I was pleased to see the article in the March 26 edition of the Observer reporting on the thoughts of the three chiefs of police from the cities of South Bend, Raymond and Long Beach. To say that the commissioners have taken heat for their decision on Dec. 26 to make the jail its own division under our purview would be, I feel safe in saying, an understatement.

The things the police chiefs outlined in their comments reported in this article are a large part of the reason we felt this change needed to be made. Other items that still cannot be discussed at this point due to pending litigation on at least two fronts were equally weighed in our decision. As it says in the article, there were many who stated that we would ‘rue the day’ and that this decision could not be successful and, in fact, would fail spectacularly. At the point we were at, the only other option was to close the jail. This choice would have left more than a dozen employees without a job.

We knew there would likely be push back of this decision and that the only way this was going to be successful was if we had the right person in line to ‘hit the ground running’ — a person with the proper background, experience, temperament and dedication to this community. James Byrd had recently retired from Grays Harbor County with almost 20 years at their jail operation and over a decade of that as their lieutenant. Mr. Byrd could be golfing, fishing, hunting and generally enjoying life, but instead he agreed to help us.

Many counties have made this same decision in the last few years. Benton, Clark, Yakima and, most recently in 2024, Klickitat. Garfield County closed its jail in the last few years and contracts with another county, which was our other option.

Having had some time to reflect and realize the changes and improvements that were not only possible, but that have already been accomplished in this short time, I feel that continuing to run the operation of the jail as it had been run since the jail was established had become an irresponsible action. You do not know what you do not know, but with the changes in types of crimes being committed in our communities in the last two decades or so, resulting in the number and profile of some of the persons incarcerated therein, the decision to do this was probably long past needed.

Lastly, for those of you who were led to believe that this was a decision that should have been vetted and beat to death in the public eye, I am sorry.

County commissioners are elected officials with no more authority than the other elected county officials, except that we are tasked with the responsibility of the overall budget of each department and office in the county as well as setting county policy, management of county facilities and doing our best to manage and mitigate risk and liability. The decision to change the oversight of the jail operation was one of those decisions that needed to be made. Much the same as the earlier decisions to do the same with PCEMA (Pacific County Emergency Management) and PACCOM (Pacific County Communications — our dispatch center), both departments initiated this change with us, which we researched, discussed (with the PACCOM Administrative Board for that change) and ultimately approved. As it turned out, dispatch centers across the state of Washington as well as nationally, if a part of a sheriff operation, have been trending away from that oversight for many years.

As referenced in Resolution #2024-056, which created the Department of Corrections “Jail Services,” the ability to make this decision was provided for in state law RCW 70.48.090 (4) which states the authority of a city or county to establish a corrections division.

We have remained fairly silent these last few weeks about this decision as the reaction was so predominately vitriolic, it did not seem that most would listen, so we just chose to ride it out and let the results speak for themselves.

I am one member of the Pacific County Board of Commissioners and, thus, one vote. These thoughts presented today are mine and not intended to speak for my seat mates, but I know that if any of you wanted to contact Commissioners Doyle or Tobin they would be happy to discuss their thoughts on this matter with you.

A very wise man whom I adored and is no longer with us used to say that “cooler heads must prevail.” This sentiment was very much in my mind during these last few months.

Thank you for taking the time to consider these thoughts,

LISA OLSEN

Pacific County Commissioner, District 1