Commissioner Mike French sold Clallam County voters a five-year plan to put 900 people into family-wage jobs. The number has already been cut to 603. The coordinator calls even that target extremely ambitious, and the public scoreboard shows roughly 21 people who finished training and later reported a job or higher pay. Meanwhile, a $733,000 mobile welding trailer sits delayed by safety problems, Jamestown gets equipment for a new enterprise, and the fine print shows real growth in government and NGO payrolls.
The Campaign Promise That Shrank
The pillar of Mike French’s campaign for reelection as county commissioner is the federal $35.6 million Recompete grant.
He launched with a goal to bring roughly 900 jobs to the North Olympic Peninsula over five years. Danny Steiger’s June 2025 write-up of the program mentioned the 900-job goal eight times. That number was recently reduced to 603. The Recompete coordinator has called the new target “extremely ambitious.” Through March, the reported figure for people who completed training and then landed a job or raised their income was 21.
Jobs That Were Never Jobs
Clallamity Jen dug into the reporting in her article “Recompete Rebranded” and found the original framing never matched the fine print. The program's measurable goal was never “jobs” in the ordinary sense. It was “enrolled individuals.”
That is a massive difference from the language French, as chair of the Recompete coalition, used when he told voters the grant would transition 900 North Olympic Peninsula residents into full-time family-wage jobs.
The gap is not a mystery. Year-one county figures showed strong enrollment (208 people) and far weaker placement numbers. Some of the “jobs created” numbers include positions funded by the grant itself to run the program. The money did not shrink when the target did.
The Welding Trailer That Didn’t Arrive
The latest local example is the mobile welding program. Peninsula College used Recompete dollars to buy a custom 53-foot trailer with eight welding booths (reported cost about $733,000) plus a companion classroom.
It was supposed to bring training to the West End this fall so students in Forks and surrounding areas would not have to drive to Port Angeles. The Forks Forum reported that testing turned up problems and safety concerns. President Suzy Ames said the college is putting safety first and hopes to offer the course in winter quarter instead.
The trailer is delayed, not canceled. Residents are left asking the obvious questions: who designed and built a welding unit with flammable fuel on board that then failed safety checks, and who pays for the repairs?
A recent job posting for a welding instructor at the college fits the pattern.
Recompete money creates or sustains government and institutional positions. That is not the same as private-sector job growth for the people the grant was sold to help.
The Jefferson EDC’s Fantasy Numbers
The attached scope of work for EDC Team Jefferson under the Recompete Pilot Program shows how ambitious—and how detached from ordinary local reality—the targets are. Over five years, the plan calls for training 25 business advisors (five per year). Those advisors are then supposed to advise 952 start-up businesses, help form 286 of them that will pay the founder a living wage, and advise another 1,768 microenterprise and growth-stage businesses. The document projects $41.55 million in profit increases and 329 living-wage jobs created through reinvestment of those profits. Living wage is defined as $26 per hour plus benefits, or roughly $63,000 a year.
These numbers are wildly unrealistic for a rural two-county area. The plan expects a handful of newly trained advisors to work with thousands of businesses, dig into their financials, and somehow generate tens of millions in extra profits that then create hundreds of living-wage jobs. It already assumes some of those advisors will quit or stop reporting. On top of that, it calls for hundreds more business meetings, a list of new training programs, and a pile of referrals. When they can’t get real wage data, the document says they’ll just estimate it.
The plan treats job creation in Jefferson County through this advising model as a primary path. Earlier reporting noted that one tribal component involved hiring two people to produce one job outcome. Now Recompete language is being written into the 20-year comprehensive plan.
When the federal money ends in a few years, local taxpayers will bear the ongoing costs. What remains is largely a jobs program for government employees, special interests, and NGO personnel.
Who Actually Got Something
At least Jamestown received a tangible asset. Its subaward explicitly funds the purchase of a hydroseeder and mini excavator so a tribally owned enterprise can expand into hydro-seeding as a new line of business, then hire and train a handful of workers.
Jamestown gets its hydroseeder. Local private hydroseeding businesses pay for their own equipment. And the college has a delayed trailer that still isn’t delivering the advertised West End classes.
The Words on French’s Website
French’s campaign materials claim he “chaired a regional coalition of Counties, Cities, Tribes, economic development organizations and educational institutions that successfully acquired $35.6 million in federal funding.”
Acquired is the wrong word. The federal Economic Development Administration granted the money after a competitive application process. “ Acquired" and "granted" are not synonyms; one implies earning or obtaining through effort that creates ownership, while the other is a gift of public funds under conditions.
French has described himself as an advocate of conservative budgeting. The practical test is whether the county pays down debt before giving itself another raise. Recompete is not conservative budgeting. It is a large infusion of federal money that primarily expands institutional capacity, funds wraparound services and administration, buys equipment for selected partners, and counts enrollment and process activity while the original job numbers shrink.
The Record Voters Can Examine
The grant was never going to be a pure private-sector job machine. The documents show capacity-building for tribes and partners, barrier-removal hubs, and institutional training. That is what the money is doing. French made the 900-job promise the centerpiece of his record and his reelection argument. So far, the results—reduced targets, low placement numbers, delayed equipment, and continued expansion of government and NGO roles—are the record voters can examine.
Stay Engaged Today
10:00 a.m.
Weekly Board of Commissioners meeting featuring the monthly Q&A “Citizens’ Forum.” Details here.
1:30 p.m.
Board of Health meeting. Will they admit the current harm “expansion” approach is failing? Will the Board hold Health Officer Allison Berry accountable for her violent and extreme political statements? Details here.
6:00 p.m.
City of Port Angeles regular meeting featuring a presentation on Candelaria (potential buyer of the old McKinley Mill) and the reintroduction of “net ecological gain,” which divided the council last December. Details here.
