Indivisible and the League of Women Voters are grading commissioner candidates by vocabulary. Meanwhile taxpayers are being asked to fund $842,105 “homes,” a hospital under another audit warning, and a youth center with no price tag from a CEO who already out-earns the governor. Here’s the week’s receipts on Social Media Saturday.

“Complex” Is the Tell

With backing from the League of Women Voters, Indivisible has been posting side-by-side stances of County Commissioner candidates Mike French and Jake Seegers.

After reading their climate positions, Janine Blaeloch took issue with Seegers calling climate change a “complex issue.” She warned that when a politician says something is a “complex issue,” it’s usually a tell.

Fair enough. Let’s apply the same test to the incumbent.

French has used that language more than once.

• In a written reply to a constituent about public safety, homelessness, and related policy, he closed by saying he wanted to “move us toward solutions on these complex issues.”

• At a Port Angeles Business Association meeting, after a question about camping and downtown conditions, he answered, “It’s a complex issue,” then turned to legislative limits, jurisdiction, resources, and new revenue.

• The electmikefrench.com Issues page says the issues “are complex and interconnected.”

If Indivisible wants to start policing candidate language, they may be developing a complex of their own.

Clallamity Jen Solves a Mystery

Clallamity Jen started with a scathing Facebook post about a commissioner candidate and followed the trail until it stopped looking like grassroots outrage and started looking like an inside job.

Read “Cozy Connections & The Anatomy of an Inside Job” to find out which county employee the trail leads to. This is what Jake Seegers is up against: a county culture so used to protecting itself that it treats a candidate who might do things differently as a threat. The people who collect the salaries do not like being questioned by the people who actually pay them.

The Hospital Gets Another Warning

Anthony Tomashefsky at the Olympic Herald reports that the Washington State Auditor has again warned of financial risks at Olympic Medical Center. Declining condition, liquidity pressure, and the same pattern of “we’ll fix it later” that never quite arrives. Subscribe and read the article and audit here. Independent coverage of the county’s largest public employer should not be optional reading.

$842,105 for an Apartment in Sequim

When Mike French says he is bringing affordable housing to Sequim, this is what he means: bulldoze 17 apartment units, build 36, spend $16 million—mostly taxpayer money—and call it progress. Net gain: 19 units. Average cost: $842,105 per apartment. Permanent supportive housing for the homeless.

That number is not theoretical. Right now in Sequim, about $842,000 buys a comfortable, above-median single-family house: typically 3–5 bedrooms, 2,100–3,200 square feet, often single-level living, 3–4 baths, half an acre to an acre, frequently with mountain or water views.

Median sold prices in Sequim sit roughly in the $500k–$550k range. Zillow’s typical home value is around $563,000. So $842k is a nicer custom or well-updated house—not a studio with a case manager down the hall.

Nineteen net units. Sixteen million dollars. One house’s worth of public money, per door. Ridiculous is the polite word.

Read the article by Radio Pacific here.

Has Sequim Changed in the Past Four Years?

Dear League of Women Voters: Don’t Disenfranchise Me

Drop Box, Still “Too Late”

Mary Lewis posted the letter. Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs: ballot received too late for the April 2026 special and the August primary—either postmarked after Election Day or dropped after 8 p.m.

Lewis’s reply: she put it in the official box in the old JCPenney lot in Sequim well before the 8 p.m. cutoff. “Someone is messing up and it’s not me.”

The same letter admits the system is sloppy. USPS may haul ballots to a regional center outside the county before they are postmarked, so the stamp can land days after you mailed it. The Auditor’s fix is: use a drop box, or mail a week early, or beg a clerk to hand-stamp it.

That only works if a ballot in an official box before 8 p.m. is actually logged that way. Lewis says hers was. The county says it wasn’t counted. Voters are being told the law is simple and the failure is theirs. The letter on the kitchen table says the opposite.

Patrick Murphy: Port Angeles Is Not Safer

District Court judge candidate Patrick Murphy posted the numbers and then the view from the prosecutor’s table. Crimebycity.com, using FBI data through 2024, gives Port Angeles a safety score of 19/100. Total crime above the national average. Ranked 2,417 of 2,974 nationally. 19th percentile for safety—higher crime than 81% of U.S. cities. Rape at 2.6 times the national average. Property crime listed below the state average; murder and violent crime above it.

Murphy’s firsthand point matters more than the ranking fight: as a deputy prosecuting attorney, he says theft, trespass, and controlled-substance possession have skyrocketed, and violent crime is still trending up. Citizens of Clallam County are not safer than they were four years ago. Accountability is the campaign, not a slogan.

Closed for Thee, Open for Who?

A new video from Badger Fishing, posted yesterday, makes you wonder who “saving the salmon” is actually for.

Shot on the Quilcene River, it shows a tribal fishery in progress. The caption is blunt: this river was supposed to be closed for recreational and treaty fisheries.

Ballots That “Shouldn’t Have Been Late”

A couple received letters from the Clallam County Auditor: their April 2026 special-election ballot and 2026 primary ballots arrived late and were not counted. They say they fill out ballots within days of receiving them and drop them in official boxes or USPS immediately.

The Auditor’s office told them USPS sends ballots to Tacoma to be postmarked before they return to Clallam. County rules say a ballot counts if it is postmarked by Election Day 8 p.m. or in an official drop box. That is not what happened for them. A supervisor suggested signing up for the tracker at vote.wa.gov—text when the ballot is received; if no text within two days of dropping it, call.

They were also told late ballots in the August election jumped from a “normal” 60 to about 200. They had never had a late ballot before. Every vote is supposed to count. Check registration and turn on the tracker: vote.wa.gov. Then vote like the county has to prove that they received it.

PBH’s Next Feel-Good Project Has No Price

Peninsula Behavioral Health’s last big project—housing billed as help for the homeless and addicted—ran more than $12 million. Now comes a Youth and Family Services Center: 22 clinical offices, four group rooms, play, sensory, and art therapy, a family room, gathering space, outdoor rec. The pitch is healing and hope. The invoice is missing.

Remind yourself who is selling it. PBH CEO Wendy Sisk’s reported compensation has been in the high $200,000s—more than the governor of Washington. The last project was expensive. This one will be too. Ask what it costs before the ribbon-cutting language hardens into another taxpayer obligation.

Welcome to Port Angeles

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A former Sequim school board member and current French endorser just compared the Calico Cat Club, Jake Seegers, and Clallam County Watchdog to the Ku Klux Klan. French was given a deadline to say whether he stands by that endorsement. He stayed silent — while the same relationship helps move more than $118,000 in county money through Stoffers church and into French’s NGO. That, and more, this Social Media Saturday.

History Isn’t Repeating. A Smear Is.

Last weekend the Peninsula Daily News published a “Back When” column on the rise and fall of the Klan on the North Olympic Peninsula. Sequim resident and Indivisible activist Jim Stoffer commented: “Looks like History is repeating itself via the Calico Cat Club, Jake Seegers, and CCWD.”

The Calico Cat Club holds public candidate forums. Jake Seegers is running against Commissioner Mike French. CCWD is this publication. Stoffer compared all three to the Klan.

Stoffer was twice elected to the Sequim School Board and twice elected to the charter review commission. His endorsement is featured on Mike French’s campaign website.

On September 8, Clallam County Watchdog emailed Commissioner Mike French seeking comment about Stoffer’s post, but French did not respond.

French needs Stoffer, who is Safety Chair at Trinity United Methodist Church. As commissioner, French approved more than $118,000 in payments to TUMC for the county’s safe-parking program, which has struggled with enrollment. The church then pays French’s NGO, OlyCAP, to manage the program.

Once the money leaves the county, public transparency disappears. French is not answering questions about where the $118,000 went. Neither is the church. Neither is OlyCAP.

Stoffer’s church is the pass-through from the county to French’s NGO. It is a closed loop. It still does not justify labeling a political opponent, a public candidate forum, and a local blogger as heirs to a history of racial terror. Stoffer is also a leader in the local Clallam County Democrats. French still features the endorsement.

Voters can decide what that silence means.

Kids Watch the Adults

On the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death, Port Angeles High School made regional news after students were photographed in blood-stained shirts and fake neck wounds.

Kids learn from adults. When a former school board member treats disagreement as a license to tie people to the Klan, do not act shocked when teenagers treat political violence as costume theater.

According to Brandi Kruse, the Port Angeles School District said clothing that “depicts, promotes, or celebrates violence is not permitted or tolerated,” but would not say what discipline, if any, followed.

Adults do not have to act like children. Especially school-board veterans.

Same Name. Same Highway. Two Years Later.

The Olympic Herald reported that officials were asking for the public’s help finding a Port Angeles man after a Friday morning chase on Highway 101.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, 42-year-old Brian J. Arnold drove away from deputies near the Jamestown Longhouse Gas Station in Blyn after they suspected drug use and told him he was detained. The pursuit headed west on Highway 101 at speeds near 120 mph, including travel into oncoming lanes. A supervisor ended the chase at Blue Mountain Road. About two minutes later came a two-vehicle hit-and-run at Deer Park Loop. The other driver was not injured. Arnold’s vehicle was found abandoned at Deer Park Road and Wall Street. A search warrant turned up suspected methamphetamine, digital scales, and drug paraphernalia. Deputies said they had probable cause for attempting to elude, hit-and-run, possession of methamphetamine, and obstructing.

He was not in custody. The public was asked to help find him.

Now look at the Peninsula Daily News from almost exactly two years earlier. On a Friday night in September 2024, Brian Joseph Arnold — then 40 — led deputies on a chase that topped 85 mph from Old Olympic Highway to Barr Road, U.S. 101, Taylor Cutoff, and Lost Mountain Road. A passenger tossed items from the window. He was booked on investigation of driving under the influence of drugs, eluding, driving with a suspended license, and possession of a controlled substance. Methamphetamine and paraphernalia were found.

Same man. Same drugs. Same highway. Higher speed the second time.

This was not a surprise. It was a sequel. When the system treats a high-speed, drug-fueled eluding case as a booking instead of a turning point, the next chapter is a 120 mph run, a canceled pursuit, a hit-and-run, and a wanted flyer. Soft-on-crime policy does not stay in the courtroom. It shows up on Highway 101.

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The Olympic Herald

Jefferson County Is Looking at the Exit

The Port Townsend Leader reports that Mike French’s NGO, OlyCAP, is preparing to step away as lead agency for roughly $2.2 million in state homelessness funding. Jefferson County may take over the role in 2027.

Executive Director Holly Morgan told the Jefferson County Housing Fund Board on September 3 that after months of discussion, “maybe it’s time for that.”

OlyCAP is the lead grantee for the Consolidated Homeless Grant. Jefferson County can decide in early 2027 whether to take the next two-year cycle.

Maybe Jefferson County is noticing what Clallam County is starting to notice: an organization that can move more than $118,000 through a church for a handful of safe-parking spaces may not be the most efficient use of public money.

“Permanent” Is the Word They Hope You Skip

Peninsula Behavioral Health is selling Permanent Supportive Housing as “a foundation for recovery, stability, and hope.” Housing First in nicer language.

Permanent Supportive Housing is… permanent. The public obligation does not sunset. The client does not age out of the subsidy. The model assumes ongoing taxpayer support for housing plus voluntary services, indefinitely.

The claims are familiar: less homelessness, better health, fewer ER visits, more stability. The part that rarely makes the flyer is the dependency. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive” is not a budget, a performance metric, or an exit plan.

Change Is Only Good When Hope Williams Wants It

Indivisible activist Hope Williams is warning voters not to support Jake Seegers because he represents “change,” and that is supposedly why people voted for Trump.

Linking a Clallam County independent to Washington, D.C. is lazy politics. Six years ago, Williams was telling people to “vote for change” to replace Trump.

