Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Well, happy Saturday, everybody. Welcome to Unbolted Live with MJ Bull. I am your host and today with us we have Preston McCollum, who is a candidate for the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney. Preston, thanks for being with us today.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: You bet, you bet. So I've had the privilege of interviewing both of our candidates that are running for this position. And, and just as a caveat, because this is an unusual appointment election process, since this is a county wide partisan position, it goes through the Spokane County Republican Party and the pcos actually get to select their endorsed or candidate that they want to move forward and that goes to the county commissioners. So we're going to put this out on social media so people are aware of our candidates, but only the pcos actually get to vote in this and that would be next Saturday. So if you're watching this, you know, we want you to be informed and talk to your pcos about who they plan on selecting for next week's endorsement assembly. So again, Preston, thanks for being with us. We want people to get to know you.
So tell us about yourself, your background and why you are running for this position. What motivated you to run?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Well, a little bit about myself. I mean, obviously.
My name is Preston McCollum. I'm currently the acting prosecuting attorney for the county.
Prior to that, I served for nearly two and a half years, or right, exactly two and a half years as the chief criminal deputy, meaning I supervised the criminal division, which includes our domestic violence unit, juvenile sexual assault, major crimes district Court, our appellate unit, as well as property and drug units.
When fully staffed, our criminal division has 52 lawyers.
And now obviously I'm supervising and managing the entire office, which includes a civil division that has 13 attorneys and a family law division which presently has, I think between five and six lawyers right now.
And so my background is I have been a deputy prosecutor in this office since June of 2015.
Prior to that, I was a deputy prosecutor in Benton county, working in the Benton County Prosecutor's Office for just a little over a year and a half.
And before that I interned in the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office during law school.
I'm a Gonzaga grad. I went to Eastern Washington University for undergrad or originally from Southern Oregon, but moved up here in 2006.
During that process, I met my beautiful wife, Mackenzie. She's from Deer park.
And we wanted to raise our family here.
So we went to Benton county for about a year and a half, just shy of two years.
And when we, my wife became pregnant with our Oldest, we wanted to move back to Spokane. So I started looking at ways to get back into the prosecutor's office here and ultimately was able to do so in June of 15.
During that time, I moved through various parts of the office. I was in the district court unit, which is our misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors, and then quickly moved my way onto felonies. Before I took the management position or was appointed by Mr. Haskell as the chief deputy, I worked in our major crimes and gang unit. So my background there is guns, gangs, drugs, and murder. It was a lot of what I did during that time period.
I don't know how relevant it is. I mean, obviously before law school, during undergrad, I worked for the U.S. forest Service as a sawyer and a firefighter on a wildland fire crew. So I did that for three seasons in Alaska and then two seasons in Southern Oregon. And so I was a squad boss and a firefighter type one, and did a lot of. A lot of those activities and got sent to fires all over the country, including in Canada, and did a lot of stuff up in Alaska with aviation and aviation management, as we dealt with a lot of what was occurring in that area. So not directly on point for the law, but very helpful to me as I learned management experience and learned how to lead people in times of crisis when there's fire all around you or when your helicopter is not traveling too well at high altitude.
So, anyways, that's a little bit about me.
And then I think the final piece of your question is, why am I running for prosecutor? Yes, I'm running for prosecutor because I live in this community. I have four children, and my wife and I want to raise our kids in this community, and we want to raise our kids in a place that we could be proud of, in a place that our kids can be safe. I know right now I don't take my kids to downtown Spokane. I don't feel comfortable walking through the park, especially in the evening hours.
And that's just really sad, because going to college in this town and law school, there's a lot of beautiful aspects of our city that right now are under siege by the effects of our choices. By embracing lawlessness.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And we are all with you. I don't live in downtown Spokane, but I live in Spokane Valley. And we. We want to see this turn around. We do not like this trend that we're seeing, for sure.
So, Preston, what is your vision for the county or the county prosecuting office?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: So my vision for the office is that one. I want to expand, I guess, our impact and connectivity with the community, I think something that our office perhaps has not done so well these past few years or maybe ever. And no disrespect to former prosecuting attorneys, but right now, with as quickly as our laws are changing, as quickly as our demographics are changing in terms of what's acceptable and not acceptable, I think it's more important now than ever to be transparent in decisions that we make, you know, why we're pursuing certain crimes and not others, and explaining to the community the impact of a lot of the laws that are coming out of Olympia.
