Garfield County commissioner expresses ‘no confidence’ in Sheriff Drew Hyer

Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.

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POMEROY — Garfield County Sheriff Drew Hyer’s recent decision to no longer provide activity reports to the Board of County Commissioners, and the alleged absence of Sheriff Hyer acknowledging responsibility for a 2022 jail cell death that resulted in a $2.5 million claim settlement against the county, which ultimately resulted in closure of the jail, has prompted Commissioner Larry Ledgerwood to go on record as having “no confidence” in Sheriff Hyer, Ledgerwood stated at Monday’s commissioner meeting.

“I spent a fair amount of time reflecting on Sheriff Hyer’s decision that he shared last week that he is no longer going to provide to the commissioner’s monthly activity reports,” Commissioner Ledgerwood said.

“The sheriff has never acknowledged any responsibility for the incident in the jail that resulted in a two and a half million-dollar settlement against Garfield County, and his lack of enforcement policy forced Garfield County to close its jail,” Ledgerwood said. On April 14, 2022, Kyle L. Lara, 36, was discovered dead by hanging in his jail cell. Lara was a non-convicted pre-trial detainee, and officials believe he had been deceased more than 18 hours when discovered.

Lara’s family filed a tort claim against Garfield County and reached a settlement on July 10, 2024, approved by the court on July 22, 2024.

After Ledgerwood made the statement of no confidence, there was no audible response from Hyer. “I feel like that needs to come out,” Ledgerwood continued. “We spent a great deal of time on this (city) contract. Wanted to have it done in August, but because of a lack of willingness to meet with us to talk over details, we couldn’t do that. Here we are two months later, just finally to talk about it.

“You can respond,” Chairperson Justin Dixon said after 17 seconds of silence. “You don’t have to respond. I know that’s a tough position to put you in.”

Hyer’s refusal to provide activity reports goes against long-accepted practice, Ledgerwood said. “Activity reports have been a standard practice since the city began contracting law enforcement services from Garfield County,” he said, “and the reports have been provided to the city council and the Garfield County Commissioners.

“Sheriff Hyer’s reasoning for not providing them anymore was ‘because all you do is question me about that.’ He also used to attend city council meetings in person to provide this report, but has not in recent months. Possibly the city council is questioning him,” Ledgerwood said.

“This, along with Sheriff Hyer has ignored our continual request for more communication over the last two years, and probably longer. He has deliberately avoided to meet with the commissioners for the entire month of July while we were wanting to discuss this contract so we are ready for the August 5 meeting.

According to Ledgerwood, closing the jail significantly reduced the overall duties of the sheriff and department staff. “Conservatively, 30% of the department’s workload disappeared with the closing of the jail,” he stated. “Some would argue that the jail is as much as 50% (of the sheriff’s office workload).

“Each of these issues is concerning; collectively, they are disturbing,” Ledgerwood continued. “For these reasons, I will vote against any sort of pay increase for the sheriff as we enter the budget season, and furthermore, I’m going on record to say I have no confidence in Drew Hyer as Garfield County Sheriff.”

In other business, commissioners announced three new appointees to the planning commission at their meeting Sept. 30, and heard public comment on planning commission perceptions, discussed the City of Pomeroy/Garfield County law enforcement contract, and passed a consulting agreement at their meeting Monday.

New members of the Garfield County planning commission appointed Sept. 30 were Kyler Lovgren, Tanner Cranor, and Wendi Watson. “Thanks, everybody, who applied to the position, who stepped up and showed interest, and congratulations to those appointed,” Commissioner Jim Nelson said. Commissioner Justin Dixon said the planning commission meetings are open to the public and meeting dates are published in the East Washingtonian.

At the Oct. 7 meeting, public comment was raised about concern of the appearance of corruption in the planning commission and rules of recuse for planning commissioners who stand to gain financially from decisions made. Carey Caruso brought forward her concern that had been cemented in conversations with her neighbors. “I urge the commission to ensure clear recusals from any discussions or decisions that involve a direct conflict of interest — whether due to appointees or their family members having financial or vested interests in the outcomes,” Caruso stated in a letter to the BOCC.