The rule is simple: change is virtuous when it delivers her outcome. Otherwise it is dangerous.

Indivisible Polls the Megaphone, Not the Neighborhood

Indivisible activists are surveying members on whether to keep using the megaphone at weekly protests.

Some want the bullhorn while they “save the world” and defend the “rule of law” — a rule that apparently did not apply to Indivisible activist Tim Wheeler, filmed causing thousands of dollars in damage to public DNR land and walking away.

Much of the fight is over Lewis Bennett’s bullhorn.

Bennett is the same activist with a blood-streaked yard sign about Jake Seegers.

While Indivisible argues about megaphone volume and national talking points 3,000 miles away, downtown businesses live with hours of bucket-banging, blocked sidewalks, and protest signs driving customers away.

Indivisible: Poll the shop owners. Read the room.

Want to Hear What Dispatch Hears?

Clallam and Jefferson County scanner traffic is now live — police, sheriff, State Patrol, and EMS — with timestamps and transcripts, not just raw audio. Pursuits, welfare checks, overdoses, and the calls that never make the next day’s brief.

Check out the Clallam and Jefferson Scanner here.

Kissing the Ring

State House hopeful Kaylee Kuehn was photographed at a local coffee shop with three-term Commissioner Mark Ozias.

If you have ever wanted Ozias’ ear and gotten silence, the shortcut appears to be running for office with a “D” next to your name. What a candidate learns from a commissioner with nearly 11 years of special-interest politics and collapsing public trust is anyone’s guess. The photo suggests she intends to find out.

PBH “By the Numbers” Does Not Add Up

Peninsula Behavioral Health posted a “by the numbers” graphic. The timeframe is unclear.

If the agency served 4,000 people, the slide implies:

• 23.7 services per person

• 4.2 therapy sessions per person

• 4.2 telehealth sessions per person

• 1.9 crisis services per person

• 34 total services per person

• and 0.3 appointments per person

The last line breaks the rest. Either the categories overlap, the population is wrong, or the graphic is a decoration. An agency that lives on public money should be able to publish math that survives a first pass.

If San Francisco Can Drop the Ideology, Can Clallam?

Former Seattle Councilmember and interim Mayor Tim Burgess asks whether “the San Francisco miracle” could work in Seattle. San Francisco hit bottom, then Mayor Daniel Lurie traded slogans for results.

Clallam County is not San Francisco. It is watching the same Housing First, harm-reduction, and NGO pipeline produce full jails, unmanaged encampments, and disappearing accountability. Ideology is optional. Outcomes are not.

Read Tim Burgess’ article here.

Attract the Chaos, Pay for the Beds

Sheriff Brian King says the Clallam County Jail hit 100 inmates over the holiday weekend, up from an average daily population near 80. The jail has 120 beds, but behavioral-health cases force separations, so capacity tightens before the building is full.

King says the care load is “like operating an ER.” The jail books about five people a day. Officials discussed booking restrictions but did not impose them. Planning continues for a possible new jail west of Port Angeles.

When policy draws in addiction, repeat crime, and untreated illness, the bill arrives as overtime, medical staff, and a bigger jail.

Read the article here.

No Money for Hatcheries. $4.75 Million for Electric Tribal Boats.

From Badger Fishing: the state cannot fund hatcheries or fishery monitoring, but it can find about $4.75 million for electric tribal monitoring and fishing boats.

Reported examples include:

• Quinault Indian Nation: $352,000 for an all-electric test-fishery boat in waters where recreational anglers cannot fish without a tribal guide

• Samish Indian Nation: $886,000 for a 26-foot all-electric landing craft

• Lummi Nation: $1.18 million to convert a commercial fishing vessel to electric

• Colville Tribes: $1.13 million for a community tour boat

• Swinomish Tribe: $1.18 million to convert a commercial fishing boat to electric

Taxpayers fund the boats. The tribes get the assets. The recreational public gets the lecture.

Filing Week Is Coming

After Port Angeles Deputy Mayor and French campaign manager Navarra Carr pushed sweeping critical-areas expansion that would choke development, residents are already looking to next year, when Carr’s term ends.

Filing week is this spring. If you want a different Port Angeles, run.

TAFY Is Not Just Serving Youth

TAFY — The Answer For Youth — boasts 294 sleeping bags, 206 tents, and 727 bottles of propane distributed in a one-year window.

TAFY is no longer just a youth agency. It supplies homeless adults. The tents on Peabody Street, the sleeping bags in Tumwater Creek, and the unsanctioned camp stoves did not appear from nowhere. Propane in illegal camps is not compassion. It is fuel. A neighborhood fire is not a hypothetical.

Habitat Has a Native Liaison. Where Are the Others?

Habitat for Humanity’s Native American Housing Liaison, now going by Sylvan instead of Rick, met with the Quileute Housing Authority. A commenter hopes to “see cedar bark lodges” again.

Habitat takes county taxpayer dollars. If the organization needs ethnic liaisons, where is the White liaison, the Latino liaison, the Asian liaison? Public money, private books: that is the local NGO model. Habitat is not the exception.

Narcan for Everybody, Profit for the Same Companies

Narcan is no longer marketed as an emergency tool for overdoses. It is now for toddlers, teenagers, tired parents, grandparents, and strangers.

The same industry that flooded the country with opioids is now flooding every demographic with the antidote. That is not a public-health victory. It is a second product line.

They “Raised” $37 Million. You Paid It.

Native Peoples Network says the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe “raised” $37 million to restore the Lower Big Quilcene River.

Not from the casino, the golf course, or the cannabis shop. From taxpayer-funded grants drawn from tax systems many tribal enterprises do not pay into. You raised the money. They got to cut the ribbon.

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On September 11th, 2001, I was a 22-year-old American Airlines flight attendant based in Washington, D.C., dreaming of a life above the clouds. Three years ago, another September 11th sent me walking a river trail in Clallam County and quietly changed the rest of my life. This is the story of how both days stripped away easy assumptions and left something stronger in their place: a belief that this country, and this county, are still worth the work.

Above the Clouds

I graduated from the American Airlines flight attendant academy in July 2001 and was assigned to the Washington, D.C., crew base covering Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore. I was twenty-two and certain I had landed the best possible. American had just acquired TWA and was the largest airline in the world. My office rose above the weather every day. No matter how gray things were on earth, I always saw the sun at 35,000 feet.

I was reminded of rising above the clouds on September 9th when I flew from Reagan into JFK. New York sat under a thick blanket of fog. The only landmarks that broke the cloud layer were the twin towers of the World Trade Center. That was the last time I saw them.

The Day the Phones Wouldn’t Work

I was off duty on September 11th. Five of my classmates shared a house with me in Alexandria, Virginia. Two American jets were involved in the attacks; one of them, Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon, belonged to our crew base. I remember the phone lines were jammed that day as I tried to track down roommates and friends based in D.C. and Boston. Eventually every roommate and close friend was accounted for.

Flight 77 was the morning transcon flight to Los Angeles. It was a high-seniority trip none of us with two months on the job could hold. We flew reserve—filling in when others called out or were on vacation. Many of us had worked that flight before 9/11 and would work it again. None of us worked it that morning.

The regular crew on Flight 77 knew their business passengers the way a family knows one another: who took coffee with cream, which newspaper they preferred, who wanted to be woken for the meal and who wanted to sleep. American’s D.C. base was small, and the sudden absence of six colleagues left a hole you could feel.

I also thought of one Boston-based crew member. Our paths had crossed a few months earlier. His last name was so close to my mother’s maiden name that we joked we were probably related. He was not a close friend—just a colleague I hoped to fly with again. He was on American Flight 11. That crew, based in Boston, was on the first plane to strike the towers. He did not come home that day.

We barely had time to feel any of it. Within days, the airline announced a 20 percent workforce reduction. Twenty-five thousand flight attendants would become twenty thousand by month’s end. Those of us at the bottom of the seniority list turned in our badges on September 30th.

A Walk Along the River

My second September 11th arrived three years ago. My cousin was visiting. It was a beautiful late-summer day, and Doug and I decided to walk with her along the Dungeness River. This time we would walk the soon-to-open roadbed of Towne Road.

On the way, we passed a notice stapled to a stake that was fluttering in the breeze. I walked past it. Doug photographed it.

At home, he read the picture aloud. The county was considering several designs for Towne Road—or possibly never reopening it at all. There were officials to contact: the Board of Commissioners and DCD Director Bruce Emery. I wrote to both. I asked a simple question: why wouldn’t the road open?

Commissioner Ozias replied promptly and courteously. Contaminated soil had been found; the unexpected cleanup cost had left the project without money to finish.

Emery sent a link to a recorded meeting. I had not known county meetings were filmed. In the video, staff told the commissioners that a grant had already covered the entire cost of removing the contaminated soil. The county engineer added that Towne Road could be completed without using a single dollar of county funds. Commissioner Ozias pushed back, saying he had received hundreds of signatures asking that the road stay closed, and the commissioners pulled the plug on finishing Towne Road.

I asked Director Emery about the petitions. He said he didn’t know the details and suggested a public-records request—my first. The records showed not “hundreds,” but just 98 signatures opposing reopening Towne Road. There were 122 supporting it.

That discrepancy was the first small crack. I began posting the correspondence with Commissioner Ozias on Nextdoor.com. The posts did not stay quiet for long. Moderators objected. One of them, Jim Stoffer, took particular issue with my sharing correspondence from his friend, Commissioner Ozias. The conversation grew sharper, then it ended. I received a lifetime ban from Nextdoor, and I decided to create my own website about Towne Road.

When I asked Doug whether the site should be TowneRoad.com or ReopenTowneRoad.com, he suggested something broader. I thought the idea was unnecessary.

I am glad I listened.

What Came After the Road

The work widened. Public records showed Commissioner Ozias using his office to oppose a family business that wanted to reopen a dormant gravel pit across from his driveway—while the county hauled gravel from Jefferson County and struggled to create local jobs.

Other stories followed.

• Olympic Medical Center, our largest employer, dropped to only five days of cash on hand before most residents heard a word about it.

• Quiet emails showed talks with a major campaign donor about “taking over” the Dungeness Recreation Area, the beloved county park above the spit.

• Public money moved toward projects that raised fair questions about priorities and fairness, including $118,000 sent through a church to Mike French’s NGO to create three safe-parking spaces.

• And when Sequim artist Richard Madeo was fatally assaulted, the legacy media had nothing to say while a neighbor’s life and work slipped by in silence.

Some of those stories sound sensational because the facts themselves are striking.

In 2022, a section of the old Dungeness levee was opened before the county’s new setback levee was finished. Public records show the county then declared an emergency so work could be rushed ahead of flood season. The Tribe warned of a mass casualty event. The first draft of that emergency resolution placed responsibility for the early breach on project partner Jamestown, which had removed the dike. After Jamestown offered $500,000 tied to new wording that would clear the Tribe of blame, the adopted resolution shifted responsibility to the Army Corps of Engineers, and the County covered it up.

All of this is documented in public records. Reporting these nearly unbelievable stories is not a smear. It is an invitation to look at the same documents anyone else can request.

I have been called many names along the way: a MAGA extremist, a Trumper, a racist, a bigot, a member of the KKK, a transphobe, a Republican. Doug and I have been accused of bringing Latino prostitutes into our open marriage. I was even written into a local play as a dog who eats human feces.

Labels and rumors travel faster than reading public records.

I do not expect every reader to track three years of detail. I ask only that newcomers judge the work by the documents—not by how loudly, or how inventively, some people react to them.

Two Worlds

Flight crews still talk about life before 9/11 and after. Before: shoes stayed on, visitors walked to the gate, a 90-minute flight from Seattle to San Francisco still came with a real meal. After 9/11: plastic utensils, longer lines, and a new watchfulness.

