December 8, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Letters high in knowing I did the are made up on items before
very best I could every time they enter an open public
Continued from page A-4 I was on microphone or meeting.
helping with a community The most recent one en-
and Mark Woytowich of event. My next opportunity tails the 2012 budget which
Woytowich Design. All have lies ahead and I can't wait. affects all services to the
touched me in a personal Thank you all and see you taxpayer, if it is allowed to
manner and I haven't forgot- down the road. stay on record. They passed a
ten and won't forget. There total current expense budget
are more, too numerous to Randy Roadzof $30,689,687 at a properly
mention here. Ah, and Our Olympia advertised hearing on Dec. 5,
wonderful annual local fes- which includes a $6.9 million
tivals and events -- from carry over from 2011.
the Annual Janis Byrd Hope Pro]ems This was the submitted
for the Holidays Food Drive, budget from all department
Mason CoLmty Forest Fes- ith t,, heads and was done accord-
tival, Yesteryear Car Club W coun~.~t, ingtolaw. However, during
Car Show, Mason Area Fair this meeting, they chose
& Rodeo, Chamber Busi- offici a ls not to listen to or heed the
hess Expo, Olympic College report of the Auditor's Chief
Career Expo at Shelton High Financial Officer. Because
School, Shelton Police De- Editor, the Journal of this, the very next day on
partment Citizen's Academy For some time now, I have Dec. 6, they tried to cover up
led by Officer Daniel Patton, been tempted to write letters an item by a simple motion
Kristmas Town Kiwanis to the Journal editor to try to that was included in their
First Friday and Christmas inform the citizens of what is vote on Dec. 5.
Parade, our annual Veterans going on in our commission- Without any advertise-
Day celebrations and many ers' office. What happened ment to the public and
more. My goal in being on Tuesday at the commission without testimony even from
the air was always to give a meeting prompted me to write those present that very next
smile to someone who quite to the Mason County Prosecu- day, Dec. 6, they made a mo-
possibly didn't have one and tor and the Shelton Journal. tion, seconded it and passed
to be a companion to some- As a citizen and taxpayer it to adjust the budget that
one who quite possibly didn't of Mason County, I am very they had previously passed
have a companion or was a concerned about some of the the day before.
shut-in. I'm very proud of decisions that have beenOut of the clear blue sky,
my contribution to the local made by the Board of Mason a motion was made, second-
radio and to our community. County Commissioners with- ed and passed by all three
I only wish I could have done out citizen input, commissioners. This was
more. To my many regular Some probably border on done without any explana-
and faithful listeners like illegal and others could be tion or discussion from the
Mark, Sandra, Sheri, CarD- plain illegal. In any case, the three, before the public had
line, Justin, Kathy, Jennifer, commissioners in the past a chance to question them
Keith, Reda, Amy, Reid, have made decisions thatabout it.
Bobble, Arlene, Tammy, affect the taxpayers of this Sheriff Casey Salisbury
Kelli, Rob, Kevin and many county and in many casestried to ask questions, but
more - I say thank you for the board has not considered was refused the opportunity.
your loyalty and dedication testimony from the citizens Even a grade school student
to my show. With the sta- before they voted, could see that it was clear
tion changing to a different They need to remember from the point of no explana-
format at the first of the that they work for us and tion or discussion that this
year, I was told that it would questions from the public action had been planned
be staffed with a "skeleton should be answered, ahead of time.
crew." I was basically a Over the past few years They again tried to cover
victim of budget cuts. I just commission discussions evi- it up by saying that they had
wanted to have this chance dently have been going on discussed it in a briefing that
to say "so long for now" and that do not consitute open morning. If so, the briefing
leave with my head held government and their minds was still an illegal meeting,
County looks for change with BOE
By NATALIE JOHNSON return calls," she said.
Finally, the board told her she could not
Last month the Washington State Depart- filean appeal because the house was still in
ment.of Revenue (nOR) released an audit re- her mother's name.
port stating that the Mason County Board of Jones isn't the only one frustrated with the
Equalization had broken the law eight times. BOE. Several homeowners in the Tiger Lake
On Tuesday the Mason County Commis- area, including Ken Langhorn, are considering
sion asked for a report from the board on what filing a class-action lawsuit against the county.
steps are being taken to make the corrections Langhorn was one of the first to bring to the
detailed in the report, attention of the State Auditor's Office and the
"I think they've obviously been operating DOR the actions of the Board of Equalization
outside of state standards," said commission- after challenging the assessment on his home.
er Tim Sheldon. "I was warned by the other residents who
After hearing that the nOR recently in- went before me - I kind of knew what to ex-
vestigated the board, some Mason County pect," Langhorn said.
residents lamented that they hadn't made a The attitude of the board first concerned
complaint against the BOE too. Langhorn.
"I didn't know I could file a complaint, oth- "They were sitting there but not listening,"
erwise I would have filed one in June," said he said.