The commissioners continued discussion of the law enforcement contract with the city of Pomeroy. The discussion included patrol hours, current priorities for the city, and possible cooperation in the purchase and installation of lighted speed signs.

The BOCC signed a consulting agreement with Kevin Poole for on-call, as-needed work on county engineer projects. Poole will contract project-by-project and will work under Garfield County Engineer Shawn Turpin. The commissioners also signed an annual memorandum with Nez Perce County for juvenile detention services at the rate of $225 per day per person.

— Charlotte Baker and Naomi Scoggin, East Washingtonian (Pomeroy), Thursday

One of Pullman’s famous restaurants up for sale

PULLMAN — Cougar Country Drive-In has been a staple in the Pullman community for 51 years and Zoe Coffee and Kitchen has been for 19. Recently the owners of the restaurants put them up for sale.

According to Beasley Realty, Zoe’s is listed for $750,00 and Cougar Country Drive-In is listed for $1,200,000.

Beasley Realty owner Justin Cofer said everything inside the restaurants is for sale as well. This also comes with the rights to each brand of the restaurants.

Owners Mike and Terry Wagoner said they originally opened the first coffee shop on the corner of Terre View and Merman Drive. Then they opened a new location dubbed Zoe Underground in the Interfaith House, also known as the K-House, which was located where the parking lot is by the Chinook.

“We were in the basement there for many years, and then they wanted to sell it,” Mike said.

WSU then bought the building for $1.2 million and planned to demolish it.

Mike did not know what to do at that point but someone had started a “Save Zoe Underground” petition, he said.

“I get a call from Elson Floyd. He goes, ‘Mike, you got to make this stop.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘There’s people camping out in the lobby here, my phone won’t stop ringing and my email is full. You got to make it stop.’ And I said, ‘Well, Elson, it’s not me doing it. It’s your students that are doing it and what you’re doing is wrong.’ So anyway, that bought us another eight months,” Mike said.

Mike bought Zoe’s current building from his neighbors Tam and Dave Shermer, who owned Tam’s Place.

“We were losing (Zoe Ungerground). So we said, ‘We’ll tell you what. We’ll buy your building,’ ” he said. “So, we were only out of business for six weeks.”

Mike bought Cougar Country Drive-In in 2019 after the original owner put it up for sale. One of his favorite memories was when they reopened the restaurant.

“We had lines all the way down past the gas station, people coming in. Newscasters were there from Lewiston, Spokane, King County, everywhere,” he said.

However, it is now time for Mike to take a step back.

“We just want to start spending more time with our kids and our grandkids. We were with them for one day this weekend, but it’s short visits and stuff like that,” Mike said.

When it comes to selling Cougar Country, Mike said he has has one prerequisite.

“Whoever buys Cougar Country has to (have it) remain Cougar Country, or else,” he said. “As far as Zoe’s, it’d be nice to see Zoe’s stay and carry on that tradition.”

For now, Mike said the restaurants are not operating any different.

“We have a super good crew here and a super good crew at Cougar Country, so that takes a huge load off us,” Mike said.

Zoe’s waitress Julie Wilson said she is sad to see Zoe’s and Cougar Country up for sale. She has never loved a job as much as her job at Zoe’s.

“It keeps the small town vibe, it keeps our independence, but also allows us to work and actually enjoy it,” she said.

Wilson said Cougar Country was also the first restaurant she ever went to in Pullman.

“It’s an absolute staple of Pullman. Everyone knows it. It’s the first restaurant my dad took me to when we first toured here, and he was like, ‘Is Cougar Country still here? It has to be still here,’ ” she said. “So, it’s a big part of the Pullman community and I think Zoe’s is just another piece of that.”

With the announcement of the restaurants for sale, people have been showing their support, he said.

“I’ve received letters and emails from people congratulating us and I got a nice letter from a professor in Oregon who went to school here and taught here and was a steady customer here,” Mike said. “(I) got an email from Saudi Arabia, too, so it’s from all over the place saying how much they’ve appreciated being with us and stuff.”

Mike said he will miss the customers once the restaurants sell.

“We think the world of (the customers) and ... our big hope is that everything will just carry on and, you know, everybody will be happy,” Mike said.

— Gabrielle Bowman, The Daily Evergreen (Pullman), Thursday