Clallam County has its own before-and-after story. Before Towne Road, many of us assumed that when a road was designed, engineered, funded, and promised, it would be a road. We assumed public comments mattered and that public servants were, at the very least, serving the public. After Towne Road came a harder, more necessary question: what else have we taken on faith?

Vigilance can become a habit. A watchdog can bark at shadows. Three years in, it is possible to live in a place where even well-intentioned leaders are met with suspicion. That is a real loss. It is also a reminder of what we let grow thin: the everyday trust that makes a place feel like home has been broken.

America let its guard down in the years before 2001. Clallam County let its guard down in the years before a simple road project refused to stay simple. In both cases, the answer is not bitterness. It is the decision to stay engaged.

A Place Worth the Work

The first September 11th ended my career and pointed me toward another. After a few detours, I found myself trading planes for trains.

September 11th taught me that freedom is not a finished gift. The work that began 250 years ago has to be taken up again by every generation.

The second September 11th taught the same lesson closer to home. This county—its rivers, its roads, its hospitals, its small businesses, its people who still believe public records belong to the public—is worth the effort. Watchfulness does not have to be angry. It can be an act of hope: the belief that sunlight still matters, that neighbors still deserve straight answers, and that a place this beautiful is worth protecting for the people who will walk its trails long after we are gone.

That is the story I bring to newcomers. Two September days, twenty-two years apart. Both asked the same question, and both received the same answer:

Keep going.

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Facebook is the county meeting nobody adjourned. This week it ran from a Port Townsend interview asking how you’d “deal with privileged white males,” to Emily Randall’s “look at white men,” to a woman thrown toward the Laurel Stairs and a stolen wagon that still had the meth in the receipt. Here’s what hit the feed this Social Media Saturday.

“How would you deal with privileged white males?”

On Port Townsend Life, a resident said a Jefferson County Conservation District interview asked her how she would “deal with privileged white males.”

That is not a skills question. That is a loyalty test. If a public agency is screening applicants that way, every other applicant should ask who wrote the script.

Randall’s special projects

Three Crabs residents are staring at another flood season after the Jamestown Tribe and Clallam County removed an armored dike. Meanwhile, Rep. Emily Randall posted about working to secure $1.2 million for a new tribal Natural Resources building—only four decades old, it’s described as unsafe due to tsunami and sea-level risk.

One commenter wrote, “It’s always special groups with you, how about working with all our citizens!” Randall’s reply: “Do you mean ‘why don’t I see more posts from you about white men?’”

Swap the group (White men) in that sentence with (pick any other race) and watch the political fallout. That is the point.

On January 7, 2026, Randall used a House Oversight hearing on Minnesota fraud to pivot to White men and crime stats, arguing Congress should spend more time “looking at White men,” including the president.

Critics called it a dodge. On local Facebook it read simpler: flood victims get a shrug, the tribe gets a tax-funded new building in the name of climate change, and a constituent who asks for equal treatment gets a lecture about White men.

Identity politics sorts people into oppressors and oppressed, then scores every policy as a loyalty test. League of Women Voters scorecards and the commissioners’ annual anti-colonizer proclamation run on that script. That does not build a county. It divides us into teams.

OlyCAP’s housing director and the men problem

Viola Ware chairs the County’s Homelessness Task Force, runs housing at OlyCAP, and dodges questions about her NGO’s safe parking program, which takes $118,000 dollars in county funds to operate.

French sits on the OlyCAP board.

Ware posted that homeless people account for 11–15% of violent crime and men for 79–81% of violent-crime arrests, then suggested maybe men should lose public space and taxpayer services—later saying she was reducing the homelessness argument to absurdity.

If you start locking groups out of parks and public money because of a crime share, there is no off-ramp. Next it is 18-to-34-year-old men, then a zip code, then anyone with a prior. OlyCAP’s housing director just drew the map for locking people out of parks. She also chairs the county Homelessness Task Force. Mike French sits on her board.

Ware is not arguing policy. She is defending the setup that employs her. Change is the threat.

Keep them addicted. Keep them homeless. Keep the jobs.

Port Angeles is not as calm as the talking point

Commissioner Mike French says he feels as safe as he did four years ago. The Port Angeles Police Department page told a different story.

Wednesday: high call volume, Assault 2/DV, trespass, wrecks—and a stranger grabbing a woman on the Laurel Stairs and trying to throw her down.

Cameras caught it. Officers found the suspect at his apartment and booked him for assault.

Joseph A. Bell, 46, a familiar name downtown, drew 33 months in prison after a July 3 burglary: homeowners walked in on him, fought him, and ID’d him. He pleaded to burglary 2 and assault 4.

Thursday: a woman reported her wagon looted outside a store, including “crystal meth wrapped in a store receipt.” Officers opened the receipt. The meth was still there. After a scuffle, she went to jail. For a day.

Doorbells

Jake Seegers is building a canvassing team. Email volunteer@jakeseegers.com with your phone number, neighborhood, and whether you can travel to knock on doors. Campaigns that live only on Facebook lose to campaigns that walk the block.

Gold lawns for thee

Health and Human Services is partnering with the Jamestown Tribe on drought messaging: short showers, reuse household water, “embrace the gold lawns.”

The tribe owns The Cedars at Dungeness, a 122-acre golf course, kept green through Sequim’s dry summers. Residents can brown the yard. The fairway does not have to.

A dump on the shoulder

A Facebook post described a woman with her pants down “taking a dump” on the side of the road.

French wants a public-safety tax and says it’s up to residents to reclaim their public spaces. Fine, Commissioner French — Walk that Facebook commenter through the reclaiming process.

Addiction, pipes, casino, and a lager

The tribe runs a MAT clinic to address addiction. That is on the record. The same ecosystem also pushes harm-reduction tools through health boards, runs a cannabis shop and a casino, and is now in a Fremont Brewing collab on 6-Killer Native Lager with Jamestown.

Helping people off opioids and selling them the next vice in the same commercial cluster is a heck of a branding strategy.

Portland ran a task force. We ran a proclamation.

Portland police, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney stood up “Project Portland” and talked about shutting down fentanyl dealers.

Clallam’s Board of Commissioners recently answered overdose concerns with a weak “Overdose Awareness” proclamation.

Portland went after dealers. Clallam went after a proclamation.

The kittens

Someone hit a west-side Port Angeles apartment and took two five-month-old cats—service animals that alert before seizures—plus cards and belongings.

Petty theft pays for the habit. The county still hands out the pipes. This time the take was two service cats and a woman’s seizure safety net. That is not a property crime. That is someone losing the animals that keep her alive.

“Prefer tribal members”

Kwitsen Grill, next to Lower Elwha Food and Fuel, posted it would “prefer to hire tribal members.”

Flip the sentence to “prefer Caucasian applicants” or “Americans only” and watch the HR melt down. Rules that only run one direction are not rules — it’s discrimination.

And the person who wants tribal hires first. Here’s the face behind the policy:

Twenty-two committees and a chairmanship

A Facebook post asked the only question that matters: when does public service become concentrated power?

County listings put Mike French on about 22 committees and boards—Board of Health chair, OlyCAP, Clallam Transit, ORCAA, finance, housing alternate, chambers from Forks to Neah Bay, WSAC, William Shore Pool, tribal liaison slots—plus District 3 commissioner and BOCC chair.

Citizens get three minutes, but the same power brokers keep meeting after the meeting. Mapping who sits where, who funds whom, and who votes is not a conspiracy theory. It is homework.

The Seegers signs

Port Angeles signs: “A vote for Seegers is a vote for Trump.” Someone explain the logic. Please.

If the argument is that anyone who isn’t French equals “MAGA”, that is not an argument. That is a scarecrow.

The NGO payroll problem

Teri put it plainly:

Seegers wants “is it essential, is it effective?” A lot of contract-funded NGOs do not want that test. If your budget depends on the county never asking hard questions, you will vote to keep the questions soft. How many feel-good contracts survive a real cut list while the levy talk gets louder?

Leia’s line

“If you want more of the same, vote French. If you want things to get better, vote Seegers.”

That is the whole election in eighteen words.

From the Scanner

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A capacity crowd of 200 packed the Sequim Prairie Grange Thursday night for the Calico Cat Club’s candidate conversation, leaving others outside as doors closed early. Challenger Jake Seegers repeatedly cited local data and common-sense alternatives while Commissioner Mike French defended existing programs, higher fees, and new taxes. Voters now face a clear choice: change, or four more years of the same approach.

A Packed Grange and a Clear Choice

The Calico Cat Club’s Candidate Conversation drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Sequim Prairie Grange on Thursday evening. Organizers admitted 200 people before closing the doors, leaving others waiting outside.

A technical glitch prevented a live stream, but the full recording is available on YouTube.

Two Different Opening Messages

Both candidates kept opening remarks brief. French highlighted his local roots, small-business background, and desire for housing and jobs across the income spectrum. Seegers, who moved to the peninsula 7 years ago to raise his family, said he is running to restore public safety, economic growth, fiscal responsibility, affordability, and trust in local government through common-sense leadership.

Respect for Public Comment—in the Room and Online

Public comment drew a sharp contrast. French said he values public input and models respect after 8½ years in office (12:00). Yet as chair of the Board of Health, he previously posted on Facebook that it was “incredible” the public “really think their nonsense should be convincing. Like, if the Board of Health had had a public hearing and let them voice their positions, the decision would have been different?”

The statements undercut his claim of respect for those who take time to participate.

Public Safety, Overdoses, and Who Pays the Bill

On public safety and drugs, Seegers cited specific county numbers: overdose deaths rose more than 500 percent from 2018 to 2024, far outpacing state and national increases, and remain more than 200 percent higher despite a recent dip (31:31). He argued current harm-reduction practices enable rather than reduce harm, pointing to 12,000 encounters versus only 27 inpatient assessments (16:21 and 1:11:00).

Seegers called for returning to one-for-one syringe exchange plus Narcan, prioritizing detox and inpatient treatment, ending outdoor living on public land, and measuring outcomes such as recovery and self-sufficiency instead of inputs like pipes and syringes distributed. (42:05).

French described harm reduction as the “practical” approach backed by evidence and pointed to investments in treatment plus upcoming Port Angeles police officers paid for by a new sales tax. He said the county should consider a similar tax increase (17:00 and 40:51). Seegers argued the opposite: prioritize public safety by reducing the $33 million law-and-justice burden through enforcement and treatment that actually moves people off the street, rather than asking taxpayers for more (1:16:36, 1:56:25).

French observed that addiction causes people to do things they would never otherwise do (1:47:12). He nevertheless supports a county program that provides shower vouchers to active drug users who are homeless so they can use the William Shore Pool, a family facility.

Tariffs, the Forks Mill, and a Record of Competence

French denied that the Riverside Forest Products, a Canadian-owned mill soon to open in Forks, was driven by tariffs, attributing it to the company’s internal decisions (46:50). However, Peninsula Daily News previously reported Clallam County Economic Development Council Executive Director Colleen McAleer telling commissioners the company faced “tariff issues and supply issues” and that locating in Forks was of benefit for those reasons.

French said the public is “yearning for competence” (46:22). That line resonated with attendees familiar with his record. He served on the William Shore Pool board during a period when the executive director was found to have taken tens of thousands in public dollars; the State Auditor cited a lack of basic financial controls. French also declined grant funding that would have allowed Towne Road to be surfaced at no cost to the county, resulting in a $1.5 million bill for local taxpayers.