So my vision would be to expand the advocacy that we have at a statewide level and really highlight for our community the impacts of some of this legislation. And so, you know, for instance, this last legislative cycle, we saw a number of tools from law enforcement get attacked. One of them is firearm enhancements on violent crime. Another one was sentencing considerations for certain sex offenses.
It shocks me every legislative cycle that if you are a felon, particularly a violent felon, who's committed crimes with a gun or a sex offender or a pedophile, you have better representation in Olympia than most average citizens. And those individuals are more aware of what's going on with a lot of that legislative cycle than the average citizen on the street. And so I think that needs to change. And that's something that I believe I can do as a prosecutor, is help highlight some of those impacts. The other, you know, vision and goal for the office is to navigate through these perilous times where we've had a number of changes at the. By our state supreme court in caseload standards for defense.
By reducing those standards, the net effect of that is going to be to flood our streets with criminals because we do not have the capacity to absorb these changes on a statewide level. And so everybody's kind of crying and pulling the alarm right now. But even as I think as early as a year and a half ago, there were judges on the west side that were highlighting and imploring the court to not make these changes because it would result in individuals getting released, justice not getting done, and crime victims voices not being heard. And so that's an area of concern for me.
And then finally, one of my primary goals is marshaling our limited resources and making sure that we're identifying the worst of the offenders, we're identifying the worst of the drug traffickers, and making sure that we're deploying our resources appropriately so that we're wisely using the money and the people that we have to get at the worst criminals in our community.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Very, very important.
So, Preston, why do you believe people should vote for you over your appointment in this race?
[00:08:40] Speaker B: I think the primary thing that I bring to the table, as opposed to my opponent, is relationships.
The support that I have from our law enforcement community, as well as the confidence of our elected officials, is very important, and it's very telling.
As a deputy prosecutor, I had occasion to work with nearly every law enforcement agency in our region, from federal task forces all the way down to individual municipalities in the county and out of the county.
So I have a broad base of support from the major crimes detectives of our primary departments. They've endorsed me unequivocally, and they did it early, especially once they found out who my opponent was.
I think that should be very telling to individuals who are looking at who to vote for is go talk to the guys that are guys and gals that are in the street day in and day out, who are at the crime scenes, who are solving these crimes, and then have to go to court and advocate to prove their work to a jury. And I could tell you that based on the individuals who have endorsed me, the law enforcement associations, the deputy Sheriff's association, the police guild for purposes of this appointment, and the lieutenants and captains associations of each department of Spokane Police Department and the sheriff's office, they have confidence in my ability to lead in the midst of chaos. They have confidence in my ability to distill the facts and appropriately apply my discretion. And I think that should be very indicative and informing to individuals that are looking at, hey, who's the right choice for this?
I can say, you know, my opponents. One of. One of the things that he's very conscientious of is the number of trials that he's done.
I think that's important. And he should have done that number of trials during the time period that he was a prosecutor. But given the level of that experience and how many trials he's had, you would think that if this is the person law enforcement supports, that they would be doing that. And they're not. They're endorsing me. They're supporting me because they've seen how I do things and why I do things.
It's been said, that's one of my favorite quotes, that if you want to test a person's character, right, and the standard is, you know, nearly all men can withstand adversity, you could go through tough times. But if you truly want to test a person's character, you give them power, and you see what they do with it. And I would submit to the voters and submit to the pcos that when entrusted with power and responsibility, I utilize it wisely. And I've been very blessed with opportunities from, you know, dealing with our elected officials all the way down to, you know, the lowliest law enforcement official on the ground. They know that I work hard, that I work with them, and that the goal is to achieve justice. And so that is why I believe individuals should vote for me over my opponent.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Great. Great.
Yeah, very important points, for sure.
So, Preston, assuming that you get appointed to this position, and again, I'm just going to reiterate, the pcos have a part in this process next Saturday where they will vote on their prioritization of the candidates, who they want to be in that office.
