Candidate John Christina emphasizes investments, succession planning in Spokane County treasurer interview

John Christina, a candidate for Spokane County treasurer, told the Spokane County Board of County Commissioners during a candidate interview that his priorities would be securing and investing taxpayer funds, grooming internal staff for future vacancies and finishing the county's Workday implementation.

“I think the core duties and functions … [are] to secure, to collect, secure, and invest, taxpayer funds,” Christina said when asked to describe the treasurer’s responsibilities. He described a long career in public finance — including serving as chief financial officer at multiple government agencies, work as a comptroller in the U.S. Air Force and a period in the private investment sector — and said he served in the treasurer’s office as an investment and banking deputy from 2015 to 2020.

Christina described practical experience managing investments and changing office practice, saying he brought in a third-party adviser for the county’s investment purchases and substantially revised internal policies. “Over the course of those five years, I believe I had a total of 38 revisions in policies and procedures within the investment department,” he said.

On countywide challenges, Christina pointed to population growth and its effect on services and infrastructure, saying an influx of residents — including people moving from California — will increase demand on county systems. He told commissioners the treasurer’s office can help other taxing districts by consolidating functions to reduce costs and by maintaining customer service capacity in the office.

Christina said succession planning is an immediate priority for the treasurer’s office, noting “we have a number of senior people who are gonna be leaving here the next 4 to 6 years” and advocating ‘‘a program so we can start grooming these people to take over the positions.” He also said Workday implementation remains a short-term priority: “Hopefully it’ll be resolved. But there are some issues with that and we just continue to work through them.”

When asked about labor relations, Christina described past experience negotiating with unions while serving as a chief financial officer at the Spokane Regional Health District and said he has been a member of three unions earlier in his career. On public-records retention, he said the office has shifted from paper storage to electronic records and that he is familiar with state requirements; he added that the county had not yet completed the 2024 retention work and that staff planned to continue staging records as needed.

Christina told the commissioners he would run for election if appointed. “If appointed I will definitely run to fulfill the remainder of the term,” he said, and added he planned to run for the full term beginning in 2026 unless health or other unexpected issues intervened. He described an expected campaign plan that would include hiring local campaign managers and initially lending money to the campaign to pay for signs and startup costs.

The interview included questions from several commissioners, including Commissioner Jordan and Commissioner Waldorf, and closed without a vote. The board recessed and said it would reconvene later to continue its business.