor concerns.

He also wants to see better county oversight of the treasurer’s office by the finance committee — a three-member board comprised of the treasurer, auditor and one county commissioner. He also wants to see more internal controls and internal accountability.

If re-elected, Riffe has vowed to work with other county offices to develop a new accounting system, refine and expand the online Web services and work with programmers to develop and implement an electronic Real Estate Excise Tax program that will allow the county to receive information from title companies electronically.

Prior to her election as treasurer, Riffe was a school administrator, most recently as a vice principal at Oak Harbor High School.

Riffe, 60, has a bachelor’s degree in business education and Spanish and a master’s degree in education administration. She is married and has two children.

Morrow, 59, comes from the business world and is currently a quality engineer for a firm in Bothell. He said he has 230 college credits but doesn’t have a degree. He is married with three grown children.