A4 Wednesday, 07.09.2014 The Daily Herald
Slide From Page A1
real estate manager concluded: “Market values do not support the settlement. However, the owners are very firm in their demand.” The money was paid largely because the property owners had time on their side and the state didn’t. A mile-long stretch of Highway 530 connecting Arlington to Darrington was covered with mud and debris 50 feet deep in some places. To the south was the private Seattle City Light access road that could be quickly re-engineered as a stopgap answer. Access to Tager’s property was necessary for the alternative route. A month after the slide, there was a growing sense of anxiety that the missing link of Highway 530 would cost mill jobs that are the backbone of Darrington’s economy. There also were fears of isolation during medical emergencies and frustration over the long, arduous detour through Skagit County. The slide separated families. Some teachers who lived west of the slide stayed with friends in Darrington during the school week while workers at Boeing and elsewhere bunked in temporary quarters closer to their jobs. Using state public records laws, The Herald recently obtained documents about the route negotiations. In keeping with its policies, the state alerted those it had negotiated with regarding the newspaper’s interest and their right to potentially resist release of the records in court. Tager didn’t return two phone calls. Walsh declined comment Tuesday, referring all questions to state transportation officials. The records speak for themselves, state officals say. “Our priority was reconnecting the communities,
Records From Page A1
public records. There are also separate videos on the public records and open meeting laws featuring Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Krier. Watching them, which takes less than an hour, is enough to satisfy the intent of the law she said. “It’s not a burden and it’s free,” Krier said. Others are attending workshops on open meetings and public records state Auditor Troy Kelley is hosting around the state. Today in Everett, he’s holding a session at which 100 people reserved seats, including office holders, city attorneys,
Rules From Page A3
groundwater-recharge zones leads to greater water absorption, which destabilizes the soil, increasing the chance of a landslide. Board members also
Giles From Page A3
to be from him. Giles has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys have made clear they plan a spirited defense. Among other things, they’ve gathered information about mistakes the crime lab has acknowledged in DNA testing, particularly contamination of samples, court papers show. Two deputy
$85,000 OSO MUDSLIDE DETOUR North
Slide extent
For k
Sti lla gu
a mi
sh River
Temporary bypass road
Tager property CHUCK TAYLOR / THE HERALD
and doing it in a pretty timely fashion,” said Travis Phelps, a transportation department spokesman. The state looked at options. The power-line access road presented the quickest detour around the buried highway. “The road was already there. It was already built. There had been some improvements made by other agencies,” Phelps said. During search and recovery operations, Snohomish County had used emergency authority to make improvements along the power-line access road within the City Light right of way, county spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said. The road was used to move searchers and heavy equipment into position. Forty-three people died in the slide; roughly a dozen were rescued. The state on April 29 opened the access road to limited traffic. The onelane, two-mile route skirted the southern lips of the debris field. To make that possible, the state first had to negotiate easements with roughly a dozen property owners. Rumors circulated and people seethed in Darrington in late April when word spread that there was a holdout. There were bitter words when people heard somebody had been paid tens of thousands of dollars for the temporary easement on an existing road across undeveloped timberland. Among the documents
the state released about the negotiation were internal emails, memos and a diary kept by a state real estate negotiator. The state initially offered Tager up to $1,000 for temporary right-of-way access along the route. “Mr. Tager thought what we were asking for seemed reasonable,” transportation department real estate agent David Narvaez wrote after an April 18 meeting with Tager and Walsh. While Tager’s name was on the deed, Walsh held the promissory note on the property. Narvaez was told that Tager owed Walsh a substantial sum. Tager deferred to Walsh. Walsh demanded $180,000. “He said it was a great deal and I should accept it now and move on,” Narvaez wrote. Walsh said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had denied them compensation because there was no loss of life and no buildings were damaged on the undeveloped land. He mentioned his fear that Snohomish County would make the property unbuildable, and therefore useless, by imposing new land-use restrictions, Narvaez wrote. County records do not list the property as having been destroyed, as has happened with several other slide-area parcels, including the entire Steelhead Haven neighborhood that was buried by the slide.
