County Prosecuting Attorney Tillotson tenders resignation
Published 1:30 am Friday, November 28, 2025
Grays Harbor County Prosecuting Attorney Norma J. Tillotson has tendered her resignation effective Dec. 31.
In a letter dated Nov. 22 and addressed to the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners (BOCC), Tillotson wrote, “It has been my honor to serve the citizens of Grays Harbor County, and I remain deeply grateful for the trust placed in me during my tenure.”
Tillotson, the highest paid elected official in Grays Harbor County with an annual salary of $237,460, named Bryan Lane as Acting Prosecuting Attorney “until the Board appoints a qualified candidate from the Democratic Party to fulfill the remainder of my term.”
However, in October, during a salary increase request between the prosecutor’s office and the BOCC, District 2 Commissioner Georgia Miller pointed out that the prosecutor’s office’s negative reputation is a major hindrance when it comes to recruitment and retention.
“We have had not one, but two investigations, internal investigations, that have been done on complaints for employees toward the prosecuting attorney’s office, and those have not been addressed,” Miller told Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Crawford during a BOCC “non-action” meeting in early October. “And until those things are addressed, behavior is addressed, we’re going to have the same problem over and over again. The positions are there, we’ve authorized to hire the positions, but nobody wants to come here.”
Grays Harbor County Administrator Sam Kim said at the time, “As Commissioner Miller indicated, there have been a couple of investigations, there are work culture issues, and we want to address that for retention and recruitment.”
It will be incumbent upon the Grays Harbor Democrats to nominate three candidates to put forth to the BOCC, which consists of Miller, Rick Hole and Vickie Raines, who will then conduct an interview and selection process. A similar procedure took place in July after County Treasurer Kenneth E. Albert stepped down on June 30.
Tillotson was appointed to the post in March 2021 after Katherine Svoboda was elected as superior court judge. She then won the 2022 election unopposed. She began her law career working in non-attorney positions in several county prosecutors offices. Tillotson was working as a paralegal in the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office when she was encouraged to apply to the Washington State Bar Association’s Law Clerk Program, and completed the program in January 2007. She sat for the bar the next month, and was sworn in as a licensed attorney in May 2007. After working in a mid-sized law firm in Spokane and in her own practice, focusing on family law, Tillotson was hired as a civil deputy prosecuting attorney with Grays Harbor County. She was named as Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor in 2018.
Whoever the County Commissioners appoint to fill Tillotson’s position in the interim will be required to declare their candidacy and participate in the primary and general election process.
May 4–8, 2026 is candidate filing week for the 2026 election. The 18-day primary voting window opens on July 17 and primary day is Aug. 4. The general election 18-day voting period begins on Oct. 16 with election day set for Nov. 3.
— Material from Dan Hammock’s March 5, 2021 article was used for this story.
