Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, left, and county Sheriff Rob Snaza held their third town hall-style meeting Thursday night at the Pe Ell School. They talked about a number of issues, including partnerships between agencies, mental health, public records requests and drug crime.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer speaks at a town hall meeting at Pe Ell School in February.
Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza speaks Thursday night at a town hall meeting at the Pe Ell School. Snaza and Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer have now held three town hall meetings to discuss issues facing their offices with residents of Lewis County.
Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza and Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer held their third Town Hall meeting Thursday night at the Pe Ell School, discussing mental health, drug enforcement and partnerships with about 25 community members who attended the meeting.
“We’ve done so many things this past year,” Snaza said.
Pe Ell Marshal Mike Hartnett also spoke briefly at the meeting.
“I had some growing pains, and I’m still figuring things out,” he said.
Hartnett has been Pe Ell’s only full-time law enforcement officer for about a year and a half. This fall, he brought on three reserve deputy marshals to help patrol the isolated community.
“Crime is in a downward slide out here,” he said.
Snaza praised Hartnett’s work in Pe Ell, saying he has done an “outstanding job,” and that the two agencies work well together.
“The partnerships we have are very close,” Snaza said. “When we need each other’s help … we’re just a phone call away.”
Lewis County Commissioners Edna Fund, Gary Stamper and Bill Schulte also attended the meeting.
Meyer and Snaza told citizens about the county’s success in the past year with its Mental Health Alternative program
“It turns out that the Lewis County Jail is the biggest mental health provider in our county,” Meyer said.
The sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices, Cascade Mental Health Care and other agencies created the Mental Health Alternative program to help break the cycle of drug addiction and petty crime by helping coordinate an offender’s housing, transportation, counseling and medication, rather than just sending them to jail.
“When we sit together around a table there’s no ego,” Meyer said.
Meyer said the unique program is starting to attract attention on a statewide and national level. Researchers from the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus are studying the program.
Snaza said the program is funded through the county’s one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax for mental health and actually saves the county money in the long run, by keeping people out of jail and leading productive lives.
“If it was your family member that had a drug addiction … would you do anything you could to stop that and get them back on a productive way of life?” Snaza asked.
Snaza also told citizens about the effectiveness of the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, or JNET, which is a partnership between the Centralia and Chehalis police departments and the Sheriff’s Office.
The group is able to share resources and information between the three jurisdictions and has made a number of arrests of local and regional drug dealers. The Sheriff’s Office has been able to spend money seized in these arrests to purchase new equipment, Snaza said.
“We’re spending drug dealers’ money like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.
Snaza, Meyer and the county commissioners also discussed a growing number of massive public records request, which they said were rising to the level of being abusive and harassing.
They were quick to note that they wish to be transparent, and have no trouble working with local media agencies.
“That’s not where the problem lies,” Schulte said.
Snaza said the Sheriff’s Office recently received a public records request that they estimate will take 20 years to fill. He noted that the county is being sued by former sheriff’s candidate Brian Green for failing to disclose a single document.
