A survey of suppression
How a handful of power brokers are steering Clallam County's fate
The Charter Review Commission claims to seek your input—but behind the scenes, a small group of insiders, led by CRC Chair Susan Fisch and backed by League of Women Voters activists, are controlling the narrative, rewriting the rules, and sidelining dissent. From loaded survey questions and secret committee decisions to last-minute redrafts and silenced commissioners, this process is looking less like democracy and more like manipulation. Here’s what the public isn’t being told—and why it matters for every voter in Clallam County.
The Charter Review Commission (CRC), an elected body of 15 Clallam County citizens, is tasked with crafting ballot measures for this November’s election that will shape the structure of county government. To supposedly gather public input, the CRC released a survey on the county website. While it appears inclusive on the surface, a closer examination reveals an alarming pattern of manipulation and suppression orchestrated by key CRC leaders, aided by League of Women Voters (LWV) activists.
The illusion of public input
The survey’s stated purpose is to gauge public opinion on seven potential charter amendments. However, the questions do not simply ask whether these issues should be placed on November’s ballot; they go a step further by asking how respondents would vote. This creates an opportunity for the CRC to discard popular reform initiatives based on perceived voter sentiment.
The first question, for example, asks: "How should County Commissioners be elected?" The options include by district, countywide, or no opinion. This is not a question about whether the issue should go to a vote—it’s an opinion poll disguised as public input. If the CRC perceives the answers don’t support their preferred direction, they have cover to shelve the issue entirely.
Other questions are riddled with inconsistencies. Question #3 is the only yes/no item with “no” placed above “yes,” a subtle deviation that affects survey integrity.
Question #4 isn’t even a question—it’s just a biased statement:
“There are multiple jurisdictions involved in county-wide water management... Available water resources information is inadequate and outdated.”
It then offers the false dichotomy of either accepting a costly new Water Steward bureaucracy or doing nothing. No mention is made of the existing proactive efforts by state, county, and tribal agencies. Furthermore, the Water Steward Committee has kept financial details—like a proposed property tax hike to fund five new positions—under wraps.
The League of Women Voters connection
Two controversial initiatives in the survey—ranked-choice voting and the Water Steward position—were overwhelmingly rejected during CRC town halls, yet still made the final survey. Both were heavily pushed by LWV activists, particularly at the Sequim Town Hall moderated by CRC Chairwoman Susan Fisch, who also serves as LWV Secretary.
After LWV-affiliated speakers gave their input, Chairwoman Fisch and Commissioner Jim Stoffer prohibited further engagement between CRC commissioners and the public and ended the town hall an hour early. No CRC committee was ever formally tasked with drafting the survey. Instead, it was created during Outreach Committee meetings without full commission approval, under the direction of Chairwoman Fisch. The Outreach Committee is chaired by Fisch’s friend, Jim Stoffer.
Survey control and OPMA violations
The entire process lacks transparency. Commissioner Patti Morris—who served on two previous CRCs—was given full control of the survey. She unilaterally removed and reinstated it multiple times based on personal grievances, redrafted it midstream, and kept the survey link private.
These actions violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Washington State Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). The OPMA clearly states:
"The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know." — Washington State Open Public Meetings Act
Yet that is precisely what Fisch and Stoffer are doing. They’ve excluded the full commission and the public from critical deliberations. Stoffer has repeatedly shut down debate using Robert’s Rules—without proper seconding or a two-thirds vote—and Fisch, a retired judge, has permitted this abuse of procedural tools to suppress dissent.
Suppressing alternative input
When I, Commissioner Jeff Tozzer, created a second, neutral survey that allowed citizens to rank their top 10 priorities from the full list of over 30 issues submitted by the public, the Executive Committee (Susan Fisch, Mark Hodgson, and Chris Noble) refused to include it in the agenda packet. This prevented commissioners and the public from properly reviewing it.
Despite prior encouragement to submit such a survey, it was ultimately rejected by a majority of commissioners—Stoffer, Holy, Benedict, Pickett, Noble, Fane, Cameron, Morris, Richards, and Fisch. I then proposed that all 15 commissioners be allowed to re-rank their top 10 priorities after hearing public input from the town halls. That motion was also voted down without discussion.
A preordained process
The CRC was supposed to be a transparent, democratic body—yet every action taken by Chairwoman Fisch, Secretary Morris, and Outreach Chair Stoffer suggests a different agenda. They have created a top-down process controlled by a few, heavily influenced by a single organization with outsized influence—the League of Women Voters.
The town halls were merely performative. The survey was drafted before the last of them had even occurred. The CRC is pretending to ask for public input while simultaneously ensuring that only preferred narratives make it to the ballot.
The people of Clallam County deserve better. They deserve a Charter Review Commission that listens, not one that dictates. They deserve transparency—not manipulation masked as outreach. If this commission truly wants to uphold the values of democracy, they must return power to the people—and start by dismantling this sham of a survey.
View the survey here.
You can contact the Charter Review Commission by emailing the Clerk of the Board at loni.gores@clallamcountywa.gov (specify “CRC”)
Jeff, you should bring up the fact that we do not live in a democracy, we live in a constitutional republic. These people are wacko and need to be held accountable. Their arrogance blows me away.
Bearing witness to many BoCC and CRC meetings, I can attest that Jeff is right! These leaders who have "experience" and "higher education" need to deflate their egos and stay silent. They value no one, except themselves, as the saviors of the people. They are deluded and need to be shunned from society and any position of authority. At the next CRC meeting, I plan to comment on the dissolution of the Commission. Too many good Commissioners are being railroaded by the special interest Commissioners. It's that bad. I only trust Jeff and a couple of other Commissioners to be faithful to their oath of office. Thank you, Jeff, for hearing and standing for the people of Clallam County.