And then that goes to the county commissioners, the Spokane county commissioners, and they ultimately decide right on who they will appoint for. For that position.
So assuming that you get appointed, how do you plan to continue to connect with a community? And you mentioned this earlier, but I'd like you to expand upon that, because one of the things that citizens get frustrated with is there's a lot of, you know, conversation and engagement between a candidate and the citizens. But then once they get elected, you know, that feels like it goes away. So what's your plan to stay connected to the citizens in the community, to make sure that you're continuing to hear the concerns and, you know, how things are playing out, at least in their perception. Obviously, you know, what's happening in the streets of Spokane.
But. But how do you plan to stay engaged with those citizens moving forward?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: I think it's incredibly important to be responsive.
You know, any elected official should never forget who they work for, and it's the citizens of that community that they work for, and not just any individual, you know, particular person. They're working for all of the citizens in that community. So I think it's incredibly important to be both available and responsive. And so that is something that I have strived to be, even as a deputy prosecutor, constantly talking to crime victims, constantly answering calls. If we get a phone call where somebody is asking for information in the office, you know, making sure they get called back, attending community forums, you know, responding to requests for involvement in certain scenarios or areas when appropriate. And so if selected for this position, I would continue and frankly, expand that. I do think that we need to highlight a lot of what our office is doing so that individuals can understand, you know, what exactly is your Prosecutor doing. You know, I constantly get asked, you know, how I could stand working for Mayor Lisa Brown. And I have to tell folks, no, I'm a county prosecutor, not a city prosecutor, because most people don't understand there's a distinction. Right. And they don't understand the different layers and levels of government. And so that's a failure collectively as a community, or, you know, whether you want to blame the school system or blame, you know, the media or whomever. But a lot of folks don't know, you know, what the different levels of government are. And so as a county prosecutor, I'm responsible for all felony crime that occurs within Spokane County. I'm responsible for all misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor crime that occurs in the unincorporated counties.
And so, you know, our community is vast, and we need to be responsive to what's going on, but also be available to them. And I think that's something that I've demonstrated well and will continue to demonstrate and frankly expand the ability to involve the community to the level appropriate in what we are doing. And so our community and our voters should be able to get an update or report. And that's something that I routinely do when requested in explaining, you know, what's happening in our community and how are we addressing the changing laws as they're passed.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Right, right. For sure. And the state of our city right now is really, you know, as you mentioned in your opening comments about you don't want to take your kids downtown, I think that so many of us feel like that we're so concerned about the trend of where our city is going. This is of primary of importance. This is so important. What happens is. And that we have great leadership in our prosecuting office to help try to get this direction, this trend, going a different way. Right.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: We have to change it. I mean, right now, when you look at crime statistics, I know that the latest report that came out says, well, crime is down.
And take homicides, for instance.
The Washington association of Prosecuting Attorneys just did a social media post saying, yes, homicides technically are down statewide a little over 300. But 10 years ago, 11 years ago, they were half that number. Right. So I don't think we should be celebrating that. Hey, crime's down, but we're still twice what we were 10 years ago.
It's, you know, there have been good things that have happened, but over the last 10 years, law enforcement has been stripped of so many tools that allow us to address violent crime and drug crime in the city.
I think we've Proven through, I mean, just the experience, just the change in downtown, that our experimentation with decriminalization and de emphasizing drug crimes is an absolute failure both for the state of Washington and the state of Oregon. And so right now we are an exporter of drugs. Exporter of drug crimes. And that really needs to change.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Preston, final comments. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that your voters or the pcos know before this important process happens next Saturday?
[00:16:58] Speaker B: I think more than anything, I want them to know that I will be an engaged leader, an engaged prosecutor, and more than just myself being engaged, I will be working to make sure others are that our community gets engaged. Because these are issues that impact our entire community. And while we entrust a few chosen leaders to make decisions, we have to make sure that the community knows why we're doing what we're doing and frankly, get them involved. When we're talking about crime and legislation, it's easy to take a sound bite and say, oh, well, that guy's right or left.
And rather than focusing on that, let's talk about the impact of that legislation on our community.