Housing Promises Versus Delivery

French cited Habitat for Humanity’s veterans project as a code-enforcement success story that transferred blighted private property to an NGO for affordable housing (59:01). At a Port Angeles debate last month, he described the process more bluntly:

“When I was on the city council, I advocated for the city to take a more active role in blighted properties. That resulted in the city attempting to forcibly acquire a property on Fairmount Avenue. That, us making the push, you know, saying ‘we’re going to take this property from you through legal means because you have failed in these ways,’ that motivated the property owner to sell to Habitat for Humanity. It’s now a fourplex that’s going to be veterans’ housing… when markets don’t have an answer for it, the public sector does, sometimes, have the ability to step in and say ‘hey, this is how we’re going to get it done.’ Those are the tools that I have experience using and I think that we should continue to use.”

That is the model French is proud of: government pressure to “motivate” a private owner to sell to an NGO, with seizure held out as the next step. Code enforcement and, in some cases, the health officer already have tools to address problem properties without elected officials deciding whose investment should be taken and handed to a favored nonprofit.

Habitat purchased the main Fairmount Avenue lot in February 2022 after a November 2021 bid. An adjacent lot followed in November 2023. Groundbreaking was expected in early 2024. Four years after the first purchase, the four-unit Ketchum Veteran Cottages still are not complete. That is the timeline French calls success: slower delivery than the private market, after government leaned on a property owner to sell.

In other words, Mike French believes in property rights, as long as you are using property according to his standards.

Grants, Tribes, and Public Lands

On the Recompete grant, Seegers noted that 25 percent of the funding ($8.2 million of $35 million) is directed to 5 percent of the population in the tribes and asked why local small businesses could not have received similar help, such as a hydroseeding truck (1:02:30). French offered no rebuttal.

Asked about transferring the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge into tribal trust, French said he could not comment without seeing draft legislation (1:31:42). Seegers answered immediately: “I don’t need to see the legislation. It’s an easy answer. I don’t support it” (1:32:44). Seegers also noted that, “the Jamestown tribe already owns the refuges. We all do. It’s for all of us. Leave it that way.”

Ideology, Canvassers, and What Happened Outside the Door

French repeatedly accused Seegers of approaching issues from an “ideological” perspective while describing himself as practical (35:18). Seegers repeatedly cited county-specific data and conversion rates. French, running as a Democrat, has relied on Indivisible—an organization known for ideological messaging—to produce stickers and conduct neighborhood canvassing. Indivisible’s local effort is backed by the League of Women Voters.

Indivisible members attended the event and attempted to steer discussion toward the 2020 federal election and national topics rather than county issues. One questioner asked both candidates whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen (1:49:25). Another asked about personal contributions to the Heritage Foundation or Project 2025-aligned groups (1:42:00). Seegers declined to answer questions he viewed as intended to divide the county along party lines (1:51:03).

French did not condemn the Indivisible “Handmaidens”, who lined the Grange entrance wearing masks and holding signs such as “Beware of MAGA posing as independent” and “Keep Texas $ out of Clallam County.”

The “Shotgun Sermon” and Free Speech

French, who has described himself as a free-speech absolutist, demanded an apology from Seegers over a 2024 church talk widely circulated as the “skunk sermon” or “shotgun sermon.” Seegers explained it was a metaphor for voting and civic engagement, not a call to violence (50:14). French returned to the clip multiple times rather than staying on current local topics.

French called on everyone to condemn violent rhetoric and said public officials should calm the temperature rather than divide people (48:05). He has not applied that standard to stickers comparing Seegers to Charlie Kirk or to blood-stained signs comparing his opponent to Trump.

While French and Indivisible spent much of the night circling a 2024 church video, no one asked French about his past support for property destruction in the name of societal change.

The focus stayed on Seegers’ metaphor rather than on whether the incumbent’s own record matches the civility and respect for property he claimed on stage.

Church, State, and a $118,000 Parking Deal

Asked about separation of church and state, French said he believes in it as a longstanding American ideal (1:24:05). That principle looks different in county contracting. French approved a county contract sending more than $118,000 to Sequim’s Trinity United Methodist Church for a “safe parking” program that covers just three parking spaces—nearly $40,000 per space.

The church then pays OlyCAP, the NGO whose board French sits on. The arrangement moves taxpayer money through a church and to a favored NGO, outside public view. Voters can decide whether that matches the separation of church and state French described on stage.

Change or More of the Same

The evening repeatedly returned to a single question for voters: do they want change or more of the same? Seegers argued that current approaches have made Clallam County a destination for homelessness and substance-abuse problems while raising fees and taxes. French pointed to incremental investments and collaboration. The recording lets residents judge the contrast for themselves.

Stay Engaged: Westbay Development

Westbay developer Casey Roloff and the Seabrook team are asking residents to show up at the Sequim Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, September 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the Sequim City Council chambers. The proposed 600-home development near John Wayne Marina has drawn sharp debate over water supply, ecological impacts, and large-scale building in a rural part of Sequim. Whatever side you are on, consider attending so you can hear the facts firsthand and stay involved.

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When a man in the grip of psychosis sits outside a local grocery store, cursing at invisible enemies, is the answer really just a sandwich, a bottle of water, and a quiet patio? Or does the problem run far deeper—into policies that hand out the tools of addiction and call it compassion? This reality check shows why one candidate for county commissioner is making public safety the non-negotiable foundation for everything else.

At a February 17 Board of Health meeting earlier this year (timestamp 33:40), Health Officer Allison Berry stated:

“When you see someone on the street who’s shouting at somebody who doesn’t appear to be there, often the solution to that is not jail. It’s a sandwich and a water and a quiet place to be.”

Now look at this video (contains explicit language).

A man appears to be in the midst of a psychotic episode, likely caused or intensified by drug use. He is cursing and sitting outside a local small-business grocery store. He is eating something (whether it is a sandwich is unknown). He has a quiet place to be—a patio outside a boutique grocery store. Yet he is still experiencing a mental breakdown.

Is the missing piece simply a bottle of water? Or is the deeper issue that he lives in a county whose Health Officer will place foil, needles, crack pipes, and “boofing” kits in his hands and encourage him to return to the woods to continue using the illicit street drugs that trap him in addiction?

Harm reduction, in practice, has become harm expansion. This person is not getting better. Our community is not getting better.

The County’s Harm Reduction Health Center receives more than half a million dollars in funding each year. It carefully tracks inputs—how many needles were distributed, how many meth pipes were handed out, how many snorting kits were given to people trapped in active addiction. Yet the health department does not measure outcomes: how many people entered treatment, how many transitioned into recovery, or how many returned to the workforce.

Over half a million dollars spent, and we have no idea whether it is producing any positive effect at all.

In the race for county commissioner, one candidate—Jake Seegers—states clearly that public safety is the cornerstone for everything else, including economic development. He argues that if a business is going to invest time and money, build here, generate taxes, and create jobs, it must know that local government will act as a partner and protect that investment.

Who would want to walk past someone in the grip of this kind of psychosis and still frequent this small grocery store? Who would feel comfortable purchasing food and a soft drink and enjoying it on that patio? Who would feel safe?

In 74 days you will make that choice. You will decide whether this county will be a genuine partner in protecting the investments of local businesses—or a tax-consuming bystander that sits on the sidelines while businesses and business owners close their doors and move to places where local governments actually value and protect them.

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This week, Clallam County Watchdog is on a temporary hiatus while volunteering at the Jake Seegers for Commissioner booth at the Clallam County Fair. Stop by today through Sunday and say hi to Jake and Jeff near the Yellow Gate (West Entrance). In the meantime, enjoy this short article that clearly highlights the difference between the two commissioner races.

Jim Stoffer updated his Facebook profile picture this week.

In it, he is holding a container of salsa and wearing a pin on his shirt that reads “We Are Salsa Picante.”

Salsa Picante is the anonymous blog that has falsely claimed my husband and I have an open relationship with young Latino men whom we pay for sex. The blog published AI-generated text messages to “substantiate” the lie.

The blog has depicted me in multiple cartoons being walked on a leash by Jake Seegers.

It has accused Jake of being a negligent father and a drug user.

Claims that apparently led to sidewalk-chalk messages in front of Field Hall earlier this week.

Salsa Picante has labeled a small business in Beaver as a drug-distribution hub and continues to generate falsehoods about Jake, me, and many of his prominent supporters—going so far as to publish their home addresses.

Who is Jim Stoffer to Mike French? He is the individual Mike French has chosen to prominently feature on his “endorsement” page.

Stoffer is a former school board member who was nearly censured and resigned mid-term amid controversy over leaking personal information to the public. He is also a former charter review commissioner who was caught leaking attorney-client privileged information to a tribal ambassador.

Now French’s key endorser is promoting a hate blog that attacks French’s opponent daily—not on issues or policy positions, but on Jake’s wife’s career as an ER doctor, on Jake’s decision to cut back on work and serve as his children’s primary educator, and on the value of the home Jake and his family rent while they save to build their own.

That is the difference between these two campaigns and these two candidates. Jake and his supporters continue to focus on issues and failed policies. Mike French remains largely silent while his supporters attack, defame, and slander his opponent.

The approaches are polar opposites. In 75 days, voters will decide which one works.

A Challenge to French Supporters

There’s another clear difference between the candidates.

One supports property destruction.

The other is increasingly the victim of it.

Here is a challenge to every Mike French supporter: Instead of bashing Jake—or stealing, slashing, and spray-painting his signs—use these final two and a half months of the race to promote Mike French’s record.

Tell us how he has made our communities safer over the past four years.
Tell us how he has made our county more affordable.
Tell us how he has better protected our ecologically sensitive areas.

Share his concrete accomplishments and explain why voters should choose him.

That is the challenge.

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While the Board of Health refuses public questions and email engagement, its leaders are rolling out a social media campaign defending two decades of harm reduction. Meanwhile, Commissioner Mike French’s self-promoted “accomplishments,” a proposed “Dignity Bus,” and other local stories raise the same question: is any of this making Clallam safer or healthier?

Harm Reduction Propaganda vs. Public Accountability

Amid rising scrutiny, missing metrics, and questionable claims about harm reduction from Clallam County’s Board of Health, Board of Health Chair Commissioner Mike French and Health Officer Allison Berry have chosen a revealing strategy. They refuse to address public concerns at meetings and decline email correspondence, yet they are launching a social media campaign partnering with NGOs and sovereign nations that benefit from the harm-reduction and homelessness industry.

The message doubles down on “meeting people where they are”—which, in practice, means trapped in active addiction. It is growing harder to persuade the public that the best way to help an addict and protect the community is to place a meth pipe and foil in that addict’s hand.

Clallam County has pursued this approach for two decades. Are things better?

Commissioner French’s Highlight Reel Needs a Fact-Check

The Clallam County Democrats are urging Facebook readers to celebrate Commissioner Mike French’s work.

The first accomplishment listed is the 36-unit North View affordable housing complex. The article omits that the units are prioritized for people with criminal records and substance-use issues, and that the cost exceeded $350,000 per unit.

Next comes “a new Joint Public Safety Facility to co-locate our regional 911 center and Emergency Management staff.” Design was completed and a contractor selected in 2025; construction is supposedly set to finish in 2026. However, the facility has not yet broken ground. Completing it in roughly four and a half months may make it the fastest public-safety operations building ever constructed.

A third claim centers on “significant investments in its workforce”—negotiating union agreements for higher public-sector pay and benefits, plus filling HR and IT director roles. In short, government salaries and benefits grew; private-sector job creation did not.

The fourth item is the federal Recompete grant, promoted as bringing 900 jobs to the North Olympic Peninsula. In its first year, it produced 31.

It may be time for a clearer accounting of French’s record. Read about Commissioner Mike French’s accomplishments here.

Is Common Sense Making a Comeback?

Two posts on Nextdoor.com stood out this week.

