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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 5, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 5, 2012
 
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BOE Continued from page A-1 In the letter, Sims in- formed the DOR that the As- sessor's office and the BOE, which are separate entities, were not using comparable home values in separate counties to set property val- ues in Mason County. The letter detailed problems with the BOE accepting private appraisals, or its willingness to adjust property Values to match current conditions. The DOR sent a reply in No- vember, citing "inconsisten- cies in appraisal methods" in the Mason County Assessor's office. "We found there was a lack of standardized practices and structured procedures to guide appraisers in their work. Uniformity in assessed values is dependent on stan- dardized procedures and pro- cesses," wrote Mike Braaten, manager of the County Per- formance and Administration Program, in the letter. The letter also addressed Sims' concerns about private appraisals being excluded. "The board accepted the appraisal as market evidence for the appeal, yet chose to disregard the information for some unknown reason," Braaten's letter reads. "The board's order should have addressed the reason(s) why this appraisal did or did not convince them of the subject's market value." Cleveland said officials at DOR said there were several other equilization boards in Washington under review. The week after the DOR issued its final report, the Mason County Board of Com- missioners voted to send the BOE a letter asking them to clarify what efforts they had made to come into com- pliance with state law. The BOE sent the commission its reply the week before Christ- mas, Cleveland said. Mason County Commis- sioner Lynda Ring Erickson said she is satisfied with the progress made by the board. "I haven't had a chance to talk to Darryl (Cleveland) about it," she said. "I've worked with him in the past. He's the kind of person in my opinion who always tries to do things well." Ring Erickson said the coun- ty would work to make sure all of the issues are addressed. '%Ve're fully committed to getting it done and doing it right," she said. In every instance but one, the BOE is making changes to comply with DOR requests. In its final report, the Depart- ment of Revenue first stated that the board needs to con- sider all applicable evidence during an appeal hearing. The DOR report further said that the board was required to consider similar home val- ues across county fines. This is one of the problems Sims first raised in June. "The assessors (and BOE) have ignored taxpayers' re- quests to consider and ques- tion or reconcile the differ- ence in the Mason County as- sessed land values compared to the neighboring Kitsap County land values of near- identical properties. Mason County's values on all its Panther Lake properties are roughly 100 percent greater than Kitsap's," Sims wrote. Cleveland disagrees that the BOE didn't ever consider all applicable evidence. He said he wasn't sure why the DOR thought they didn't. "They were considered - but the Mason County As- sessor's Office had enough sales in Mason County that they gave that more weight," he said. %Ve honestly don't know." Kevin Crane owns two parcels of land on Panther Lake. One half-acre lake- front parcel with a 40 percent downgrade sits in Mason County, while the second, a slightly larger lakefront par- cel, is in Kitsap County. In 2010, Crane said he got a rude awakening. The larg- er Kitsap parcel went down in value from $114,000 to $103,000, while the adjoining Mason County parcel went up, from $95,000 to $206,000. Crane appealed to the BOE with a prepared 12-page brief and 285 pages of supporting documents. The BOE denied his appeal, with little expla- nation, he said. "They flat ignored all of my evidence," he said. "I present- ed 35 comparable listings ... the BOE wrote me a letter saying I didn't provide clear and convincing evidence." The BOE has addressed the report's other concerns, Cleveland said. "It was all record keeping - we weren't keeping enough records and in enough de- tail," he said. Specifically. the board plans to make changes as follows: The board will now mail notices out a full four weeks before a hearing date and give more detailed decisions to appellants. The board will now use DOR guidelines to publish records of hearings, and will post those records to its web page on the Mason County website. The BOE is also now reviewing its procedures re- lating to accepting petitions and revising their "Letter of Denial" for incomplete or late submissions. The