When you enter the Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies office on Sumner Avenue in Aberdeen, there’s no guarantee you won’t be greeted by an owl.

You will, however, be welcomed into the quaint, aromatic office by friendly staff and a well-dressed dog or three. However, recent communication between the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s Office and the Washington Department of Licensing has caused anger and confusion and cast a pall on the business.

On Jan. 6, Grays Harbor County Auditor Joesph R. MacLean (R) was issued his second breach of contract notice related to Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) vehicle and vessel licensing responsibilities. As the DOL’s appointee, MacLean contracts with subagents to perform licensing duties — in this case, the Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies and Timberland Bank in Elma.

MacLean was given 15 calendar days from receipt of the notice to “provide a written response containing acknowledgement of the inappropriate conduct and address a corrective action plan to remedy the items disclosed in this notice.” That deadline was Wednesday, Jan. 21. Grays Harbor County District 3 Commissioner Vickie Raines says that MacLean was given an extension until Jan. 30 to comply.

The 74-year-old owner and operator of the 94-year-old Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies, deCourcy “Kathi” Hoder, says she was “blindsided” by the news that the DOL could suspend MacLean’s activities as a licensing agent, which would have an adverse affect on her business and the community service she, her daughter Angie Messmer, and their staff provide.

“The Department of Licensing failed totally to contact us, we should have been contacted. That was wrong,” Hoder said.

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, the outspoken and passionate Hoder took to the radio to clear the air on Local Matters with Johnny Manson on Aberdeen’s Timber Country 94.7. “Unfortunately, our county auditor didn’t take care of his business so as he goes, we go,” Hoder said. “It doesn’t look good for me. I didn’t do anything wrong, we’ve done everything we’re supposed to do, we’ve always passed our audits, we’ve done everything great, but because he failed us, it looks like we’ve failed everybody else. We have not failed ‘em. I don’t know what his plans are for the future but he probably needs to resign his position. I’ll say that quite loudly … he’s not doing his job, period. He’s not answering Olympia when they call him, he’s not playing well in the play yard.”

According to Messmer, the DOL used to conduct audits directly however the DOL went seven years without auditing the Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies. She added that staffing issues in the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s office have prevented proper oversight.

“Our audits up until 2022 primarily had been done by the Department of Licensing in Olympia, and those audits are sporadic, 2014 and then in 2021, then in 2022 after COVID died down and everybody found their marbles again, they rewrote how the auditing process goes. DOL is at the top of the food chain, then the Auditor’s Office is directly responsible for the subagents,” Messmer said. “At that time, to give credit to everyone, [MacLean’s] office was not staffed and he hasn’t been able to adequately staff that office or keep staff in that office for a variety of reasons. He hasn’t been able to provide the auditing that he is required to do per the contract.”

Messmer mentioned that monthly reviews had been regularly conducted by an employee in the Auditor’s Office since 2024.

“The clerk that was finally at the county Auditor’s Office and we were hoping would stay, Emilee Smith … she did our monthly reviews and annual audit. They went perfectly fine as did our DOL audits prior to,” Messmer said. “There’s always a finding in an audit. There’s never been a financial finding. The Department of Licensing, while they want to blame the county for this year-and-a-half of non-compliance, they went seven years without auditing us. I have known that we were out of compliance as far as the auditing process at the county level, and I have reached out on multiple occasions over the course of the last 18 months to notify everybody and their brother that this isn’t working right, this needs to be changed. And everybody has just gone, ‘not my job.’”

The correspondence between the DOL and the County Auditor and the 2025 audit report coming to light without notifying Hoder and Messmer has caused public consternation and misunderstanding with the Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies caught between two headbutting government entities.

“When you look back at all of our years of auditing, you can’t say we misappropriated one penny. Nobody is missing any money, the work is getting done with an [amazing] staff, we have friendly faces, they’re willing to help, they’re willing to go above and beyond,” Messmer said. “Which was technically, as part of our 2021 audit, a finding that we are too helpful. In my 2021 review, we are too helpful and we don’t make other offices look good.”

According to Hoder, Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies will help people who need it when it comes to paying fees and completing applications, which draws the ire of the DOL.

“We have elderly people sometimes that can’t afford stuff because they’re on fixed income, and the licensing fees keep going up,” Hoder said. “We’ve been known to give them money to get their license. And boy, Olympia hates that.”

Messmer added, “That was a huge finding, a customer is responsible for paying their own fees. If I’m at the grocery store and the little old lady in front of me can’t pay for her groceries, I’m going to chip in the 10 bucks. And if that same little old lady is at the counter, I’m going to help the customer.”

According to a Jan. 6 email sent to the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners from Molly Voris, legislative and policy director for the DOL, the DOL could terminate the contract with the County Auditor if immediate action is not taken. Grays Harbor County could lose all revenue associated with licensing work, which was $640,000 in 2025. According to Hoder and Messmer, the Hoquiam Licensing and Transportation Agencies have accounted for more than $1.5 million in Grays Harbor County revenue in the last five years.

The mother-daughter team is standing strong in the face of the worst case scenario.

“We’re not going away. I will not leave this building and I will not leave this job and I will not shut the business down. If they unplug me from Olympia, the Pope is going to hear about it,” Hoder said. “This is it, this is like my left leg and my right arm. This is my family, this is my home, the customers are my family. I cannot even retire because I don’t know how to retire comfortably. I need this. Taking a chance of leaving this place because of somebody else’s mistake, I can’t put it into words.”

Messmer said, “I can’t fathom that after 94 years of business, all family owned, a pissing match between two agencies that we are not involved in has the potential to close us down. We have all the skin in the game.”