Emotional 2-hour debate on Pasco home for sex-trafficking victims ends in deadlock

A Mirror Ministries center to help survivors of human trafficking is on hold for another month after the Franklin County Planning Commission hearing ended in a tie vote.

After more than two hours of testimony from an overflow crowd, the six commissioners couldn’t agree on a recommendation about a permit to convert an existing house, barn and kennel into a restoration center.

Mirror Ministries is in the process of buying the nearly 8 acres near the Columbia River north of Pasco for the first center of its kind in the state.

The faith-based organization has spent about 10 years researching restoration centers across the country. When three-phase project is finished, the property would have three homes on it and allow 18 teenage girls a place to take classes and heal.

The three commissioners who supported the plan — Claude Pierret, Mike Corrales and Mike Vincent — said at the meeting the home is needed and won’t hurt the neighborhood.

They were siding with county planners who said the center will actually fit better into the community than the kennels did.

The three commissioners who voted no — Layton Lowe, Kent McMullen and Roger Lenk — said the property is not remote enough for what Mirror Ministries has planned, and no one else would be allowed to build three homes on one piece of property.

They agreed the home is needed, but said this site wasn’t the right spot for it.

The deadlock appeared unbreakable when the meeting wrapped up at 11 p.m., so the board continued the issue to its March meeting.

Now, the decision could come down to the one member who couldn’t make Tuesday’s meeting — Melinda Didier, who is Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier’s sister-in-law.

The planning board’s recommendation then goes to the county commissioners for a decision.

Crowded hearing

Even 15 minutes before the meeting started, the normally quiet planning commission meeting had people standing in the rotunda of the courthouse in Pasco, unable to find space inside.

In addition, 50 letters and emails, mostly in support of the project, were submitted to the board, said Derrick Braaten, the county’s building and planning director.

While Mirror Ministries called the project a restoration center, county zoning rules consider it a group home and therapeutic center. Both of those are acceptable in that area with a conditional use permit.

Mirror Ministries brought a host of its members, many of whom live outside of the neighborhood, to speak about the need for a center.

The program will be licensed by the state, but will be able to pick who gets placed at the home, said Tricia MacFarlan, the ministry’s executive director. There, the teens will be treated by a staff who have undergone extensive background checks.

“The brain can heal from trauma. These kids do have extreme trauma. The brain can heal from addiction, and the brain can heal from the past,” she told the planning commission. “It just needs a safe, secure environment and the right circumstances.”

The girls will be surrounded by a therapeutic environment all of the day, and be under constant care, she said. They will go to school on site, and have access to more counseling than they would normally have available.

The park-like setting with animals to care for and fields to tend is a perfect setting for this kind of healing, MacFarlan said. They have searched throughout the Tri-Cities to find a property that fit what they dreamed of, she said.

The home would also have an alarm system to signal if someone tried to leave the home unexpectedly or tried to get in.

“The girls are always accompanied by staff. They do not just get to wander by themselves. They’re not going to be out wandering the neighborhood,” she said.

A national survey shows traffickers give up on the girls once they are under supervision and care. The charity plans extra security precautions, she said.

“We truly, honestly and firmly believe that there is no real risk to our community,” she said.

Enormous need

Several others read letters from survivors, or a parent of a survivor, who said her daughter was targeted in middle school, and disappeared for three weeks. Kennewick police later found the girl, and her mother placed her in a similar home in another state.

The parent, who remained anonymous, wrote that people would be surprised to know who she is.

Pastor Dustin Meyers has a history of calling on Mirror Ministries when he needs help with girls who are being trafficked. While he understands the safety concerns, he and his wife have taken care of some of the victims in their home.

The community should band together to help these girls rather than trying to push them somewhere else, he said.

“The need is just enormous. It’s more than we can handle with our little square footage. It’s already full of people,” he said. “The alternative is to shoo them away and say, ‘Go knock on someone else’s door,’ which is clearly and obviously shameful behavior.”

Neighborhood concern

The opponents came from the neighborhoods and were concerned about what the new facility would bring to the community. Many of them told about saving for their riverfront property, only to have an institutional home proposed next door.

Those against the proposal acknowledge the sex trafficking problem, but KyLee Shumway argued it’s unfair that this property be allowed to have multiple homes built on one site.

“We’re in a really sought-after area in the Tri-Cities where there are a lot of farmers that are wanting to develop their ground and sell it but because of our zoning, we’re not able to,” she said. “We have to think about our own families and how this affects us.”

Shumway, who was the first speaker, started what would become a constant refrain through the night. The location is not remote.

There are developments springing up around that area and the road is drawing more passing traffic.

Some questioned if the girls would actually always be in sight of the staff.

Shumway said she talked with someone at a similar home in Oregon who said he would never have more than seven girls in his home.

Henry Field’s parents originally developed the property and established the boarding kennels, and he said they wouldn’t have sold the property for this purpose.

“The comments are really about property value and use,” he said. “When my parents got their (permit), they went around and got buy-in from the neighbors. From the the neighbors I talked to, we really don’t have buy-in. We don’t feel like the zoning is consistent with what Mirror Ministries wants to do and it could affect the property values and safety of the neighborhood.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 12:51 PM.