The top court in the county is charting a new path as its long-time administrator, who has outlasted filing systems and judges and managed the courts’ transition toward technological advancement, enters retirement.
Lewis County Superior Court Administrator Susie Palmateer had her last day on the job Friday, June 27, and celebrated with a retirement party at The Shire in downtown Chehalis.
Family, current and former judges, attorneys, county employees and more attended the evening celebration that filled most of the bar. Photos and silly posters covered the tables. They featured Palmateer and her coworkers, with faces photoshopped onto royalty and other wacky images, showing the affection her colleagues have for her and the stability she has provided to the county court.
Palmateer retired after 25 years working as the Lewis County Superior Court administrator and 41 years working for Lewis County. During that time, she aided the court with major transitions, first from analog bookkeeping and paper schedules to the widespread use of computers and technology such as email and online schedules. Lewis County Superior Court also became the first court in Washington state to use a new online record system called Odyssey.
Palmateer’s impact stretches beyond county borders because of the work she has done to help the state courts transition to a more efficient use of technology.
“Our agreement was, ‘you’re going to go onto other counties and help them,’” Palmateer said. “The other counties weren't ready to go on, so I went on to help other counties. So I have a lot of counties that do things my way. When people ask, ‘Why do you do that?’ ‘Because that's what Susie does.’”
Palmateer first began her time with the county as a legal secretary in the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office where she worked for five years before switching jobs and becoming a deputy clerk for Lewis County District Court for 10 years. Finally, she was appointed to the role of superior court administrator in 1999, where she has become a fixture of the court.
According to Palmateer, the position of superior court administrator was always her goal. Being able to move positions and continue to find jobs that challenged her and kept her learning is what kept her around for so long. When she first moved to her job with the superior court, she not only had to learn a new job, but figure out what it would look like in a new era of technology.
According to Palmateer, in 1999, the court still used a paper schedule and dockets, and judges didn’t use email, online calendars, dockets or anything related to technology.
She saw it as her first challenge of the job and quickly got them up to speed.
“I just always felt that challenge and wanting to take on new things,” Palmateer said. “When I started, our calendaring system was on this board with a bunch of papers attached to it. My challenge was to get them all online using email, using things online, getting that calendar online, just to be more efficient and streamline things.”
As court administrator, her job was varied and nuanced. She managed court policy, budgets, personnel and judicial dockets as well as programs and resources within the court, like arbitration or the ad litem program, which appoints attorneys to represent people who cannot represent themselves — often children.
She kept the court running smoothly and made many changes and updates over the years to make sure it stayed that way.
“Working in courts, you take care of everybody. You make everything work for everybody, and I love doing that,” Palmateer said. “I’ve done it with families and events, and you get that satisfaction of making things work. I’ve seen other counties that are too big that can't get a lot of stuff done, can't move cases through, and I felt that challenge to keep it small, to keep us moving cases through, and make it efficient not only for the people I work with but for the public.”
Before Palmateer took on the job of superior court administrator, her predecessor worked in the court for 20 years. In order to make the new transition a smooth one, Palmateer spent the last month and a half training her replacement, Dahkota Harmanson, who will become just the third Lewis County Superior Court administrator since the 1980s.
Harmanson, like Palmateer, is from Lewis County and also has significant experience preparing for the job. Before taking it on, she worked in the Lewis County Clerk’s Office for nearly 10 years as a courtroom clerk. She would often run into Palmateer while working as a clerk for Lewis County Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee.
Harmanson said that before taking a job with the Lewis County Clerk’s Office, she never planned on working in law or courts. She apparently didn’t know exactly what she would be doing when accepting the clerk job.
“I applied for a job at the clerk’s office and accepted the job, and I honestly had no idea what I was going to be doing or what even the role of the county clerk's office was,” Harmanson said. “But I've enjoyed every minute of working there.”
Even so, she quickly came to aspire to the role of superior court administrator before being selected for the job. She has now shadowed Palmateer and transitioned into the role.
While small notes at the retirement party remarked about the large shoes that Harmanson will have to fill, Palmateer was not worried about the transition.
“It's a great time to leave,” Palmateer said. “Everybody’s working well together. My replacement is settled in … She's got that forward thinking that's going to do well for the court, so I'm confident that they’re in good hands. She'll get them through the change.”
Now that the transition is over, Palmateer is ready to embrace retirement. At the event Friday, she said she and a friend already had a trip planned for the next day. The two took off toward Walla Walla on motorcycles Saturday morning.
She said her retirement will be filled with motorcycles, family and finally learning to enjoy yard work.