board believes it is in compliance with the report's sixth issue, which requires the BOE to use discretion as to how to proceed with evidence submitted by appellants. The board will also do a better job maintaining confidential in- formation. Cleveland said in some cases this was not hap- pening before the draft report. "All the copies are shred- ded and now the originals are in sealed envelopes and in a locked case," he said. The last issue, that the board cannot meet for more than 28 days in a year with- out county commission ap- proval, was resolved before the final report came out. Cleveland said he isn't sure why appellants filed complaints with the Depart- ment of Revenue and the State Auditor's Office. "I don't exactly know what was said to the Department of Revenue or the State Auditor's Office." he said. "I don't under- stand what their thinking was." Cleveland said that some appellants do not understand the appeal process. 'We rim a pretty tight meeting and a lot of times the appellant comes totally un- prepared," he said. Cleveland said emotions tend to get pretty heated in BOE appeal hearings. "There have been times when I've closed the meeting because it was getting per- sonal," he said. Both the BOE and the as- sessors office hope yearly property revaluations will help decrease the amount of appeals coming in to the board. In 2010, 445 appeals were submitted to the BOE. In December, 2011, the board was still sorting through these appeals. In 2011, how- ever, the board only received 150. The board plans to be finished with 2011 appeals by i City swears n new commissioners By NATALIE JOHNSON The City of Shelton commission wel- comed two new members during its Tuesday evening meeting. Shelton Municipal Court Judge George Steele swore in new Commis- sioner of Finance Mike Olsen and new Shelton Mayor and Commissioner of Public Safety Gary Cronce before the start of Tuesday's meeting. After being sworn in, Cronce ad- dressed the members of the public in attendance. "I'm looking forward to being a team player," he said. '%Ve need Shelton to be a business-friendly city." The commissioners decided to dis; cuss what boards and committees they prefer to serve on during a retreat meeting at 8:30 a.m. on Friday at the city's public safety building on Franklin Street. In the first meeting of 2012, the city also listened to a proposal by the Ma- son County Senior Activities Center to apply with the city for a Community Development Block Grant. The senior ceIter wants to apply for $1 million of grant funding to help purchase the Mason County PUD 3 complex on Cota Street in downtown Shelton. The city commission also listened to a first reading of an ordinance to sell sev- eral Water and Sewer Revenue Bonds to begin paying off short-term loans to the United States Department of Agri- culture for the construction of the city's new wastewater treatment plant. The city plans to sell four bonds, to- taling nearly $25 million to the USDA to pay back the loans. Belfair man busted with 1 million chi By KEVAN MOORE Belfair redent Donald Ryan Oars, 67, was arrested this week for allegedly pos- sessing more than one million images of child pornography. Oars' arrest Wednesday mormng following the ex- ecution of a search warrant at his home in the 100 block of Rocky Point Lane comes after a more than two-year investigation by the Mason County Sheriffs Office. The sheriff office also. had assis- tance from the Washington State Patrol, the Squaxin Island Public Safety Depart- ment and the U.S. Depart- ment of Homeland Security. Mason County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Dean Byrd said that the investiga- tion began m April 2009 fol- lowing a tip from one of the Oars' family members. 'Tqe've been working on it ever since," Byrd said. Byrd said that investiga- tors are compang images taken from the man's com- puter with those in a na- tional database in order to identify the victims and their ages.He said that the outside police agencies were called in because of their expertise in such matters. Byrd said that no local children have been identified in any of the images seized id porn pics from Oars' home. Oars is be- hag held in the Mason County Jail under investigation for both possessing and viewing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Oars was expected to make his first Mason County Superior Court appearance sometime today, Thursday, Jan. 5. Byrd said that Oars has no prior criminal convic- tions. / v/5 Our surgeons are very sDecial, too. Experts a surgeries such as gallbladder, oreasL hernias, colon, and more. MGH Surgery Clinic also specializes in creating a canng environment- close o home. Call