City leaders discuss downtown

A packed City Council meeting Aug. 6 might not have been a spontaneous uprising of downtown business owners fed up with crime and the homeless.

A flyer posted on social media seemed to suggest the city was hosting a forum on the topic.

“A City in CRISIS!” the flyer said. “If you would like to see positive change in our amazing city? Please attend the City of Shelton Council meeting held at City Hall Civic Center on Tuesday August 6, 2024 at 6:00pm,” the flyer reads.

It then lists a Zoom meeting ID and password and states “For questions and concerns about the city please contact City Administrator, Mark Ziegler,” who is Shelton’s city manager, and gives his phone number.

“They thought it was a city flyer,” Shelton Mayor Eric Onisko told the Journal.

“We didn’t do it. That’s why the room was full,” he said.

Not that Onisko is dismissing the crowd’s concerns. Neither is Ziegler, who also spoke with the Journal.

“We know where we have problems and we’re working on it,” Onisko said, while also pointing out new and exciting things happening in downtown, such as the West Cota Street arts district and the recent Art Walk that drew 2,000 to 3,000 people.

“I think for the most part people respect the city and what we’re doing,” he said.

The “entire city council” is committed to solving the problem, the mayor said.

“Some of us just have different ways.”

Ziegler said he knows the community wants more because he is a part of the community.

“I know there’s frustration,” he said.

“Whatever the solution, it has to be planned, it has to be concerted, it has to be equitable and lawful,” he said.

Part of Ziegler’s job is ensuring whatever action the city takes is legal.

While some may see a solution in a recent Supreme Court decision overturning Martin v. Boise and allowing bans on camping on public land, Ziegler is wary.

“It’s not necessarily the fix,” Ziegler said.

The city’s insurer, Washington Cities Insurance Authority, is currently advising against a codified city camping ban. The ruling didn’t address due process or personal possessions or “any of those other things we have to take into consideration,” Ziegler said.

“I have no intent to bring the city of Shelton especially into a civil rights lawsuit. I think that’s irresponsible to our citizens because of the costs.”

Enforcing current laws is also tricky, given the city’s limited police force and overwhelmed court system.

“What would the result be? You go down to the park, we write somebody a ticket, they don’t pay the ticket, they get a warrant, so then they get a public defender, we’ve got a prosecutor, we’ve got a judge … Then they go to jail and then where are they when that’s all over with? They’re back in Brewer Park. Back in Brewer Park,” Onisko said.

He also brought up proposed Washington State Bar standards that could drastically change attorney caseloads, which will affect how the county prosecutes and defends criminal cases.

“If that rule is adopted, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. And not just us, everyone in the state,” Onisko said.

The long-term fix for Shelton’s homeless and crime problem will not come through jails, according to Onisko and Ziegler.

“We can’t arrest our way out of the situation,” Ziegler said.

Onisko touted the city’s hiring of a designated crisis responder almost two years ago with a grant from the Association of Washington Cities.

“It has been a tremendous benefit to the city and the county as well, getting people the help that they need,” Onisko said.

A DCR is a mental health professional who helps someone having a crisis and can also have the person involuntarily committed, after going through required court proceedings, if the person is a threat to themselves or a threat to the public, Ziegler explained.

“We have one embedded in the police department. They’re a tremendous resource,” he said.

Onisko said before the DCR was hired, the city had to rely on a responder from Thurston County.

“We would have somebody running across traffic, almost getting hit five or six times. That’s a threat to themselves and others. But then the DCR would get here from Thurston County and they’re sitting on the bench and the DCR says, ‘Well they’re fine. We’re gonna go.’”

Now a local DCR responds quickly, he said.

Still, there’s a limited time individuals can be in a psychiatric hold and “many of the people on our streets don’t reach that threshold” for involuntary commitment, Ziegler said.

Sometimes things get better and sometimes they get worse, Onisko said.

“At the end of the day, with an entity such as the city of Shelton and the finite resources that we have available to us, we are fairly limited to how we can address this. There isn’t a one-stop shop for a simple solution to this,” Ziegler said.

“This hasn’t been solved in any community.”