Donna Deal retires as County Auditor

POMEROY- Garfield County Auditor's Office, Donna Deal has officially retired after 37 years of service on April 30, 2020.

She began her career as the Licensing and Recording Deputy, then moved up to the position of Chief Deputy, eventually being appointed in 1991, and ultimately elected to the position of County Auditor, where she served for the past 30 years. She was re-elected every four years, through a total of eight election cycles, but was opposed only once.

Deal is a native of Grangeville, Idaho, where she graduated high school in 1979. She attended college at Lewis Clark State College, and in 1981 she met her husband Mike Deal, graduated with an Associate Degree in Accounting, was married, and moved to Pomeroy. That was a really important year for her! Two years later, she began her long and dedicated career with Garfield County. Deal holds a few records in Garfield County for the longest service: as an elected County official, as a County employee, and as County Auditor.

What Deal enjoyed most about her years at the County courthouse, was the comradery she experienced with her co-workers. She said that she has always enjoyed working with numbers, and making things balance, and the Auditor's office gave her lots of opportunities for that. Over the years she learned new computer systems and new ways of doing things. Also, she loved working with and chatting with customers.

Much has changed at the courthouse since she first began. In the beginning, all records were kept on giant ledgers, by hand. Now everything is automated, and the amount of actual paper being kept has been greatly reduced. Deal learned and made the transitions with ease. The Auditor's office is responsible for running elections. Deal said one of the biggest changes she has seen is the implementation of voting by mail. In fact, she said Garfield County was the first in the state to move to mail-in votes.

Her most fond memories are from her tenure is the renovation of the courthouse itself in 2011. She helped write the grant, managed the bids and the finances surrounding the renovation, and documented the process with over 400 photos. Deal plans to put together a "scrapbook" of sorts about the renovation during her much desired time off. She has collected a lot of material, but has never had the time to put it all together.

Deal said her biggest challenge in life so far was a period when she underwent cancer treatments in 2016. She is in good health now, but said it made her think about if she wanted to continue working at that time, although she had a great deal of support from co-workers and family. She realized that "life is short" and she wanted to make more time for her family. As she has often said to her co-workers, she believes that "work is work, but your family is your life." And she admitted that it was "just time" for retirement.

Her plans for retirement include for the immediate future volunteering a few hours each week at the courthouse to help with the transition. She also wants to spend more time with, and travel with, her family. She looks forward to having the time to volunteer at the Food Bank and the Agricultural Museum.

Deal expressed the hope that she was always a "friendly face" at the courthouse, and made doing business there pleasant for everyone. When asked about any future plans for public office, Deal responded with a slight chuckle, "Not currently, but I never say never."