Tommy Gong invites you to Halloween wedding ‘scaremonies’

Presenter: Introducing the new Lane County clerk Oct. 14, County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky:

[00:00:06] Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): Tommy Gong was hired as Lane County’s new county clerk in July, following a competitive national search.

[00:00:13] He succeeds former Clerk Dena Dawson, who left to take the role as elections director with the Oregon secretary of state’s office. Side note: Turns out Lane County is an incubator for talent. We seem to lose really good people to the state, and thankfully, we also seem to recruit incredible people with great experience like Tommy.

[00:00:34] The county clerk, for those who are not familiar, and their staff are responsible for conducting elections, recording real property, issuing marriage licenses, and domestic partnership registrations, and coordinating the Property Values Appeal Board.

[00:00:49] Tommy served as an election administrator for over 22 years and is a passionate advocate for building public trust in elections and our communities, served as California’s Contra Costa County previously in San Luis Obispo County and Stanislaus County.

[00:01:05] In California, he was also a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center‘s task force on elections and a member of the Election Workforce Advisory Council. He led the effort to form the coalition of Bay Area election officials for neighboring counties to collaborate on building public trust in elections in shared media markets.

[00:01:25] You can see how Tommy’s experience and background and knowledge is going to play so well here in Lane County with work that Dena Dawson had begun, to continue to advance so much of that work around building trust in our election system.

[00:01:41] I will also say that Mr. Gong was one of the first graduates of the California’s professional election administrator credentials in 2005 and completed the national certified election registration administrator program in 2021.

[00:01:57] We’re so pleased to have Tommy here. He’s going to give you a little bit more about himself and the Nov. 4 election. Maybe he’ll share with you a little more about his book on Bruce Lee that he wrote many years ago, if anyone has that interest. So without further ado, I’ll introduce Tommy Gong to all of you.

[00:02:15] Tommy Gong (Lane County, county clerk): Great. Thank you very much, Steve. A real honor to be here before Chair Loveall and fellow commissioners. A real honor, thank you very much for this opportunity to serve as your next county clerk of Lane County.

[00:02:29] As we know, I oversee the deeds and records and also as the county archivist. So it’s something that I’m looking very closely at in terms of our microfilm and our imaging of all of our vital records and historical records of our county.

[00:02:45] And then also very happy to start up doing the marriage ceremonies for couples that are getting married in the county. And I’m also going to make the plug for our “Scaremonies” on Halloween, Friday the 31st. And so it’s very popular, I will say, already 15 out of the 20 spots are already filled. And so, and me being the only person that can perform these ceremonies, I will be very busy dressed as a pirate conducting these ceremonies.

[00:03:17] When it comes to elections, my pledge to you is that I pledge to conduct elections in a neutral, non -partisan, a political manner to the best of my team’s ability with professionalism and respect.

[00:03:32] And that as we follow the rule of law, conducting elections, we will be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and embracing three guiding principles to ensure fair and free elections. That is with continuous improvement, number two, safety and security, and three, transparency.

[00:03:52] If I could just highlight: the transparency piece is so critical today with public trust in elections that it’s something that I take with me from my career in elections, really understanding the need for the public to have a better awareness and understanding of the election process.

[00:04:11] So it’s up to us election officials, let’s say, throughout the state of Oregon to really state our case and to really educate the public of all of the processes and procedures, all of the checks and balances that are in the process that ensure the integrity of elections.

[00:04:28] And so with that in mind, I just wanted to give you a quick update to our upcoming election. Election Day is three weeks away being in November. But it’s not for all voters in Lane County. It’s only involving about 87,000 voters only, including the city of Springfield, Dune City, Lane County Fire and Rescue, and Lane Fire Authority are the only four districts who have measures on the ballot.

[00:04:56] And so also, for those who might be in one of these districts, today is the deadline to register to vote for this election. I will say for me, spending most of my career in elections in California that I’m having to learn, you know, some of the changes or the differences of the way elections are conducted here in Oregon. And so we do encourage for those who want to participate in the election to be sure that they register by the state.

[00:05:25] We don’t have same-day registration, for example, in Oregon. So it’s critical that voters who want to participate get registered in time. That could be 11:59 today at oregonvotes.gov to be sure that they can get registered.

[00:05:40] This Thursday, ballots will be in the mail for this November election. We will also have our 11 dropboxes. Only those boxes that are within those four jurisdictions will be open and be prepared for voters to return their ballots.

