"Let them eat cake"

Commissioners pass two tax increases

"Higher taxes never reduce the deficit. Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with." — economist Milton Friedman

The three county commissioners unanimously passed two 1% property tax increases, but not before a full gallery provided public comment, none of which supported the tax hike.

“You want to raise the taxes on my property again, because you can,” began Sequim resident Eric Fehrman. “You talk about affordable housing, and then you tax previous homeowners out of their property.” Commissioner Ozias seemed unengaged while Commissioner French cleaned his fingernails. Commissioner Johnson appeared attentive on the video screen via Zoom. “I can see that you’re really not paying any attention to me, so I’m going to give up my time to someone else and maybe you can pay attention to them.”

Karen Parker commented on the alarming rate of properties being converted to tax-free trust land by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. “These parcels and businesses are no longer on the County tax rolls, creating an apparent deficit. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation.” She talked about the Tribe’s influence in shifting the tax burden to residents who must pay property taxes. “We don’t like it,” said Parker before Commissioner Ozias rolled his eyes.

“Mirriam-Webster defines ‘hostage’ as one that is involuntarily controlled by an outside influence — we are being held hostage,” continued Parker. “We see what the Tribe is doing to our towns and the squeeze it’s putting on us, and we’re mad as hell that our commissioners acquiesce to their demands at our expense. Please reconsider this tax increase so that all of Sequim can prosper, and not just the special interest groups.”

“What I’ve seen over the last year is three commissioners that are not listening to the people,” commented Sequim resident Pepai Whipple over Zoom. “I’ve noticed, the last couple of days driving around downtown, how beautiful all the lights are.” Whipple explained how numerous tribal properties are decorated with a “light show extravaganza.” The ostentatious Christmas display seems a stark juxtaposition to the area's many struggling agencies and businesses. “Somebody’s making too much money here. I don’t see how anyone else can afford that.”

Photo credit: Seattle Refined online magazine.

“People on a fixed income are living right on the line,” said Dan Shotthafer, a Port Angeles resident. “And they cannot really afford any more tax increases, however small, however justified.” Shotthafer then mentioned the French Revolution in 1789. It’s alleged that when Marie-Antoinette was told her subjects had no bread to eat, she replied, “Let them eat cake.” The quote has been repeated for centuries to show the insensitivity of leaders failing to comprehend the realities of life for those less fortunate.

Pamela Caldwell has lived in Port Angeles her entire life like her parents. She listed a few examples of frivolous spending, including $4 million the County has paid to Peninsula Behavioral Health for its new permanent supportive luxury homeless housing complex. “I thought I had to work my whole life for what I wanted, but apparently, I didn’t.”

“The real problem here is lack of accountability,” said Sequim resident Adam Ramey, which drew applause from the gallery. Ramey had spoken to Commissioner Ozias previously about an issue but was told that accountability only comes at election time.

“You should think about cutting your budgets and being more efficient,” said Kim Butler from Port Angeles.

“I’m a transplant, and I come from the great State of Texas,” disclosed Sequim resident Bob Bagwell, who thought Washington was a great state, too. “I have never seen, in my lifetime, the things that I’ve seen since I moved here. In all honesty, it’s sad. I’m on a fixed income, but it’s well enough that I may not suffer to the extent that some of these other people will".”

Piya Kyan moved to Sequim from the Bay Area. “I just wanted to escape the property tax in California,” said Kyan. Five years after moving here, he is now paying the same amount of property tax on a home of similar value. When Kyan worked in middle management, he was tasked with reviewing the budget and finding ways to cut costs, which he recommended the commissioners do. “Otherwise, you’re going to start losing employees or, in this case, our communities.“

“You can only squeeze a turnip so much, and no more blood is going to come out of it,” said Mitch Zenobi of Sequim. “I have a good paying job, we can only afford so much — fuel’s high, living’s high, everything’s high. You keep asking for more, and more, and more.” Zenobi explained that subcontractors looking for work are getting outbid by the Tribe. “You’re giving all these contracts to the Tribe; it’s taking away from other contractors. They’re making millions upon millions of dollars — $71 million last year. They’re not paying taxes like we are.”

“Us subcontractors that come in for work, that are relying on keeping business going, to keep a family fed, you’re giving that money away to people who aren’t paying their fair share, and then you’re asking us to pay more… I’ve lived here my entire life, 40 years, and I’m looking at other places. I thought I’d die here, because this is what I call home.” That morning, Zenobi had been at a job site 70 miles away in Mason County before driving to the courthouse to tell his elected representatives how tax increases affect him.

Commissioners decide

After 35 minutes of public comment, the commissioners spoke before deciding.

Commissioner Ozias acknowledged that most people aren’t happy about paying taxes. “You’re likely not paying Callam County General Fund, and likely not paying to the Clallam County Roads Fund substantially more than you were five years ago.” Ozias suggested that residents may even be paying less in property taxes to Clallam County.

“How quickly we forget about the inflation that took place just recently,” Commissioner Johnson said. He explained that raising property taxes is limited to just 1%, but inflation has increased more than that. Many county residents who have seen inflation outpace their income can relate to this. However, unlike the County, many residents have had to curtail spending.