So as a county prosecutor, I do believe that I can have an important voice and role in talking to our legislators about legislation, the impacts of it, what it's going to do to my people, what it's going to do to law enforcement. Because so often we'll get a law or directive come out of Olympia that completely wrecks our ability to address certain areas of crime or completely wrecks our ability to hold people accountable. So more than anything, I think I want people to know, as a county prosecutor, I will attack the barriers to accountability that get erected all around us, whether it comes from Olympia, whether it comes from the states, city, and even if it comes from the county level. But I do think that we have a really great team at the county, especially, you know, with, with our current leaders, our board of county commissioners. They're aware of these issues and they're doing the best they can to grapple with limited resources to address all the areas of obligation that they have.
But these are issues that they think about a lot. As a county prosecutor and advisor to the board, that role, that position has an important role and helping provide good ethical legal advice and empower them to make good choices countywide.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So, Preston, lastly, where can people find out more information about you or get in contact with you or find more information about your campaign? You are planning on running for this office when it's on the ballot next year? Correct?
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, I am.
So they can go to my website, prestonforprosecutor.com There's a couple different ways to get there, but that's probably the easiest.
I've got a Facebook page. Preston.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Is it Preston for the number four or F?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: F. Okay.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Preston for prosecutor dot com. Okay. Prosecutor dot com. Okay. Thank you.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: And on that page, folks can see, you know, the things that I stand for as well as the individuals that are supporting me as I engage in this race.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Gotcha. Awesome. So.
Oh, go ahead.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: I'll say there's also an email address on there, and I'm checking all those emails as they come in.
And so obviously, there's. There's a lot to do during the day, so if there's a little lag in response, just have some grace with me as I catch up on those things, usually in the evening hours and on the weekends. But I'm trying to be responsive to individuals as they reach out and ask questions and make sure that, you know, I'm engaging as much as possible.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yes, for sure. So, prestonforprosecutor.com and on Facebook, it's Preston McCollum. Just your name as you spell it there, right?
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Yes, ma'. Am.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Preston, thank you so much for taking the time to spend with us today to help the voters and PCOs know more about you. Again, this is such an important part of the process. It's a unique situation, again, where we have a county executive, an elected county executive that's a partisan. So Larry Haskell has retired and vacated the office, and that's what allowed for this opportunity to happen. The PCOs then get to vote for this important position on their recommendation for the candidate, and that goes to the county commissioners. So, Preston, that timeline. I know we're voting next week, the PCOS here in Spokane, on Saturday, August 16th, I believe is the date. And then any idea on when the county prosecutor, county commissioners plan to do their.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: Well, I don't know exactly when they plan. So this process is outlined by statute, but it's also actually part of our state constitution. And this is one of the weird scenarios where our state constitution is more descriptive than our statute.
But I believe the timeline is the. The county commissioners have 60 days to select from the three individuals that get submitted to them.
So the voting occurring on August 16th is, you know, right about halfway through that time period.
And so assuming once the party makes their selections and forwards them on, the board will roughly have, you know, 30 days or so in order to make that decision. And so just have to determine when that works for their schedule.
And I don't know what, if any, additional formal process they might request, but statutorily and per the state constitution, 60 days is the time limit to complete the whole process.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: So this should be, you know, we should be looking for a finality at least of this part of the process here within the next month or so, so.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Correct. Yeah. Mid September, the whole thing should be wrapped, because 60 days for Mr. Haskell's last day will put us right in the middle of September.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Awesome. Again, Preston, thank you so much for spending time with us. Thank you for stepping up to run for this important role. We know it's a big job, and we greatly appreciate great candidates like yourself stepping up to do this. It's very, very important that we have great leadership to help move this trend the opposite direction in our community.
So thank you and blessings to you and your family.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Thank you and thank you for doing what you do in terms of interviewing candidates and highlighting, you know, these races, because it's important for people to see who the candidates are, what they stand for, and have an opportunity to talk about themselves, because I know that I go back and I watch your podcast as I'm looking at candidates, and so it's been very informative to be able to see how folks answer. So thank you.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Thank you, Preston. All right, take care. Blessings.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: You as well.