Seattle’s Bathroom Experiment Lasted Two Weeks

Remember Port Angeles Councilmember Mark Hodgson’s push for two new public bathrooms that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, with city staff reporting that half a million dollars has already been spent on cleaning just three bathrooms since 2023? Seattle tried a similar approach. The facilities were vandalized within two weeks of installation.

Even Family Says: Stop Giving Her Cash

Family members of one local homeless woman are publicly pleading with residents not to give her money. “She is going to use the money for drugs,” the post states.

Clark County’s Warning Signal

We do not need a crystal ball to see where Clallam County could be headed. In Clark County (Vancouver area), more than 50 criminal cases were dismissed because of a public defender shortage, reigniting debate over accountability and justice-system capacity.

OlyCAP’s “Dignity Bus” Raises More Questions Than It Answers

OlyCAP—the nonprofit whose board Commissioner Mike French sits on—is exploring a “Dignity Bus”: a mobile homeless shelter with up to 21 comfortable sleeping pods.

Locals are already asking practical questions: Where will it park? What happens to shopping carts? How are pets handled? How is this meaningfully different from people living in their cars? And is it needed when OlyCAP’s $118,000 safe-parking program has been so underutilized?

Sequim Gazette’s Annual River Alarm

The Sequim Gazette, after partnering with the League of Women Voters and now WSU Extension, is once again sounding the alarm that the Dungeness River is flowing at “critically low levels.” Legitimate questions and counterpoints are appearing in the comments section.

Ferguson’s Office Sat on Climate Data Correction for Weeks

Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office delayed releasing a correction to wildly inflated Climate Commitment Act emissions numbers for roughly two weeks after the Department of Ecology begged to come clean. Ecology had claimed projects would cut 8.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gases; the real figure was only 1.2 million. The fix sat in the governor’s office until a conservative analyst publicly exposed the discrepancy—then it suddenly appeared. The episode is the latest example of Ferguson’s unusually tight media-control policy that requires most agency communications to clear his staff first.

The Climate Commitment Act has driven up costs of everything in Clallam County from energy and housing to gas and groceries, while disproportionately awarding funds to special interest groups and sovereign nations. Read the full article here.

Honoring Billy Frank Jr. with a Thirsty Golf Course

The Billy Frank Jr. Classic golf tournament kicked off this weekend. Frank was an environmental leader and advocate of treaty rights.

Right now, as the Dungeness River runs at critically low levels, water is being shut off to irrigators and locals are being asked to conserve so treaty-protected salmon have enough flow to swim upstream and spawn. What better way to honor Frank than a golf tournament on 122 acres of grass kept verdantly green during the driest part of the year—while everyone else is told to cut back?

From the Scanner

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A downtown Sequim commercial property sold for nearly three times its assessed value to a tribal corporation and sits shuttered—yet no one reported it. Meanwhile, sales-tax negotiations, race-based phone discounts, and selective storytelling continue under the radar. Here’s what the local papers left on the cutting-room floor this week.

Downtown Sequim Property Sold for Nearly 3× Assessed Value—Silence Follows

What if a prominent commercial property in a downtown business district sold for more than twice its assessed value a year and a half ago and then remained shuttered? Would that make the local news? What if the buyer was a sovereign nation operating through a tax-advantaged corporation? Wouldn’t that warrant coverage?

That exact scenario played out at 120 West Bell Street in Sequim—one block south of Washington Street and steps from Sequim Avenue, once home to the popular Riverhouse Bakery and Bistro.

Despite a county assessed value of just $363,203, records show the property sold in January of last year for $1,041,000 to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

This is another key parcel in Sequim’s downtown core acquired by the Jamestown Corporation, which already owns the entire block that includes Hurricane Coffee on the northwest corner of the main intersection.

According to the Tribe’s own newsletter, Jamestown is “in the negotiation process on a compact to allow Tribes to collect the sales tax collected by non-Tribal businesses on Tribal lands. This would mean additional revenue for Jamestown.”

That could mean sales tax collected at places like Hurricane Coffee and other businesses in the Sequim Trading Plaza would flow to the Tribe rather than to the city, county, and essential public services—even though the businesses themselves are not tribal. And if the property is put in tribal trust status, the property tax obligations will be shifted onto other taxpayers.

It is not hard to picture a downtown Sequim where people spend money, yet the taxes collected benefit a sovereign nation instead of the surrounding community. This pattern could expand. So far, no one else is reporting on it.

AT&T Ad Highlights a Separate Tax Reality

Readers of the Sequim Gazette may have noticed an AT&T advertisement promoting discounted service under the Lifeline Program. Service is available for $19.74 a month for those who qualify.

In the fine print, the ad says: “If you live on Tribal lands and qualify, you could get Enhanced Lifeline support… for as little as $1 a month.”

Documentation required for enrollment includes the prior year’s state, federal, or Tribal tax return.

Do tribal members file tax returns that differ from those filed by other U.S. citizens?

Brazilian Dance Night Delivers More Than Music

Tonight, Civic Field in Port Angeles hosts a Brazilian song-and-dance performance presented by the North Olympic Healthcare Network and Kitsap Bank. Proceeds benefit the Olympic Medical Center Children’s Clinic and the OMC Foundation scholarship fund.

The event also carries an explicit social-justice message, according to lead dancer Deise Costa. From the coverage:

Even a children’s clinic fundraiser, it seems, must come with a history lesson on resistance and systemic struggle.

Strong Letters on Budget and Public Safety—Keep Them Coming

Last week’s Peninsula Daily News featured excellent letters to the editor on budget priorities and public safety.

If you have an issue or candidate you care about, write a letter to the editor. Submit to the Peninsula Daily News here, the Sequim Gazette here, or the Forks Forum here.

If your letter gets rejected, send it to Clallamity Jen at clallamityjen@gmail.com and have it published in Clallam County Letters.

Read Clallam County Letters

King County Passes Ethics Reforms—A Model for Clallam?

KOMO News reports that King County Council members unanimously approved a sweeping set of ethics reforms aimed at preventing county employees from using their positions to benefit relatives or people with whom they have personal relationships.

The legislation followed an investigation that found a county program manager had overseen roughly $813,000 in grant payments to businesses connected to five of her relatives. This fall, Clallam County voters will decide on a charter amendment that would create an enforceable ethics code for elected officials. If King County can do it, so can we.

Buyer Beware: Free Dinner and Big Promises

A reader contacted CC Watchdog this week after receiving a glossy mailer for a complimentary dinner and 90-minute presentation on “Regenerative Therapy” at Seven Cedars on Monday, August 17 (3:30 or 6:30 p.m.).

“It’s the same fraud scam under a new name that they tried to get my wife and I for 2½ years ago,” the reader wrote.

“They promised to ‘cure us’ for tens of thousands of dollars for special stem cell therapy treatments. They use the same Time Share – Snake Oil Therapy tactics to ‘Sign a Contract for Treatments,’ make you pay a healthy amount up front (which by the way is illegal to charge up front before medical treatments are rendered) and then threaten with half of the contract amount if you don’t pay.”

The reader continued: “Because they are so ‘slick,’ they rely on even if just a few seniors who are attending to not have the knowledge and/or ability to know how to figure it out that it’s all fraudulent… Even if they get just a couple victims it more than pays for their effort. We are only trying to help our most vulnerable… from becoming the next gravy train victim ‘Before it Happens’!”

The reader filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office, which was sympathetic but noted the limited options without a current victim.

These free-dinner seminars follow a well-documented national pattern. Operators invite older adults to a meal and “educational” presentation promising dramatic relief from joint pain, arthritis, or other chronic conditions through regenerative or stem-cell treatments. High-pressure sales tactics often follow—sometimes at the event, sometimes in follow-up home visits—pushing contracts for treatments that can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, frequently with large upfront payments.

The FDA and FTC have repeatedly warned that many such offerings are unproven, unapproved, and illegally marketed. Documented harms have included infections, vision loss, and other serious complications. Regulators have banned companies, ordered multimillion-dollar refunds, and highlighted that legitimate regenerative therapies remain limited and tightly regulated. Free dinners, miracle claims, pressure to sign on the spot, and demands for large prepayments are classic red flags.

If you or a loved one receives one of these invitations, pause. Ask hard questions, consult your own physician, and remember that if a treatment sounds too good to be true—and requires thousands of dollars before any care is delivered—it usually is.

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Local politics, public health debates, and online chatter collided this week across Clallam County. One candidate courted voters amid pointed questions about partisanship and election oversight, while officials pushed contested policies and special interests offered surprising perks. Here’s an unfiltered Social Media Saturday of what people are talking about.

Unity of Effort Event

See Jake Seegers today at Unity of Effort in Sequim. Come meet the county commissioner candidate and stay for an excellent music lineup plus the chance to honor our military, law enforcement, first responders, and security personnel.

Indivisible, French, and the Canvassing Board

We know that Commissioner Mike French has harnessed the power of Indivisible to doorbell for him, and he’s gone onto the Indivisible Facebook page to praise its members for making stickers that denigrate his opponent Jake Seegers. Knowingly or not, he has also harnessed the energy of some of the county’s most vocal protesters.

Yesterday, during a sunny afternoon in Sequim’s downtown business district, Indivisible occupied the intersection to beat on buckets, wave signs, and wear hats calling the president a pedophile. Several of the signs declared, “A vote for Seegers is a vote for Trump.”

Indivisible is promoted, supported, and amplified by the League of Women Voters, a self-described “nonpartisan” activist group that participates in Indivisible rallies. The LWV is also observing ballots being processed at the courthouse and is allowed to do so because Clallam County considers it a nonpartisan organization.

• Is it appropriate for the LWV to back a partisan group?

• Is it appropriate for Mike French, who chairs the canvassing board that will certify and maintain the integrity of this election, to collaborate with Indivisible during this campaign?

• Is it appropriate for Mike French to chair the canvassing board and oversee an election when he is on the ballot?

Apparently, in Clallam County it is.

Welcome to Port Angeles

“When you see someone on the street who’s shouting at somebody who doesn’t appear to be there, often the solution to that is not jail. It’s a sandwich and a water and a quiet place to be.” — Health Officer Allison Berry

Watch this video and ask yourself: does this man just need a sandwich, a water, and a quiet place to be?

Harm Reduction’s Hard Sell

What happens when Health Officer Allison Berry and Commissioner Mike French restrict public comment, refuse to answer emails about harm reduction, and can’t explain discrepancies in the numbers they provide to the public? They launch a social media campaign to reinforce that handing meth pipes to people trapped in active addiction is an “evidence-based approach to public health that helps reduce the risks associated with substance abuse” and that providing people more ways to use illicit street drugs is “safe, healthy, and connected to care.” Then they limit who can comment on the social media post to silence dissent—much as they do at their Board of Health meetings.

If harm reduction were working after two decades, there wouldn’t be a need to sell it to the public and avoid answering basic questions.

Chaos Coordinator’s Real Focus

Commissioner French’s newest appointee to the Homelessness Task Force—an Indivisible activist named Jamie Porter—has rebranded herself online as “Chaos Coordinator.” Her energy isn’t spent championing Mike French or his seven years of local political accomplishments. Instead, she’s criticizing CC Watchdog for allegedly creating “strife and anger in the community while tearing down non-profits and other organizations doing good work.”

If asking questions and demanding accountability creates strife and anger, then those “good organizations” may have far more to hide than anyone realizes.

Hodgson’s Next Chapter

Mark Hodgson didn’t make it past the primary.

Perhaps he can focus more on his new City of Port Angeles councilmember position, where he is pushing for expensive new public bathrooms, and join Commissioner Mike French in keeping the voucher program that allows homeless drug addicts to shower with families and children at the Shore Pool in Port Angeles—as a board member of the pool. Or in his role as a member of the Homelessness Task Force, which continues to funnel $118,000 into three underused safe parking places.