The Tager property, two parcels of about 55 acres in all, was purchased for $94,000 in 1993. It is now timberland and zoned to allow homes on a minimum of five acres, records show. Hal Wolfe, the regional real estate manager for the transportation department, participated in the April 18 negotiation by telephone. Narvaez was with Walsh. Walsh told Wolfe the state must pay $180,000 “or we must hit the road.” Then Walsh hung up on him, according to the meeting notes. After that, according to Narvaez, Walsh then took him out to his garage to show him a pricey sports car, telling him, “Dave, it is not about the money. ... See we have money,” the meeting notes said. The state looked for alternative routes to bypass the Tager property. Transportation staff crunched numbers but determined the options would be too expensive, would interfere with rebuilding Highway 530 and delay the project. The tally: $915,000 in extra costs and a 15-day delay in reconnecting Darrington. They also calculated at $100,000 the added economic impact a delay would cost people living in Darrington. The state also considered using condemnation through the state’s right of eminent domain, but that wasn’t an option because the legal battle would take a minimum of four months. Top transportation department officials decided there was little choice. They authorized up to $100,000 to cut the deal “due to the immediacy of the need and the importance of this parcel,” Wolfe wrote. Wolfe reached the $85,000 agreement April 24, two days after President Barack Obama visited the Stillaguamish Valley, where he praised people for how they’d pulled together in adversity. By then, the state
and employees of cities and special districts from several counties. It will be the fourth of seven such forums planned around the state. “Everybody’s familiar with our job of auditing folks and trying to find fault,” said Thomas Shapley, spokesman for the auditor. “Another part of the job is helping governments become accountable and in the long run earn more public trust.” Impetus for the new law came partly in response to a 2012 report of the State Auditor’s Office that identified 250 incidents involving violations of varying proportion of Washington’s Public Records Act and Open Meetings Law. Some were one-time or
infrequent occurrences such as inadequately recording and maintaining public meeting minutes. There were more significant instances too, including board and council members discussing business and reaching consensus through email rather than in an open meeting. Problems with public record disclosures have emerged as a major concern of local governments in recent years. Lawsuits stemming from failure to disclose records, or to do so in a timely manner, resulted in significant fines against some entities. The state Supreme Court has held that when deciding penalties for violations of the public records laws, courts
can consider whether employees of an agency received training. Lawmakers hoped by requiring training, it will improve how records are dealt with and reduce the potential for small errors resulting in big fines. Complying with the new law is pretty much on the honor system as the law doesn’t create a database for keeping track of training statewide. It is up to each governing board and Krier encourages them to create certificates they can hand out for each person when they complete training. A sample of a certificate is available on the attorney general’s website, she said. Jerry Cornfield: 360352-8623; jcornfield@ heraldnet.com.
are researching the cost of mapping more areas of the state at risk of landslides using the advanced technology known as LIDAR, as well as collecting maps already prepared by private landowners. At that May meeting, Somers asked the board to impose a moratorium on logging in areas
of glacial sediment in or near groundwaterrecharge zones and on or near unstable slopes. The board backed off taking action amid concern it may lack legal authority. Attorney General Bob Ferguson is now preparing a formal opinion on the extent of the Forest Practices Board’s
authority to stop accepting and issuing permits for logging where unstable slopes create a potential for devastating landslides. He also will examine if state law empowers the panel to adopt emergency rules to achieve such a ban. Ferguson has not indicated when he will release the opinion.
prosecutors also are assigned to the case. The lawyers have told Weiss to expect a full calendar of legal issues to address leading up to the trial. Berry was killed in July 1995. Brazzel disappeared in May of that year. Her body has never been found. In court papers, Giles’ lawyers say they do not believe her death can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. They’ve asked Weiss to decide later this month whether it is proper for Giles to be tried simultaneously
on the Berry and Brazzel charges. Giles was living south of Everett in 1995. The statistical probability of a random DNA match to Giles in the Berry case was calculated at 1 in 580 million, and 1 in 56 quadrillion in the Brazzel case, according to court papers. Giles’ criminal record, which started in his teens, includes the 1987 rape of a woman attacked while she was using a Lynnwood tanning bed and other crimes against women and girls. He was finishing a
prison sentence for flashing his genitals at young women in Seattle when King County prosecutors in July 2011 obtained court orders to have him locked up indefinitely at the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. They petitioned the court to have him declared a sexually violent predator. Giles was still there in late 2012 when charged with the Snohomish County cold cases. Scott North: 425-3393431; north@heraldnet. com.