“We have a responsibility to maintain essential public services,” said Commissioner French, but no residents had asked for essential services to be defunded. They provided examples of nonessential wasteful, irresponsible, and frivolous spending that had landed the County in this position. French encouraged senior citizens and those with disabilities to seek property tax exemptions, further pushing the burden of funding public services upon the remaining taxpayers.

The three commissioners then unanimously voted to approve both tax hikes.

The smartest guys in the room

After the meeting, Commissioner French asked me if he could share something on his laptop to correct the misinformation I’ve been spreading. He showed a document stating that $800,000 from the County Road Fund had been earmarked to surface Towne Road. This is true, and in January 2023, the county’s engineer, Joe Donisi, told the commissioners that that money would be combined with $600,000 from REET (real estate excise tax funds) and $1 million in grant funding to complete Towne Road.

The following month, in February 2023, Engineer Donisi announced that two grants would “match” each other and allow the County to surface Towne Road without using any County funds. That is when Commissioner Ozias shared fictitious information about petitions wanting Towne Road closed, and he said he wanted to halt the project.

Engineer Donisi warned the commissioners that they would lose the opportunity to complete Towne Road without using county funds if the project were delayed. The County’s attorney also advised against halting the project, stating that grantors could claw money back from the County, but the commissioners paused the project anyway.

I told Commissioner French that my question had always been, how much did the County needlessly spend because they didn’t take the opportunity to finish Towne Road with grant dollars in February 2023?

This is important because of the significant amount that was wasted. Right now, more county road projects are unfunded than funded. That $800,000 could have gone toward correcting the County’s most dangerous intersection — Old Olympic Highway and Cays Road has seen 23 accidents over the past ten years (including one fatality) yet only has $25,000 assigned to it for a study. It will take nearly 10 years of 1% increases to replace the amount of Road Fund money needlessly spent on Towne Road.

French then told me that the county’s engineer, Joe Donisi, was wrong and that his estimate was way off — it would have been impossible to surface 0.6 miles of roadway with just $2.4 million. I reminded French that Donisi is a professional who has spent a career estimating costs for Clallam County and that his other estimates had been accurate.

“That’s all hypothetical,” said French. “There’s no way to know.”

If our County Commissioners continue to disregard public sentiment and the expert advice professionals provide, we will continue to face these same budget deficits and tax hikes in years to come.

Arrogance is the art of hiding one's own ignorance.

On the day the Titanic sank, the crew received six warnings about icebergs from other vessels. However, all the ice warnings were hypothetical.

A letter after the hearing

After attending the public hearing, Dungeness resident Tom Ash sent the following letter to the commissioners.

We stand here today on the verge of bankrupting Clallam County. The county is millions of dollars below the solvency-based $25 million reserve. The 2024 spend is $4.5 million over revenue. How did we get here?

We got here solely through the day-to-day management of the Clallam County Board of Commissioners. To their credit, in the past eleven years, they have guided Clallam County from the number one gross domestic product [GDP] generating Washington State county with a GDP percentage higher than that of the State of Washington and the US government. Today, through the hard work of county leadership, Clallam County is the worst of all Washington counties and far below Washington State and the US government in generating value. How did they accomplish this goal?

They converted overwhelming plots of land to Sovereign Nations, leading campaign funders, non-governmental organizations [NGOs], and private interests. They removed those parcels from the tax rolls, thus dramatically reducing the county's revenue pool and simultaneously increasing the burden on Clallam County Taxpayers.

They ignored the county's income-generating employers and allowed them to languish while they literally threw money and gave it away to programs with little or no return to a bevy of special interests. They did not even talk to employers (including a Port Angeles employer with 200 top-income jobs in the county) until the employer announced their departure directly related to the actions, or lack of actions, taken by the Clallam County leadership.

The commissioners give money out week after week in their boardroom without validation of need or return on investment: $600,000 to a Port Angeles Entertainment Center for any purpose with no expectations and no measurements or validation of results. Another $4 million was provided for luxury apartments assigned to addicts without criteria or consequences for any behavior, and they can never be removed. The commissioners awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to an animal shelter that, in a public hearing, could not provide a cost per kennel after a month to prepare. This number was derived live in the gallery using a phone calculator during the meeting, which turned out to be the correct number. The agency disappeared in the middle of the night with a myriad of questionable spending and failures to deliver. This surprised no one except the Clallam County Board of Commissioners.

The 2015 – 2024 Towne Road Project was undertaken without a budget (funding and expenses) overseen by the County Chief Financial Officer, the Department of Community Development, or the County Treasurer. The project is reported to be $10 million over expectations due mostly to the ten times Commissioner Ozias stopped the project on behalf of his number one campaign donor. Without a budget, the cost overruns will never be known. Maybe that was the point, hiding the budget from the Clallam County Taxpayers by never having one. Whether through inept management or by design, hiding information from the taxpayers is never a good look.

Today, the three County Commissioners voted in unison to raise property taxes for all property owners who are still obligated to pay property taxes (yes, there are a few of us left). They did so without the consent of the Clallam County Taxpayers, unlike the property tax increase provided by the underperforming Olympic Medical Center. Maybe the commissioners know that they would not have the voters approve another 2% property tax levy increase to bail them out from their poor management.

The good news is that eventually, the current commissioners will no longer be running Clallam County into the ground. The bad news is that the taxpayers of Clallam County will still be here attempting to pick up the pieces.

Thomas Ash