Commissioner Mike French believed in his values so strongly that he donated $250 to Hodgson’s campaign.

Nextdoor’s Fleeting Clarity

Nextdoor.com had a moment of common sense this week.

It then reverted back to being a heavily censored cesspool controlled by the fringes.

DSA Loyalty on Display

Former state representative candidate Bradley “Nemo” Callaway took to Substack to explain the Democratic Socialists of America’s recommendation for Commissioner Mike French. While conceding that French was not the perfect candidate, Callaway noted that “the DSA voting guide does recommend him.” In other words, party before people—he’ll follow what his handlers tell him because he’s a party loyalist and ideologue.

Jamestown’s Gas Discount Irony

The Jamestown Corporation, which prides itself on environmental stewardship, is offering discounts on gas at its station of up to 30 cents per gallon.

Jamestown lobbied heavily for the Climate Commitment Act and has received millions from the CCA for charging stations, solar transitions, energy efficiency for its Airbnbs, and electric vehicles. So the CCA, which has driven up gas prices for everyone in Clallam County, has funneled money to special interests that are now able to offer discounts on gasoline.

Kamloops Claims Revisited

According to the C2C Journal, despite widely publicized claims from 2021, five years have passed with no actual discovery of missing Indigenous children’s graves at the Kamloops residential school or any other site.

This crucial lack of evidence contradicts the initial allegations that fueled widespread public outrage and monument removals. The Canadian public is reportedly “waking up” to these facts, signaling a growing willingness to question emotionally driven narratives and seek historical truth.

These claims have formed much of the basis driving calls for reparations and the Landback movement.

Landback Across the Strait

If you’re curious about the Landback movement, look no further than across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria. According to recent reports highlighted on Western Standard’s Hannaford politics show, British Columbia’s government is negotiating a treaty with local First Nations that would transfer high-value public land in the heart of Victoria to the Songhees First Nation.

The deal reportedly includes two provincially owned downtown properties—one beside the legislature and another on the waterfront across from Bastion Square—with a combined assessed value of $47 million. These are to be transferred in fee simple as treaty lands, with additional transfers including property valued at $48 million.

Port Angeles Safety Rumors

Rumors are swirling online about a series of rapes allegedly occurring throughout Port Angeles. Could local law enforcement and legacy media please address these concerns and brief the community about the validity of this threat?

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This week’s local coverage offered a candidate prioritizing public safety, a tribal chair reminding agencies they still have “a lot more to teach,” and a major fire story stripped of key background. A street-corner rant in the weekend edition while an out-of-state activist appeared under “Community Voices.” Meanwhile, local opinions continue to face closed doors. Here’s the rundown.

Clallam County Commissioner Race: Seegers Narrowly Ahead

The Peninsula Daily News reported that challenger Seegers holds a slight lead over incumbent Commissioner Mike French. Seegers listed his priorities clearly: public safety first as the foundation for everything else, followed by economic development, then balancing the county budget so taxpayers keep more of their money.

French emphasized running a campaign focused strictly on the issues and said he wants no aggressive or negative attacks from his supporters.

Indigenous Burial Sites: Tribal Chair Frances Charles Featured Prominently

An article in the Salish Current notes that disturbance of Indigenous burial sites remains common in the region.

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chair Frances Charles was featured prominently in the article. She stated: “Fortunately, we have some good relationships with the agencies around Port Angeles — the city, the port, the school district, the museum. They understand to a point. But we still have a lot more to teach them.”

Spokane Fire Coverage Omits Critical Background

The Peninsula Daily News ran a New York Times syndicated report on the fire that devastated the Spokane area.

While it noted a man had been arrested, it left out widely reported details: the suspect had previously killed his father, entered a plea that removed the possibility of a life sentence, served 12 years, and was released in Arizona before arriving in Washington.

Weekend Edition Focuses on Local Street Mess

The weekend edition of the PDN included a rant about the ongoing mess at Peabody and 2nd streets.

Just one question. Is that the east side of Peabody and 2nd…

Or the west side of Peabody and 2nd?

Has anyone tried to get an opinion published in the Sequim Gazette?

When I served on the Charter Review Commission, after reading a “pro water steward” article in the Gazette, I wanted to write a contrasting opinion. Commissioner Ozias had a monthly article, other citizens were getting published, but I was denied, and the editor contacted the Charter Review Commission. This article, featured under “Community Voices,” is from a director of a Human Rights organization in Idaho.

Is this what our local paper considers a “Community Voice” while refusing to publish local opinions?

Today’s Tidbit: Unity of Effort This Saturday in Sequim – Stop by Jake Seegers’ Booth

Unity of Effort returns Saturday, August 8, for its annual free community celebration honoring military, law enforcement, first responders, and security personnel. Held at Security Services Northwest headquarters (250 Center Park Way, Sequim), the family-friendly event features helicopter arrivals, police K9 demonstrations, emergency and military vehicle displays, live music (including headliner Lita Ford), kids’ activities, food vendors, and community booths. Gates open at 10 a.m.; free parking is available on-site.

While you’re there, visit the Jake Seegers for Commissioner booth from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pick up a yard sign, meet Jake, share your concerns about Clallam County and what you want from local government, and sign the petition to reopen Hot Springs Road into the Elwha Valley and the interior of Olympic National Park.

See you there!

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Local papers this week featured a letter praising democratic socialism and the continuation of a contested shower voucher program. Coverage also included contrasting outcomes in two local criminal cases. Here’s a closer look at what made the pages.

Letter Promotes Democratic Socialism

The Peninsula Daily News published a letter to the editor this week from Linda Benson praising democratic socialism and noting its adoption in most Scandinavian countries.

Benson is the past president of the Clallam County League of Women Voters and remains active with the League, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan” organization. Clallam County continues to list the local League of Women Voters chapter as “unaffiliated” ballot observers.

Separately, Democratic Socialists of America National Co-Chair Megan Romer appeared on a news program earlier this week discussing the organization’s long-term goals.

These include abolishing the Senate, replacing the presidency and Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, ending borders and granting amnesty to those currently in the country illegally, defunding the Pentagon, abolishing prisons, and placing most large corporations under government or public ownership.

Shower Voucher Program Continues Despite Petition

Commissioners Mike French and Randy Johnson, along with Port Angeles City Councilmembers Mark Hodgson and LaTrisha Suggs and community member Greg Shield, unanimously voted to maintain the shower voucher program.

The program provides vouchers to homeless individuals with addictions at the harm-reduction center so they can use the showers at the William Shore Memorial Pool, which is also used by children and families. Officials kept the program even though 567 signatures were submitted in opposition.

A petition supporting the program—started by Indivisible activist Jamie Porter, Commissioner French’s newest appointee to the Homelessness Task Force—gathered only 293 signatures.

Contrasting Local Court Cases

The Sequim Gazette reported that a two-day trial has been scheduled for a 70-year-old woman accused of stealing a coffee table from the Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store. She faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

In a separate case, Joshua Royal was arrested for breaking into multiple units of an apartment complex, destroying furniture, and chasing a resident.

He was released by court order after two days in Clallam County Jail. His total bail was set at $0.00.

Today’s Tidbit: See You at the Wild Blackberry Festival

If you’re heading to Joyce Daze this Saturday, be sure to stop by and say hello!

I’ll be spending the day at the Jake Seegers for County Commissioner booth, and I’d love the opportunity to meet readers, hear what’s on your mind, and talk about the issues shaping Clallam County.

Whether you’ve been reading the Watchdog for years or just recently discovered us, I’d enjoy meeting you in person.

Hope to see you Saturday in Joyce! 🇺🇸

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While Sequim welcomed visitors with lavender and local business cheer, activist groups turned the streets into a protest zone over distant issues. Candidates stretch résumés and flip-flop on policies they helped create. Socialists print ballots in the park while replacement ballots flood the system statewide. Tribal gaming booms as taxpayers fund exclusive opportunities, and climate alarmism faces scrutiny from a scientist who dared question the narrative. Welcome to Social Media Saturday—where we cut through the noise in Clallam County.

Festival Protest Steals the Spotlight

For many, Sequim’s Lavender Festival was a joyful community celebration and economic boost for downtown businesses. For others, it became a platform for Indivisible activists to block crosswalks, bang on buckets, and wave signs about issues 3,000 miles away — while local problems go unaddressed.

Thanks, Indivisible, for giving first-time visitors a memorable introduction to what our town has become.

Democrats’ “Civil Discourse” Event Rings Hollow

The Clallam County Democrats hosted an event promoting “civil discussions” and “meaningful discourse.”

Yet their track record includes public property damage caused by party trustee Tim Wheeler in the name of eco-activism, derogatory nicknames (Clallam County “Crotchdog”), and labeling one candidate invited to a debate as “Fake Jake.”

Good job, CC Dems — the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Sequim Resident Considers Escaping Washington

A post in the “Escape Washington State” Facebook group from a longtime Sequim resident highlighted growing frustration with rising homelessness, addiction, crime, and shifting politics that leave hard-working taxpayers feeling unwelcome.

John, many share your sentiment — it’s getting harder to urge people to stay and fight.

Candidate Mark Hodgson’s Credibility Gap

State Representative candidate Mark Hodgson has faced questions over multiple statements: listing inconsistent residences, identifying as a “person of color” for a DEI task force, and misstating his Charter Review Commission service by a year while inflating his City Council tenure by another year. Now he’s saying that he appeared on the cover of a book during his service in the military.

Something about Hodgson’s record is missing the Mark, but it may be true. My image was also used on the cover of a book.

Socialists Printing Ballots at Jessie Webster Park Today

A local Socialist Party event printing and distributing ballots to addicted homeless individuals at Jessie Webster Park in Port Angeles (today at noon) is drawing significant attention. This post by @AdamsUnchained on X has surpassed 11,000 views.

Thousands of Replacement Ballots Issued

KXLY reports thousands of replacement ballots are being sent due to errors — the same style being printed and distributed in the park today.

Despite a purely electronic system designed to catch duplicates, concerns about election integrity continue to mount.

DePoe’s Climate Act Stance

Candidate Patrick DePoe boasted at a recent debate about helping pass the Climate Commitment Act, saying, “That was something that I had the opportunity and the privilege to work on and to have that get passed.” The CCA has been a key driver of Washington’s third-highest gas prices in the nation.

His recent mailer to area residents claims he “feels your pain at the pump” and will fight to lower fuel costs.

Why would he fight the high fuel costs he helped create?

Yard Signs Still Available for Seegers Campaign

Jake Seegers recently announced that yard signs remain available for pickup in the Sequim area.

All Quiet on the Mike French Front

Activity has been dormant on the “Elect Mike French” Facebook page since 2022. Rest assured, according to our commissioner, he has been busy serving his constituents.

Taxpayer-Funded Opportunities Exclude Regular Citizens

The State Department of Commerce is promoting funding for construction and renovation projects. One catch: only Tribes and nonprofits may apply.

Workshops include a general session and a separate “tribal” session the following day.

Climate Alarmism Under the Microscope

Summer brings the usual climate lectures from the League of Women Voters, Tribes, Indivisible, and candidates vying for votes. Watch this powerful 7-minute John Stossel video featuring Judith Curry, former Georgia Tech department chair.

Once celebrated for warning about increasing hurricane intensity, Curry investigated gaps in the data, acknowledged the lack of evidence, and faced vicious attacks from climate alarmists. Her story exposes how “the science” has been corrupted for financial and political gain — sound familiar Clallam County?

Worth rereading:

Tribal Gaming Hits Record $46.2 Billion

Tribal gaming revenue reached a record $46.2 billion in fiscal 2025, up 5.3% from the prior year, with revenue heavily concentrated among the largest operations.