[00:05:55] If the voters decide to return their ballots through the Postal Service, we do encourage them to submit their ballots early. Just because of the way postmarking takes place with the Postal Service, we do encourage voters to get their ballots in early at a post office.

[00:06:14] But of course, they have the option dropping them off at one of our drop boxes, that helps saves on taxpayers’ money with the postage return, right?

[00:06:23] We also want to mention that observation is open to the public to observe any of our processes. Again, this is our transparency effort so that the public can understand more, and I can educate them directly to explain all of the processes and procedures that we have in place to ensure the ballots are secured and also counted appropriately.

[00:06:45] So with that in mind, if there are observers that are interested to contact my office, and we can set up a time for them to observe, we will also have our live stream cameras up, something that Ms. Dawson had implemented here, which is a great transparency process, by the way. We’ll have those going this thursday as well.

[00:07:03] The live stream will be on for the public to see what’s going on in our office to all the critical areas when we’re processing these ballots. And then also, though, at the same time, we have a May election that’s happening.

[00:07:16] And, of course, candidate filing, initial candidate filing is happening right now as we speak for three county commissioner seats and cities with primaries and also precinct committee person positions are also subject to the ballot so a lot going on and again I just want to thank you very much for this opportunity to serve.

[00:07:39] Presenter: Commissioner Laurie Trieger:

[00:07:41] Commissioner Laurie Trieger: With the ballot drop box being limited to being open in the districts that actually have something on the ballot, I’m just thinking from a sort of optics and messaging, if people are used to any drop box being open and they get to one and it’s locked, there could be a narrative around that.

[00:07:56] So whether we need signage at the closed drop boxes or just some way we get the word out to people who might be used to being able to drop their ballots in more places than they will.

[00:08:05] Tommy Gong: Oh, yes. Thank you for that comment. That’s a great suggestion. We do have the information in every l ballot packet about which boxes are going to be open, but we could do more, too. .

[00:08:17] Presenter: Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:08:19] Commissioner Pat Farr: Mr. Gong, it is an honor, truly an honor to meet you. I just actually ordered the book bruce Lee, the evolution of a martial artist by Tommy Gong. Such a good book for any martial artist interested in Lee and his system of fighting.

[00:08:33] Mr. Gong, thank you for joining us here in Lane County. You bring your professional service here. Look forward to working with you. And on Nov. 5, you’ll see me in your office with three dozen Voodoo donuts, which is my practice.

[00:08:43] Tommy Gong: Thank you very much. And when you receive that copy, I’m happy to autograph it as well as seal it with my Chinese chop, so I’m happy to do that.

[00:08:52] Presenter: Commissioner Heather Buch:

[00:08:53] Commissioner Heather Buch: Thank you for coming to Lane County and being willing to run what is notably a complex election cycle here, generally speaking. We have a lot going on. But I’m also really excited about updating our area where marriages occur, which is outside of our offices. So we get to see that quite a bit. I missed not seeing that for some time when it went over to the clerk’s location. But I hear it’s back. And we’ll be seeing you or running into you a little bit more than normal. (Thank you.)

[00:09:28] Presenter: Commissioner Ryan Ceniga:

[00:09:30] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga: You do have big shoes to fill. We were all fans of Dena Dawson. And I feel like she left you in a great place. I mean, she brought a lot of transparency to Lane County elections. And I look forward to more of that in hearing that that’s one of your priorities is very exciting. So welcome aboard and appreciate it.

[00:09:48] Tommy Gong (Lane County, county clerk): Thank you very much.

[00:09:50] Presenter: Commissioner David Loveall.

[00:09:51] Commissioner David Loveall: Mr. Gong, welcome, Mr. Pirate Preacher. I just want to know if in your book did you disprove the myth that Bruce Lee could pluck the wings off a fly as it flew by him.

[00:10:00] Tommy Gong: Well, of course you know he could do that.

[00:10:01] Commissioner David Loveall: Well, okay, there you go. I just want to make sure that was a proven fact and not just rumor. Well, again, welcome to Lane County. Thank you so much.

[00:10:07] Tommy Gong: Thank you very much.

[00:10:08] Presenter: The new Lane County Clerk, Tommy Gong, reminds voters that today, Oct. 14, is the last day to register for the November election.