SEQUIM — The Clallam County Auditor’s Office plans to close the Sequim vehicle and vessel licensing office at 5 p.m. Thursday, but the subcontractor operating it is seeking court action to keep the office open.
County Auditor Patty Rosand said Sequim office subcontractor Karen Shewbert is not meeting contractual obligations.
“It’s for noncompliance with her contract,” Rosand said, declining to comment further because “litigation has been threatened.”
Shewbert confirmed Tuesday that she — through her attorney, Craig Miller of Sequim — is seeking an injunction in Clallam County Superior Court to stop the closure before Thursday.
“She’s accusing me of being out of contract,” Shewbert said.
“She’s been harassing me since she’s started in office in 2007.
“She ran on the platform to have an office open on Saturdays, and she told me I had to be open on Saturdays.”
Shewbert said she was willing to have Saturday hours but needed a third computer to do it.
“I got a response saying my office did not meet the numbers that would have allowed me to have a third computer.”
Shewbert said she did not open Saturdays as a result.
Until a new office is opened, Rosand said, the closest vehicle or vessel licensing renewal or acquisition and ballot drop-box location would be at the Auditor’s Office in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St. in Port Angeles.
Licensees also can visit https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/tabs/Default.aspx to renew and pay the registration fee online.
Shewbert has been a sub-agent operating the Sequim office at 1001 E. Washington St. for more than 12 years.
Rosand said the office location would be shut down permanently and another office would reopen at a new location to be determined.
“There is no benefit to my office to shut down this business,” Rosand said.
“It will make the same amount of money whether she’s there or not.”
Rosand said Shewbert has 30 days from Friday to appeal the termination of her contract.
Should Shewbert appeal, it would go before an independent review panel that includes the president of the Washington Auditors Association, the director of the state Department of Licensing and the Washington Association of Vehicle Subagents.
The auditor’s action terminates Shewbert’s existing contract, which was to expire at the end of June.
Rosand said Shewbert was under a 10-year contract.
Rosand said representatives of her office and the state Department of Licensing will remove all of their supplies at the office Friday.
Rosand said the contract termination has nothing to do with austerity, just contract noncompliance.
Signs tersely announcing, “We are being shut down by Patty Rosand, Clallam County auditor,” were posted prominently inside and outside the Sequim licensing office Tuesday.
The sign urged those opposed to Rosand’s action to phone Rosand at 360-417-2222.
Rosand said she was receiving calls of opposition but could not comment.
Shewbert was not in the office Tuesday morning, but a full-time office clerk behind the counter, Christine Henderson, said she has worked there for six years.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.