While the industry thrives, it’s important to remember that casinos and gambling disproportionately harm the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

Seattle Indian Health Board Expands Treatment Facility

The Jamestown Corporation isn’t the only gig catching onto high Medicaid reimbursement rates; the Seattle Indian Health Board spent $36 million to buy and renovate a former assisted living facility.

It will become King County’s largest inpatient drug and alcohol treatment center, adding dozens of recovery beds for Medicaid patients.

Thank You, Watchdoggers

We just hit 4,000 subscribers. None of this happens without you — civically engaged community members who choose every day to think critically and independently. Our community is stronger because of you. Thank you.

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While breaking news increasingly appears first on social media and independent news sites, traditional newspapers are searching for ways to remain relevant. Every Friday, CC Watchdog will take a look at what our local legacy media is publishing, the voices they’re amplifying, and the stories they may be overlooking.

The Gazette’s newest reporter? The League of Women Voters

Every summer it happens. Residents are reminded to conserve water. Headlines warn about shrinking snowpack. Climate concerns dominate the conversation. This year, however, the Sequim Gazette has gone a step further.

The paper announced that its new recurring water feature will be produced in partnership with the League of Women Voters, an organization that has spent years advocating for the creation of a county Water Steward position.

The Gazette describes the League’s water committee as helping explain the science. The committee describes itself as “non-political.” Yet the people quoted throughout the article are not merely explaining river flows—they have been actively involved in local policy discussions surrounding water management.

Barbara Vanderwerf, a member of the League’s Water Committee, warns that the Dungeness River has entered “a precarious era that poses a risk to future generations.”

Ann Soule, another committee member, predicts that roughly 70 percent of future years will resemble this year’s dry conditions, saying:

“Yes, it’s a dry year. We’re going to have 70% of our years in the future be that.”

Readers can decide for themselves whether that’s a scientific projection, a policy prediction, or something in between.

Perhaps the most revealing quote, however, wasn’t about hydrology at all. Discussing conservation messaging and water utilities, Soule asked:

“Why tell people to conserve when it means you’re going to be taking a cut in your revenue?”

Perhaps the most revealing comment came when Soule suggested that conservation is ultimately an ethical and moral decision for government—not individuals—to make.

“It’s an ethical or moral decision that must be made by, say, a political body, like a council. ‘We don’t care if we’re not going to be getting as much revenue. We need to tell people to conserve.’”

That statement is particularly noteworthy because supporters of the proposed Water Steward position have consistently described the office as a non-regulatory role focused solely on collecting data and educating the public. If conservation policies ultimately depend on political decisions about public behavior, some readers may reasonably ask whether the proposal is as limited as it has been presented.

Another question goes unasked in the Gazette’s article. If water conservation is everyone’s responsibility, are similar discussions taking place with all governments in Clallam County—including tribal governments that manage significant water resources and irrigated lands? The article never says.

One sentence near the end may be the most telling of all:

“The League’s Water Committee is partnering with the Sequim Gazette on a new regular feature.”

That means readers can get used to our local paper regularly partnering with this “nonpartisan” activist group.

The kids’ page has a message, too

The Gazette also debuted a colorful new Junior Gazette section aimed at children.

The pages encourage youngsters to become “Junior Reporters” while teaching lessons about shrinking snowpacks, water conservation, river ecosystems, and climate-related water challenges. The educational material asks children to interview adults about conserving water and write stories explaining why rivers need protection.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with teaching children about natural resources. But it’s worth noting that the themes closely mirror the messaging promoted throughout the newspaper’s new partnership with the League of Women Voters’ Water Committee.

When advocacy groups help shape both adult coverage and children’s educational content, readers may reasonably wonder where education ends, and advocacy begins.

News—or nonprofit marketing?

Another noticeable trend continues. An increasing amount of newspaper space is devoted not to reporting but to promoting nonprofit organizations. This week’s editions include stories highlighting organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul and Olympic Angels, presenting their work largely through favorable profiles.

The most direct example comes from the Boys & Girls Clubs, where the organization’s CEO authored a guest column encouraging donations to its annual fundraising campaign.

Readers are told:

“We are inviting everyone to consider a gift to the annual Campaign for Kids.”

The column also states that providing a year of programming costs $3,046 per child.

Community organizations certainly deserve recognition for their work. But there is a distinction between reporting on an organization and publishing fundraising appeals written by the organizations themselves.

Opinion pages without local opinions

The Peninsula Daily News also appears to be relying increasingly on syndicated commentary and advocacy organizations rather than local voices. One recent column discussing the Bonneville Power Administration argues that hydropower has come at a “devastating cost” to salmon and states BPA must do significantly more to restore salmon and meet obligations to Native American tribes.

Whether readers agree or disagree with those conclusions, they continue a familiar pattern in regional opinion pages emphasizing environmental and tribal policy perspectives.

Nine days for a homicide. Immediate coverage for a missing table.

Readers may also remember how differently stories receive attention. Last year, a Sequim resident was killed in a fatal daytime attack during the Irrigation Festival. The Gazette did not report the incident until nine days later—and only after a local blogger had already brought the story to public attention.

By contrast, the disappearance of an expensive table from a local thrift store received prompt coverage.

Editors make news judgments every day. Readers are equally free to judge those priorities.

Ozias returns to defend county government

County Commissioner Mark Ozias is back with another monthly guest column.

This week he explains why Clallam County benefits from membership in the Washington Association of Counties (WSAC), the Olympia-based NGO lobbyist organization that receives more than $40,000 annually in county dues.

Ozias currently serves as president of WSAC.

The column praises the value of the organization but does not address questions raised about the county’s expenditures or whether taxpayers receive adequate value for those dues.

The Bottom Line

Legacy newspapers face enormous challenges. Advertising revenue has declined. Social media often breaks stories first. Independent publishers can move far faster than weekly print deadlines.

Many newspapers are responding by emphasizing partnerships, guest columns, nonprofit features, and advocacy collaborations.

Whether that strengthens local journalism—or gradually transforms newspapers into platforms for organizations with established policy agendas—is a question readers will have to answer for themselves.

Today’s Tidbit: The County Wants To Hear From You

We all have them — those moments behind the wheel when something happens that makes your heart jump: a near collision at an intersection, a pedestrian stepping out unexpectedly, a driver passing too aggressively, or a roadway condition that almost caused a crash.

The Target Zero Coalition, a group of traffic safety and collision prevention specialists serving Clallam and Jefferson Counties, is asking residents to share those experiences through a short 8-question survey.

While agencies collect plenty of data on crashes that happen, they often don’t know about the thousands of “near misses” that never make it into official records — but could provide important clues about where and how crashes can be prevented.

As the saying goes: The experts don’t know what they don’t know.

Your experience on local roads can help identify problem areas, risky behaviors, and opportunities to make our highways and streets safer.

Take the short survey here:

Take Survey!

A few minutes of your time could help prevent someone else’s close call from becoming a serious crash.

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Commissioner Mike French snagged the North Olympic DSA recommendation — with the group now hosting ballot printing and voter registration at Tree Park for homeless addicts. Mark Hodgson gains Commissioner Ozias’ backing amid scrutiny of both their track records. Sequim City Council suddenly wants public input after ignoring overwhelming opposition on wildlife refuge transfers. King County’s “pure corruption” homelessness failures hit close to home in Clallam. That and more — this Social Media Saturday.

Harm reduction allies target homeless addicts for ballots

In major local news, Commissioner Mike French secured the recommendation of the North Olympic Democratic Socialist Party.

The local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has officially recommended French, is hosting a “ballot printing and voter registration” event on July 25 at Jesse Webster Park (Tree Park) in Port Angeles.

The Tree Park Collective provides weekly direct-action services to the unhoused, including food, clothing, and harm reduction supplies. It operates on a risk-reduction model that prioritizes safer use instead of cessation.

French, Health Officer Berry, and local Socialist-aligned groups strongly back harm reduction approaches. The event appears to be coordinated efforts to register and assist homeless drug users with voting, raising questions about turnout strategies in local races.

Hodgson’s Endorsements Raise Questions About Company Kept

Mark Hodgson continues gaining endorsements from local elected officials, including County Commissioner Mark Ozias, who Hodgson praises for leadership and collaboration.

Yet Ozias has faced criticism for actions like shutting down a gravel pit (costing family-wage jobs), pushing tax increases via his leadership role with NGO lobbyist organization the Washington Association of Counties, and collaborating on transferring the Dungeness Recreation Area County Park to tribal control without public input.

Hodgson himself had the worst attendance of all charter review commissioners, listed an Olympia primary residence while serving locally, and faced regularly disregarded rules and bylaws during his charter review term to further his agenda.

You can judge people by the company they keep—voters may prefer Independent Marcia Kelbon.

Sequim City Council’s Selective “Public Input”

Sequim City Councilmember Dan Butler is urging residents to help finalize the city’s 10-year comprehensive plan, stressing the need for input from staff and officials.

However, months ago the council ignored overwhelming public opposition to supporting the transfer of two wildlife refuges to the Jamestown Corporation and proceeded anyway.

This Sequim City Council has already sent a clear message: your voice only counts when it agrees with theirs.

“Pure Corruption,” Not Just Policy Failure

Former Washington State Senator Mark Miloscia, with deep experience on housing and human services committees, calls King County’s homelessness system “pure corruption” at its core.

He warned 20 years ago that the system lacked accountability, audits, and measurable results; proposals to track individuals by name and tie funding to outcomes were gutted. Instead, a “homeless industrial complex” emerged where more homeless people mean more funding for nonprofits, with little incentive for actual reductions.

Miloscia points to moral and integrity failures, enabling behaviors rather than demanding treatment and results. Despite billions spent, numbers soared from under 2,000 to over 16,000. Recent financial scandals at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority echo his predictions.

This isn’t confined to Seattle.

Clallam County commissioners funded three safe parking spaces for $118,000 and backed the North View permanent supportive luxury low-barrier homeless housing project opening soon at over $350,000 per unit, complete with rooftop terraces, EV charging, and a dog-washing sink.

Read the article here and see if King County’s approach to homelessness reminds you of anything.

Colville Tribes’ Major WSU Athletics Sponsorship

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation signed an $8.43 million, five-year sponsorship with Washington State University Athletics—the largest in department history.

It includes jersey patches, youth clinics, basketball programs, and educational initiatives, part of a broader trend of tribes leveraging sports for visibility and community support. This reflects the growing economic and political reach of tribal corporations.

Some tribal members have voiced concerns familiar to local tribes: that profits from such ventures and other enterprises do not sufficiently trickle down to everyday enrolled citizens.

Indivisible Sequim’s Endorsements and Concerning Rhetoric

Indivisible Sequim, promoted with League of Women Voters support, has endorsed incumbent Commissioner Mike French over challenger Jake Seegers in District 3. The group, which frames its work as defending democracy, has drawn criticism after a Facebook post where Indivisible member Jon Redmond told a resident, “I’d take you out too, if it was legal,” and wished for the “privilege of serving on your firing squad.”

Indivisible’s mission emphasizes justice and accountability.

Campaign Tactics Heat Up

Port Angeles resident Alexandria Fermanis, who emailed Jake Seegers vowing to do everything she could to thwart his campaign, now displays car signage proclaiming her love for skunks, an animal that has become code for supporting Commissioner Mike French.

A closer look at her permanent sticker, on the lower right of the screen, reveals another message:

Such moves highlight intensifying personal dynamics in the county commissioner race.

CC Watchdog Responds to Accusations

A Facebook user recently labeled CC Watchdog a “racist who doesn’t like the tribes and anyone native, hates the gays and the they’s and hates the homeless.”

With over 700 articles and hundreds of podcasts, I challenge anyone to provide specific cut-and-paste examples of such stances. If valid evidence exists, I owe an apology.

