{"id":11281,"date":"2012-03-04T15:28:14","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T23:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=11281"},"modified":"2012-03-04T15:43:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T23:43:35","slug":"the-backstory-intelligence-gathering-possible-fines-and-code-enforcement-tools-not-normally-used","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=11281","title":{"rendered":"The backstory: Intelligence gathering, possible fines and code enforcement tools “not normally used”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS – In preparation for Thursday night’s gathering of neighbors and officials at Grays barn about a group of ex-convicts living together on Nix Road, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield had two important meetings, he said.<\/p>\n

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Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield<\/p><\/div>\n

One was on Wednesday when he went to Judy Chafin-Williams home in Chehalis to ask her to cooperate with him by providing a weekly list of all the individuals who live in her homes.<\/p>\n

Chafin-Williams lives in Chehalis at House of the Rising Son, a former church she opened in 2006 to people who need help getting back on their feet. She manages it, the house at 110 Nix Road – that has neighbors so scared<\/a> – and three others in Lewis County.<\/p>\n

She said she was sick in bed with the measles as Mansfield and deputy Sgt. Rob Snaza met with her and understood his request, but didn’t agree to it.<\/p>\n

“My fever was so high yesterday, I had a hard time comprehending everything,” Chafin-Williams said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, a dozen county employees – including elected officials, department heads and staff members – met for about an hour and brainstormed ways they might be able shut down the house on Nix Road.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield asked for the meeting with the three county commissioners, since he, the county’s community development director and the county’s elected prosecutor have been looking for solutions for the issue, or problem, he said.<\/p>\n

Following are some excerpts from their gathering in a back room of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners offices.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield:<\/strong> Tells commissioners his office is collecting information, intelligence and has created a target file for all calls to the house.<\/p>\n

Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill:<\/strong> “As you recognize, we have a civil rights and civil liberties problem,” he said. “You can’t tell people they can’t do things that are legal.”<\/p>\n

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer:<\/strong> Are they on wells?<\/p>\n

Code Compliance Supervisor Bill Teitzel:<\/strong> “It’s only a matter of time before the septic systems fail.”<\/p>\n

It was mentioned it has two or three bedrooms and a dining room used as a bedroom.<\/p>\n

Community Development Director Bob Johnson:<\/strong> Notes building codes in which a bedroom must have a closet and a door that closes.<\/p>\n

Houses are designed with two occupants per bedroom in mind, Johnson says. He says it’s not a single family use. Its occupants are not related.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield: <\/strong>“I have a Hispanic family, they must have 10 people in their family,” he said. “But I’ve never had a call to that address.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Meyer:<\/strong> “There’s a reason we don’t allow apartments on Nix Road, it’s not set up for that.”<\/p>\n

Director of Public Health and Social Services Danette York:<\/strong> Says it is a commercial operation.<\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/strong> “(They) have to have their water supply tested.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Meyer:<\/strong> “We have to make sure to distinguish it from a bed and breakfast.”<\/p>\n

Lewis County Commissioner Lee Grose:<\/strong> “If we want to attack this under code compliance issues, we are putting ourselves under scrutiny because we have multiple, hundreds of code compliance violations that we are not pursuing.” It’s going to raise a flag, he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/strong> We don’t go out looking for violations, we respond to complaints. “We have a process.”<\/p>\n

York: <\/strong>That’s not quite accurate. There’s only a process when we want to bring it to the commissioners to abate it, she says.<\/p>\n

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Carter:<\/strong> What would the sanction be?<\/p>\n

Teitzel:<\/strong> Advises they can look at the new ability to impose a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Meyer:<\/strong> Says he thinks everything is already in place under the current statutory scheme.<\/p>\n

Carter: <\/strong>Asks about requiring a special use permit.<\/p>\n

Johnson:<\/strong> Says someone needs to talk with legislators since Oregon has laws regulating how many sex offenders can live at one address.<\/p>\n

Teitzel: <\/strong>“We probably have several tools we could utilize we don’t normally use.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Meyer:<\/strong> “You need to bite into that bottom line, cause once it starts costing her money, it won’t be such a great idea.”<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield:<\/strong> “They are under intense enforcement pressure right now.”<\/p>\n

Commissioner Averill: <\/strong>“You understand, we can’t throw people out of the county?”<\/p>\n

Commissioner Grose:<\/strong> Tells them to start with a notice of violations, and then they can work on code revisions.<\/p>\n

Johnson: <\/strong>A lien against the the property can be attached to the penalty.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield:<\/strong> All you’ve got to do is place yourself in the next neighbor’s position.<\/p>\n

York: <\/strong>Says she will find out if they applied for group home status.<\/p>\n

Teitzel: <\/strong>Offers to craft the notice. Someone asks if it should be sent by certified letter.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mansfield:<\/strong> “We’ll serve it.”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Read “Discord on Nix Road: Newest arrivals unwelcome” from Saturday March 3, 2012 at 4:37 p.m., here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – In preparation for Thursday night’s gathering of neighbors and officials at Grays barn about a group of ex-convicts living together on Nix Road, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield had two important meetings, he said. One was on Wednesday when he went to Judy Chafin-Williams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-11281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11281"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11287,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions\/11287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}