County clerk Jess Bradfield talks with Jason Williams on KVNU”s For the People on Monday.
LOGAN — Last fall after the general election, in which Cache County Clerk and auditor Jess Bradfield ran unopposed, he announced that he would be going part-time and that he thought it could work with a competent chief deputy and staff and Bradfield said it has worked great, but later he decided to resign the post fully and move back into the private sector.
On KVNU’s For the People program on Monday, he said many people have been encouraging him to stay.
“I just have to say, it’s been an amazing ride, it’s been a turbulent journey and I’ve had so many people reach out and just say ‘Jess please stay’. Dozens and dozens, I’ll meet people in the grocery store and they’ll say ‘what are you doing? You need to stay, don’t let people bully you. We elected you to fill that office,” he said.
Bradfield said his entire secular career has involved turning around organizations, including Fortune 500 and Global 50 companies, but he found that government is its own beast.
He said despite many wanting to stay put, he has made a decision.
“But at the end of the day, what I’ve decided is, I’ve got projects that I’m working on. And I’m going to wrap up those projects, it’ll take me a couple..few months to wrap those up. Whoever comes next is going to have the best run office in the state, there’s going to be no projects left undone. I’m also going to endorse my chief deputy, Bryson Behm, to run for office.”
Bradfield feels he has shown the muster to do the job.
“He’s proven over the last couple of years through all of this, that he has the skills and capabilities to run for office, and he’s just shown it as I went part-time that he could manage the office as well. So, if the council wants a full-time clerk-auditor, they’re going to get one and it’s going to be the best one….I don’t just say that because I trained him(laughs), but I say that because he really is the best.”
Of course, how this will play out is that, later, a special election will be announced by the Cache County Republican Party.
Bradfield said any short comings that have happened over the last few years, he takes ownership of, and any of the successes have been due to all of them, and he said Behm gets to claim credit for all of those.
After resigning from the Logan Municipal Council, Bradfield assumed the role of county clerk/auditor in September of 2020 following a special election by members of the Cache County Republican central committee.