Scrutiny of policy, spending, accountability, and outcomes is not hatred—it’s our civic duty.

Port Angeles Sign Pick-up Location

This Week From the Scanner

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Under the current board of commissioners, local government is increasingly cozying up to socialist-leaning activist groups and using taxpayer-funded institutions to advance their agenda. Olympic Climate Action’s endorsement of Commissioner Mike French perfectly illustrates the pattern. Meanwhile, the County Health Department handed out morning-after pills and oral contraceptives at a family-friendly Pride event hosted in collaboration with the library and a socialist activist farm.

In local races across Clallam County, a clear pattern has emerged: select activist organizations enjoy close working relationships with sitting officials and publicly funded institutions, while everyday residents and opposing candidates often remain sidelined.

Olympic Climate Action’s recent endorsements offer a textbook example. The group has endorsed incumbent County Commissioner Mike French.

Commissioner French’s reelection platform prominently features the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

The County has tasked Olympic Climate Action with helping deliver the Community Wildfire Resilience Workshop.

When an activist organization is given county-supported work tied to a commissioner’s signature issue, and that’s followed by the organization’s endorsement of the same commissioner, it raises fair questions about the boundaries between government and advocacy.

In Clallam County, this arrangement appears to be standard operating procedure rather than an anomaly.

Though the Olympic Climate Action claimed it “carefully reviewed candidates” before endorsing them, the organization did not reach out to Jake Seegers, the candidate challenging French for the seat. On the day the endorsements were released, Seegers was participating in a cleanup of an encampment along Tumwater Creek — a salmon-bearing waterway that has suffered repeated environmental damage from unsanctioned camping.

Here’s the irony: county policies under Mike French are enabling the persistence of these homeless sites through permissive land use and funding for harm-reduction supplies, while his challenger spends time cleaning up the aftermath.

Sticker Campaigns and Boutique Politics

Parallel efforts show the intensity of the push against Seegers. Indivisible, supported by the League of Women Voters, recently announced that new anti-Seegers stickers were in production.

According to a Reddit post, those new stickers are now available at The Pine & Eight boutique grocery on 8th Street in Port Angeles.

The Pine & Eight grocery store is managed by SisterLand Farms, a local operation known for its activist orientation and socialist leanings.

SisterLand members frequently participate in public meetings to defend controversial county harm reduction policies promoted by Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry.

Last month, SisterLand collaborated with the North Olympic Library System — a taxpayer-funded entity that recently secured additional levy funding — to host a Pride event focused on library cards and harm reduction.

The group also conducted an informal poll at the event.

The poll revealed strongly progressive views among attendees, with overwhelming support for “Tax the Rich,” “Land Back,” “Abolish ICE,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Masking Saves Lives,” and “Healthcare for All.” Notably, “Free Palestine” also enjoyed near-universal backing.

This stance carries irony for a Pride event. Across the Palestinian territories, LGBTQ individuals face severe social stigma, discrimination, and the threat of violence, with little to no legal protection. In Gaza, homosexuality remains illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and the environment under Hamas is especially hostile. Traditional and religious norms leave many gay individuals at risk of family rejection or “honor violence.”

Roughly two-thirds of the polsters identified as pro-abolition, though some respondents admitted uncertainty about the term. One in four reported feeling unsafe or threatened being out, yet the only group expressing no worry was under age 22.

The library’s participation in an event with clear political overtones prompts questions about balance. Public institutions serve all residents; selective alignment with one ideological lane risks eroding trust among the broader community.

Also present at the SisterLand Pride event was Clallam County Health and Human Services, which had an official presence. The county booth distributed oral contraceptives, morning-after pills, safe sex literature, and promotional frisbees — all at taxpayer expense.

Interconnected Networks

SisterLand Farms maintains visible ties across local institutions. Individuals linked to the farm participate in Washington State University Extension programs supported by county contracts.

The farm has also received multiple “Farm of the Year” recognitions from the North Olympic Land Trust. These connections illustrate how activist networks can gain influence not through broad electoral support, but through sustained engagement with funded entities and government-adjacent organizations.

For many Clallam County residents — regardless of background — the central issue is representation. When a vocal activist class secures seats at the table through workshops, library events, retail outlets, and direct endorsements, the vast majority of working taxpayers and property owners can feel shut out of the conversation. This dynamic appears less about left versus right than about insiders versus outsiders in local decision-making.

Voters will ultimately decide whether these arrangements reflect healthy civic engagement or something narrower. In races like the commissioner contest between Mike French and Jake Seegers, the contrast in priorities and approaches is now on full display. The question is which vision better serves the entire county, not just its most organized voices.

Today’s Tidbit: A Note on Other Endorsements

Olympic Climate Action chose not to endorse Independent candidate Marcia Kelbon in her race, opting instead for Democrat Kaylee Kuehn. Kelbon highlighted her environmental credentials in a recent interview with the Olympic Peninsula Environmental Newsletter, which did endorse her.

A longtime advocate for practical conservation, Kelbon has completed three solar-powered home builds, including her own residence. She has been actively involved with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group in habitat restoration, noxious weed abatement, and salmon run monitoring. She also regularly participates in highway litter cleanups. Raised visiting national parks across the country and having served as a Girl Scout leader, she brings a personal and family-oriented commitment to environmental stewardship.

While Kelbon supports the goal of addressing climate change, she believes the Climate Commitment Act has fallen short—delivering limited environmental gains while imposing significant costs on rural residents. She advocates for greater investment in developing alternative energy sources as a more effective path forward.

Given her practical environmental record, it raises the question: why was Marcia Kelbon passed over for endorsement by Olympic Climate Action?

What Can You Do?

If you believe county government should remain neutral and serve all residents equally, now is the time to speak up.

Consider emailing the Clallam County Commissioners to express your view that Clallam County Health and Human Services should not participate in partisan activist events, and that a clearly partisan group like Olympic Climate Action should not be tasked with helping craft or deliver the Community Wildfire Protection Plan—especially when one of the benefiting commissioners is running for reelection.

All three commissioners can be reached through the Clerk of the Board: loni.gores@clallamcountywa.gov.

If you’d also like the North Olympic Library System to avoid clearly political events, contact the Library Board (which is appointed by the county commissioners) at LibraryBoard@nols.org or Executive Director Noah Glaude at Director@nols.org.

Public input matters. Let your commissioners and library officials know where you stand.

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From revolving-door justice and endless taxpayer-funded experiments to weak enforcement and eroding accountability, this week’s Social Media Saturday exposes the growing strain on Clallam County. One man’s repeated citations highlight how policies shuffle problems without solving them. Meanwhile, expensive 24/7 bathroom pushes, luxury low-barrier housing, abandoned vehicles, and activist double standards continue while small businesses and families bear the costs. Real questions about public safety, transparency, and results are piling up. Is this compassion — or managed decline?

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Catch, Release, Repeat: The John Marshall File

This week, a man believed to be John Marshall was cited for disorderly conduct in Port Angeles — another entry in a well-documented pattern spanning years. Marshall has become one of the most visible examples of the county’s revolving-door approach to chronic street disorder, addiction, and public safety.

Marshall was arrested in February for indecent exposure in a Sequim shopping center parking lot, where officers also found suspected methamphetamine and smoking paraphernalia. He had been camping on the sidewalk just one block from Helen Haller Elementary School.

After spending one night in jail, he was released — only to reappear in new incidents. His belongings routinely require city resources to haul away, including public works trucks for carts, tarps, and pallets.

This is the reality of current policy in action: repeated police contacts, emergency responses, cleanups, and court processing — all at taxpayer expense — with no apparent resolution or accountability. Marshall’s case is not isolated. It illustrates how the combination of low-barrier services, de-emphasized enforcement, and harm-reduction focus often results in little more than shuffling the same individuals between streets, jails, and services without addressing root causes like addiction or serious behavioral health issues.

Residents watching this cycle ask a straightforward question: How many more citations, cleanups, and near-miss incidents near schools and businesses must occur before leaders admit the current model is simply moving problems around rather than solving them? True compassion requires more than endless tolerance — it demands results that restore dignity and protect the community.

Freshman councilmember eyes state office while backing expensive local policies

Just months into his Port Angeles City Council term, Mark Hodgson made his first major push: keeping all city public bathrooms open 24 hours a day and identifying locations for additional facilities. Hodgson championed the initiative despite strong warnings from city staff about unsustainable maintenance costs and operational realities.

City Parks Department reports show nearly $500,000 spent since 2023 just to clean outdoor restrooms plagued by syringes, flushed clothing, biohazards, damaged fixtures, and major plumbing issues requiring toilets to be removed from the floor. Staff openly admitted they can’t keep up and wouldn’t take their own kids to some locations. Yet Hodgson’s push prevailed.

This week, the council approved a $45,044 contract with an out-of-town Battle Ground firm, Tree Surgeon LLC, to install utilities and a foundation for a new 24-hour “Portland Loo” at Erickson Playfield. Local tax dollars are now flowing out of the community for construction, while Port Angeles taxpayers will shoulder the ongoing—and already exorbitant—maintenance burden for expanded 24/7 access.

Hodgson’s record includes the worst attendance on the Clallam County Charter Review Commission, a missed first council meeting, a delayed swearing-in tied to prior Olympia work obligations, along with past residency questions. As he simultaneously campaigns for the State House, many residents wonder whether Port Angeles is truly his focus or simply a platform for bigger ambitions. At a time of strained budgets, his policy direction raises concerns about sustainable local governance versus costly experiments.

A Clear Winner at the PA Business Association Debate

A recent Port Angeles Business Association debate for State Representative highlighted sharp contrasts among Bradley Calloway, Kaylee Kuhen, Mark Hodgson, and Marcia Kelbon. Many viewers came away convinced Kelbon stood out as the clear, steady choice—especially on public safety—while Hodgson doubled down on low-barrier housing. He also supports shower vouchers that could mix homeless drug addicts with families and children.

The exchange underscored deeper divides on homelessness, addiction, and accountability. With Port Angeles grappling with visible disorder, voters are weighing who will enforce existing laws versus expand services that enable problems rather than solve them.

Watch the debate here.

Abandoned Vehicle Lingers for a Full Year

A vehicle parked next to the City Park by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Lopez Avenue in Port Angeles has sat untouched for over a year since arriving last Fourth of July with doors unlocked and ajar. Neighbors report it was pilfered, doors later secured by a resident, gas siphoned, and multiple reports filed with the city and police—yet it remains.

The owner remains unknown despite visible plates and community inquiries. When did this become acceptable, and what does it say about basic code enforcement in Port Angeles?

Nonpartisanship Under Scrutiny: League of Women Voters

Clark County auditor candidate Eileen Quiring O’Brien warns that civic groups risk eroding trust by cloaking partisan activity in neutral language. She criticized the League of Women Voters for involvement in “No Kings” events while claiming nonpartisan status, arguing true neutrality demands humility and equal platforms rather than picking sides.

Locally in Clallam County, similar patterns have residents noting the League’s support, promotion, and participation in Indivisible rallies—further evidence that a once-respected organization is drifting from impartial moderator to active player.

Read O’Brien’s opinion piece here.

Master Gardener Hotline Takes a Political Turn

Keith Dekker, a Master Gardener, will be taking listener calls today at 9 a.m. on KSQM Sequim (360-681-0000). Feel free to ask him about overwintering dahlias or pruning cherry trees — or how to film yourself inflicting thousands of dollars in vandalism on public DNR land in the name of environmental protest and face zero consequences.

This is the same Keith Dekker who was filmed participating in an act that caused significant damage to public land. Taxpayers covered the costly cleanup, while Dekker and his fellow “Troublemakers” walked away with no legal repercussions.