Belfair homeowner Betty Jones. Lanhorn owns a home near Tiger Lake
Jones inherited a house from her mother in that is not on waterfront property. However
2010 and was astounded when she saw that the assessor's office used values of waterfront
the county Assessor's office had valued the properties to determine his tax rate.
1998 manufactured home at $78,000. "Why have laws if they're not going to be
Jones' bank valued the home, which is on enforced?" he asked.
blocks at $30,000. The valuation does not in- Sheldon said the county commission would
clude the land which belongs to her sister, have to strongly consider new appointments
Jones said. to the BOE.
"The county is assessing things unfairly," "The chair of the board is a former assessor
she said .... Darryl Cleveland," Sheldon said. "I think
Jones spent nine months trying to getwe need to be careful who we appoint to that
straight answers from the Board of Equaliza- position."
tion, and eventually turned to the Olympia Jones only heard about the nOR audit aider it
Assessor's Office for advice, had been completed and said she worries about
"I was told they were doing no reviews of other homeowners who don't know their rights.
property taxes until all the 2011 property tax "I'm worried about other elderly people ...
assessments were done," she said. "Nobody in If they're assessing everybody at outrageous
the Board of Equalization's office would ever rates," she said.
City looks to close book on Wallace Kneeland paving
By NATALIE JOHNSON located in Belfair, picked up again for final documenta-
shop and moved out of town. tion, which has not yet been
The bulk of last fall's "We have heard with var-done.
work to repave a portionious contacts with the state In order to officially com-
of Wallace Kneeland Bou-that he might be on the east plete the project, the city
levard was completed on side of the mountains," Mi- deducted the value of the
time, said City Engineerchael said. missing work from the con-
Mike Michael. Michael said the survey-tract, then settled with the
However, small delays or's responsibilities includ- original contractor.
set back the completion ed laying out "monuments" While the project is com-
date of the project until to mark critical points such pleted, the surveying needs
May 2011, and the final doc- as intersections and curves, to be finished to provide fi-
umentation on the survey- "When you build a road, hal documentation to the
ing work has still not been typically at least along the county and state.
completed, center line, we monument"Long-term as we do
"The licensed surveyor key points of that center line future phases of Wallace
that the contractor provid- alignment," he said. "He did Kneeland... having those
ed ... disappeared," Michael the original surveys to lo- monuments resurveyed and
said. "He completed most of cate where the monuments
the required survey workwere... He did enough that
but not all of it." the company that was in-
When Michael says "dis- stalling the monument
appeared," he's not kidding, could do it."
Apparently the surveyor,However, once the monu-
Bob Emerson of Benchmarkments were installed, they
Land Surveying, formerlyneeded to be'surveyed
because there was no notifi-
cation to the public of such,
and of course, they cannot
adjust or amend the passed
budget without holding a
public hearing.
With these tough eco-
nomic times, all of the other
elected officials, the depart-
ment heads and dedicated
employees deserve a thank
you from each of us for pro-
viding the essential services
to the public over the past
year on a skeleton budget
and with the loss of more
than 60 employees.
They deserve kudos for
not spending all of their 2011
budget, providing a carry
over, and have planned to
continue providing these es-
sential services to the public
in 2012 without an increase
in their budget.
I think that it is past time
that we, as taxpayers, de-
mand open responsible gov-
ernment in our county.
Annette S. McGee
Shelton
Four Stars
Award wi~nin~,
notional8' knovcn
Chef Xfflt~ Ow¢l[ey
A Wide Variety of
Seafood & Other Meat Dishes
with Chef Xinh T. DweUey's Asian Twist
(360) 427-8709. Open for Supper Tuesday-Saturd
Downtown She ton o Corner of 3rd and West Railroad Z
Sharp & More
TREES
Lacey & Union Homes- Dec 19
LACEY, WA • 4305 San Juan St NE. 2BR 2BA 1,428+/- sf. Built in
2005. Approx .1 ac lot.
Nominal Opening Bid: $25,000
UNION, WA • 321 E Jack Pine Lane.
in 1976. Approx .35ac lot.
Nominal Opening Bid: $10,000
2BR 2BA 1,924+/- sf. Built
Open Public Inspections: 1 4pro Sun Dec I8 and
2 hours before auction•
Above properties auction: 10:45am, Mon Dec
19 at 4305 San Juan St NE, Lacey, WA
o
~/VILI M,,M8 ~, ~/l I I.'\MS
worldwide real eslate 8ucIiorl
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Jus't/ , R E N TA L
First & Mill • Shelton
426-4373 or 426-2411
officially located is going to ......... :::::
be important for the proj-
ect," Michael said. "Some- •
time probably early next
year we'll get a surveyer in " ....
here and have them retrace iii ,. I
the surveying that has been ~i:.:~: .....
done." ""
Monday-Saturday 8:00-6:00
Sunday 9-5
Shelton-Mason
i~i~i~i;;i!iii:~i ~ii~iiiii!!:i .......
County Journal - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - Page A-5