Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Vehicle Graphics
I wanted to take a moment to recognize the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office for recent improvements to its vehicle graphics scheme.
Back in January, I wrote a column and accompanying letter regarding the agency’s new dark gray vehicles with black graphics and outlined lettering. Essentially, I was disappointed with the lack of identifiability of the fleet, citing current criminal justice philosophies and claims of recent law enforcement impersonators.
Sheriff Snaza did respond to my letter and column, but did not mention whether there would or would not be changes to the vehicle fleet.
But, it appears there have been some updates.
I saw a post from a local business on Facebook toward the end of April showing updated vehicle graphics. Instead of the word “sheriff” outlined in black vinyl, the word is now applied to the vehicle in full (filled in) black vinyl lettering with a subtle golden outline. This does two things: It increases the surface area of the reflective material (more opportunity for light to reflect) and provides additional contrast (increases identifiability).
It’s a subtle change — and I do wish there was more contrast even still — but it does make a measureable difference. And, I want to thank Sheriff Snaza and his administration for hearing the concerns of citizens and — by all appearances — attempting to strike a balance.
For all my “complaining,” I want to give due credit and respect where it is deserved. The visibility is better, no doubt.
And, the Sheriff’s Office had its newest vehicle graphics applied by a local company, which means the tax dollars stayed in our county — inside of the Chehalis city limits, even.
Lots of good things to celebrate here.
Bunker Landfill
It’s been several weeks since I last wrote about the Bunker landfill — but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been progress.
After my last piece on the landfill ran — detailing the history, the lack of county records, and its potential as a river and drinking water pollutant — there was a disagreement as to who would be handling the investigation of the site.
When my first public records request came back on the state Department of Ecology’s newly generated file on the landfill site, they indicated that Lewis County would be handling the investigation on behalf of DOE.
DOE was essentially asking Lewis County to investigate itself, after the county had failed to even report its own missing landfill records, on a site that the county owned and was financially responsible for.
After reviewing the policy documents that govern such site investigations, I cited a conflict of interest to the Southwest Washington state Toxics Cleanup manager, Rebecca Lawson, and the investigation ultimately ended up being kicked back to DOE.
I spoke with the member of the Toxics Cleanup program who is personally handling the preliminary Bunker landfill investigation. Kristen Alvarez was scheduled to meet with county staff at the Bunker landfill site Friday last week.
Open Public Meetings Act in Lewis County
On March 3, Chronicle reporter Natalie Johnson detailed the 2009 resolution that the commissioners were using to justify holding impromptu meetings without public notice. On April 4, Editor Eric Schwartz questioned the tactics used by the commissioners, followed again by myself on April 8 and 15, among other editorials.
The April 15 column caused a reactionary announcement at an April 18 press conference regarding secret meetings that had been held by commissioners regarding the formation of a “blue ribbon panel” to evaluate county organization.
By April 19, the prosecutor’s office had a new, proposed open public meeting policy on the commissioners’ desks, according to an article by Natalie Johnson in Thursday’s newspaper.
By May 10 — less than one month later (and following some additional bungles by the commissioners) the board of county commissioners were informed that they could no longer meet without 24 hours notice to the public, rendering the 2009 resolution essentially repealed.
That’s an impressive timeline by any standard, and I couldn’t be prouder of this newspaper and staff for its aggressive coverage of issues pertaining to the public’s right to know.
It’s worth noting that, if the county formally repealed the questionable 2009 resolution that possibly violates the state Open Public Meetings Act, it would have no defense in the current lawsuit facing the county and each of the three commissioners.
It cannot be overstated — this new policy drafted by the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office will dramatically change how the commissioners were doing business. But it will also dramatically increase transparency as to what he commissioners are doing, discussing and when — and should dramatically increase citizens’ ability to follow and engage with their local government.
Make no mistake, there is still work to be done. This single move toward increased transparency will not fully solve the management issues currently facing the county.
But seeing the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office fully recognize the rights of it’s citizens following persistent reporting? That’s incredibly encouraging.
David Fine, civil deputy prosecuting attorney, mentioned that “citizens in our community and the news media in our community have shown an even greater demand for transparency in government than the Legislature mandated in 1971,” in Thursday’s article detailing the public meeting policy changes.
Yes, we have.
As have many citizens, journalists, law professionals and elected officials before us.
The Open Public Meetings Act has been updated many times since 1971 — for instance — to include increased citizen protections as technology has progressed. As well as being updated and refined as new and unique barriers to public record have presented themselves.
In fact, on the specific OPMA violation that I detailed in my previous columns — pertaining to 24 hour notice for public meetings posted on county websites — was a law that was passed as recently as 2014.
Challenges are always being presented to state OPMA laws. Journalists face those threats head on. It is a cornerstone and hallmark of community journalism to write about those challenges, so that citizens can know and recognize when their sovereignty is compromised, no matter the level of government where the threat occurs.
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Brittany Voie is The Chronicle’s senior media developer. She welcomes correspondence from the community by email at bvoie@chronline.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BrittanyVoieTheChronicle or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/chronbvoie.
