Health & Safety Hazards, License Expiration Force Foreclosed Transient Motel Shutdown; 26 Long-Term Occupants Temporarily Dodge Boot As Judge Allows Management Chance To Fix Flaws

In Bremerton, Washington, the Kitsap Sun reports:

• For the foreseeable future, the Chieftain will be a motel in name only. A Kitsap County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the West Bremerton motel cannot rent rooms to any new guests until it regains a key state license necessary to operate a motel.
  
  But Judge Leila Mills, following an agreement forged between county prosecutors and the Chieftain's lawyer, will allow long-term residents to remain there as staff works with the state Department of Health to obtain its transient accommodation license, which lapsed in March 2011.
  
  Twenty-six people, denoted in court documents by their initials and room numbers, will be allowed to stay at the motel. "It seemed like a good compromise and a good disposition pending the department's decision" on the permit, said Ione George, Kitsap County deputy prosecutor.
  
  Hari Ghadia, a managing partner with the management company that has operated the Chieftain since June, called the agreement a "win-win for everybody." He said his company, Moteri Management, will continue to make improvements to the motel that will bring it back into compliance with the health department.
  
  "I'm very confident that everything will be done," he said.
  
  The agreement also states that police "will freely be allowed onto the premises" to ensure that no new guests are registered and rooms, outside of those for the long-term residents, remain closed.
  
  Kitsap County will drop its case against the Chieftain if the health department issues the license. But Mills' ruling says that if the department issues a "final denial" of the Chieftain's application, the motel will be emptied until the license can be secured.
  
  The motel on National Avenue rented rooms for $50 a night or $850 a month.
  
  The Department of Health refused to issue the transient accommodation license after inspections in May found "numerous deficiencies (that) created a hazardous and unsanitary environment for guests," including bedbugs, collapsed ceilings, overflowing trash and fire hazards.
  
  The property entered foreclosure and was purchased by Westside Community Bank of Pierce County in May for $1.3 million. The bank hired a property management company that has set about cleaning up the motel.
  
  City officials in August targeted the motel for alleged violations of its chronic nuisance properties ordinance. Police responded there 78 times in the first eight months of the year. The property also lacks a city business license. A hearing has been set in the city's case against the Chieftain on Nov. 26 at the Norm Dicks Government Center.
  
  While the city independently pursued that action, county prosecutors, acting on behalf of the health department, filed the civil action against the property for lacking the transient accommodation license.

Source: Judge: Chieftain can't rent rooms, but long-time residents may stay (Long-term residents at motel allowed to remain).