today to make an aDDointmen to discuss your surgical needs. Mason General Hospital Surge0000j CHnic (360] 426-4142 1710 N 13th LOOp Rd, %elton, WA www.MasonGeneral.conr | County elects chair, discusses committees By NATALIE JOHNSON The first action in 2012 of the Mason County Board of Commissioners was to reap- point Commissioner Lynda Ring Erickson as commission chair. "I would be honored," Ring Erickson said. Ring Erickson and Com- missioner Tim Sheldon re- viewed when each of them had previously served as chair. Ring Erickson recalled that she had served as chair in 2006 and 2007, then again in 2011. Sheldon served as chair in 2008 and 2009. Ross Gallagher served as chair in 2010, they said. Commissioner Steve Bloomfield, who was ap- pointed in October, declared that he had no desire to serve as chair before he moved to appoint Ring Erickson. The commission all briefly discussed whether to con- sider instating a policy that would only allow a county resident to serve in one advi- sory committee at a time. The discussion came about when the commission needed to approve a motion to appoint a group of citizens to the Transportation Im- provement Program Citiz?ns r Advisor Panel (TIP-CAP). One of the appointees is Bel- fair resident Ken VanBus- kirk, who already serves on the Mason County Planning Advisory Committee. "I like the idea of having citizens only serve on one committee - a broader repre- sentation I think would be a good thing," Sheldon said. Commissioner Bloomfield agreed, saying if too many committees had the same people serving on them, spe- cial interests could start de- termining county policy. "I think we should keep it to one ff we can," he said. However Sheldon sug- gested that this rule could be relaxed for ad hoc, or short- term committees, such as one he proposed later in the meeting to look at the bound- aries of the Belfair Urban Growth Area (UGA). However, Sheldon then switched directions, and said that because the TIP-CAP is a committee with no mem- bership limit, it would be OK for VanBuskirk to serve on it as well as the planning advi- sory committee. "I wouldn't want to deny somebody the ability to be on that kind of a board where there is unlimited member- ship if they are on another board," he said. Ring Erickson said what- ever the commission decides to do, it needs to be consis- tent. She said in the past she has asked citizens to chose between committees when they want to be on more than one. "I think this is inconsis- tent with actions we've taken in the past," she said. Ring Erickson suggest- ed voting for the TIP-CAP members as interim appoint- ments until the commission could decide on policies for serving in multiple commit- tees. %Vhat I would like to do is review what we have. Maybe we have to go to a more for- malized appointment process for the TIP-CAP," she said. "I'd like to have the conver- sation then put something in writing." The commission voted 2-1 to approve the appointments to the TIP-CAP committee with Ring Erickson voting against. The commission also agreed to discuss the pos- sibility of forming an advi- sory committee to look at the boundaries of the Belfair UGA sometime soon. "It's uncertain in many people's minds where those boundaries are," Sheldon said. "There's still a lot of confusion of where it is and what services are provided." Ring Erickson suggested giving any future advisory committee a broad scope, and allowing them to look at the Shelton and Allyn UGAs as well. Candidate Continued from page A-1 talking about campaigns and why they're trying to oust people from of- rice," she said. However, Anderson said members of have announced public office can spe during public comment if it has nothing to do with their cam- paign. Sheldon said that he didn't want the county to get in trouble with the PDC over the issue. "Randy, everything you've come here to say has always been impor- tant and well thought out," Sheldon said. "The city went through this is- sue." candidate Dawn Pannell and oppo- nent Gary Cronce both spoke about campaign materials during a city commission meeting. While Cronce was not a sitting city commissioner at the time, the PDC told the Shelton-Mason County Jour- nal that he should not have been al- lowed to discuss campaign materials Sheldon was referring to an in- during a city commission meeting stance in October when Shelton City while running for a position on that Commissioner and then mayoral commission. Advanced Chiropractic & Massage Accepting most insurances including Regence] and @ GroupHealth Same:Day Appoinen Welcome 422 N. 1st St. • Shelton Need Your Pants Hemmed? Can We Do That. 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