January 5, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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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.
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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.
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Shelton-Mason County Journal-Thursday, January 5, 2012 - Page A-3