had calculated the actual His clients, who were value of access to Tager’s offered an additional $100, property was $1,300. The live near the edge of the remaining $83,700 of the slide, Wells said. There are settlement was based on days when there is arounda formula that Walsh had the-clock noise and dust, proposed. He suggested as well lost privacy. the state pay a toll per vehi“My dad used to say, cle based on an estimate two wrongs don’t make of 2,250 cars crossing the a right,” Wells said. “They land each day. The pay- turn around to use the ment works out to $16,875 same weapons against a month through the end of these folks that were used September. against them. It’s so ironic. In a memo detailing the I keep coming up with the negotiations, state officials adage, ‘No good deed goes worried that other prop- unpunished.’ ” erty owners in the slide Although traffic is now area would catch wind of being routed along a the deal reached with Tager repaired section of Highand Walsh. way 530, the access road “The benefits of using will be needed all summer, the Tager route are consid- including during planned ered to outweigh the risks,” road closures. Wolfe wrote. The contract says that if But eventually people the state needs to continue did find out. using Tager’s land after Arlington attorney September, he will be paid Ben Wells represents close to $17,000 a month two families who signed more. right-of-way easement Phelps said state transagreements. The Oso resi- portation officials are dent also has offered advice hopeful that work on the to two others who willingly highway will be completed entered agreements with before that is necessary. the state to restore access. “At this point it looks like “My clients were abso- we are on track,” he said. lutely adamant that this Scott North: 425-339agreement be entered into 3431; north@heraldnet. immediately,” Wells said. com. “There were thousands of people to their east who OBITUARIES AND needed to get through. ... OBITUARIES AND MEMORIALS The money wasn’t even an issue. They were wanting to sign before I could even protect their legal interests. “The bottom line is they wanted this done so they could get the road open,” he said. The state agreed to pay one of his clients $500 up front and pledged to come back with “a fair and reasonable offer” later, Wells said. “When we did that I knew that we were giving up some legal leverage, but we were assured that Shawn Eric Carlson 1965-2014 the state is going to deal with us in good faith. They Our beloved Shawn was offered us an additional freed from his struggles with $100,” he said. “I’m not say- diabetes and passed on to ing we want $85,000, but peace on July 4, 2014 with $100?” his family at his side. Wells said it just doesn’t Shawn leaves behind his seem right. p a r e n t s , M i ke a n d H o p e
Theater From Page A3
Pe t r e e ; s i s te r s , S h a n n o n C a r l s o n Ta i t ( M i ke Ta i t ) , Jennifer Petree Smith (Phillip Smith). He also leaves behind his nieces, Delaney and Hannah Davis, Alyssa McGrath; and many great friends. A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, July 19, 2014, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Monroe Senior Center. Please join us in remembering Shawn. Dessert and coffee will be served A Sportsman’s Prayer
Pappas has estimated it would cost $60,000 or more to upgrade her film-era equipment to digital. The cost was too much for the one-screen, oneshow-a-night operation. She hopes a local church God grant that I may live to group will buy the theater fish until my dying day. and resume operations soon, And when it comes to my last Pappas said Monday. She’s cast, then I most humbly pray. prepping the building for sale. When in the Lord’s safe Pastor Chad Blood with Lifelanding net, I am peacefully way Foursquare Church in asleep. Arlington said he is close to That in His mercy, I be judged finalizing a financing plan for big enough to keep. the church to purchase the (Picture taken May 31, 2014 Olympic. Blood plans to con- a t F i s h L a k e . S h a w n ’ s tinue operating the building as a favorite fishing spot). movie theater, along with using the space for church Sundays and various musical and stage Jeffery L. Flick events throughout the year. The Olympic Theater & Cafe is expected to become a non- Jeffery passed away June , 2014; he was born profit, Blood said, funneling 3 Februar y 13, 1956, in profits into local charities. Johnstown, Pa. It’s not finalized yet, he said. A Celebration of Life will Blood hopes to wrap things up begin at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, in the next few weeks, though J u l y 13 , 2 014 , a t B e c k ’ s no reopening date has been set Tribute Center, 405 Fif th Ave . S , E d m o n d s , Wa s h . , for the theater. “I know it’s time for Norma, 9 8 0 2 0 . P l e a s e s h a r e and it’s time for us,” Blood said. m e m o r i e s a t w w w. b e c k s funeralhome.com. “I believe we’re very close.” The Olympic Theatre first opened in 1939 as a movie house. For a few years in the 1960s it showed X-rated films, before a church moved in during the 1970s. In 1977, Dick Pappas bought the building. Norma, his daughter, took charge shortly after, aiming to create a smalltown, family-friendly theater. “Please sign the A group of people from Guest Book at Arlington rallied around a “Save www.heraldnet.com/ the Olympic Theatre” effort and obituaries” indicates that an online Guest at one point hoped to take over Book has been operations, but Pappas was not established under the interested in leasing the space. name of the deceased. She wanted to sell and retire. This will allow friends and family to express A recorded message at the thecondolences and share ater’s phone number explains memories. All entries that the Olympic is closed for the are at no cost. month of July and urges people 948074 to check back at www.olympictheatre.net for updates. Herald reporters Chris Winters Obituaries and Gale Fiege contributed to continued on Page A5 this report.
MEM