Mason County Sheriff Ryan Spurling joined Jeff Slakey at The Fjord Oyster Bank in Hoodsport for the monthly sit-down just before he met with the community for the monthly luncheon.

Spurling walks through the Sheriff's Office's Neighborhood Watch revival under Deputy Matt Colbenson, why Mason County is again Washington's lowest-staffed sheriff's office per 1,000 residents (a point he traces back through department records to 1980), and what that means for rural communities like Hoodsport, Lake Cushman, Spencer Lake, and Allyn.

He discusses the internal audit his office conducted in the wake of last month's double homicide, what they found, what they're changing, and the conversations he had with family members of the victims at the new evening community meeting at PUD 3. He addresses the 25 cases the district court had to dismiss without prejudice for lack of a public defender, and what concerned residents can actually do about it.

And he gives his clearest public response yet to this week's Thurston County preliminary injunction blocking parts of SB 5974, the new state law that would have allowed an appointed panel to revoke a sheriff's certification and effectively remove them from office. "The sheriff is the only elected law enforcement official in the world," Spurling says. "It's controlled by voters, not by an appointment."

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