As Clallam County leaders push agendas around reconciliation, drug policy, and water rights, the tangled web of public spending, tribal influence, and ideological posturing is becoming harder to ignore. From harm reduction supplies shipped to private homes, to lawsuits threatening the state’s food supply, and to bizarre behavior at local government meetings—this county might be losing more than its patience. This week’s report dives deep into the dysfunction.
Harm reduction in the park?
While the Clallam County Health Department refuses to acknowledge a link between drug use, harm reduction, and homelessness, a connection has been discovered by a vigilant CC Watchdog subscriber. The link is Joyce Stuart, who serves in an “At-Large” position on the Homelessness Taskforce.
As covered in yesterday’s article, Stuart also receives shipments of harm reduction paraphernalia to her private Sequim residence under the name Clallam County MASHR.
That alias is tied to an Instagram account distributing drug supplies in the park behind Swain’s in Port Angeles.
Why is someone in county leadership, responsible for solving homelessness, also appearing to facilitate public drug use?
Shame culture as policy
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the Board of County Commissioners reading a colonizer-shaming proclamation every fall for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Or with Sequim School District incorporating Jamestown Tribe’s cultural sensitivity training and teaching students that their ancestors nearly erased tribal traditions. And what’s the harm in the Public Health Department committing to "reconciliation" over historical injustices?
Well, it leads to public comments like this: “How about an article about how the founders in Sequim (your family) took the tribes’ property and then oppressed them?”
We’ve entered a damaging societal pattern where people who were never harmed are shaming people who never did the harming.
The Sixkiller connection
An interesting coincidence surfaced involving Casey Sixkiller, son of longtime Jamestown Tribe spokesman Sonny Sixkiller. According to the EPA’s May 2022 newsletter, Sixkiller joined the EPA’s Region 10 as administrator in May 2022.
The same newsletter also reports that the Jamestown Tribe was granted authority to manage Clean Water Act programs on their own lands (approval date: March 30, 2022).
It’s probably just a coincidence.
Water wars and food insecurity
A disturbing video from a local farmer outlines the devastating impact of Washington State’s lawsuit against 30,000 water users in Whatcom County. Though it’s centered on the Nooksack Basin, Clallam County residents should take note—especially those in the rain-shadowed East End.
The litigation stems from a 2016 settlement with tribes and could:
Slash agricultural production by 25–40%
Replace farmland with urban sprawl
Increase reliance on foreign food sources
Washington leads the nation in raspberry production and several crops, but farmers now face losing water rights due to complex legal hurdles and adjudication. As land prices soar and development intensifies, farmers’ futures—and food security—are on the line.
Should Medicaid cover traditional healing?
According to KUOW, Jamestown Tribal member and Sequim City Councilmember Vicki Lowe wants Medicaid to reimburse traditional tribal medicine. Lowe, who heads Washington’s American Indian Health Commission, argues this would give patients at the Tribe’s MAT (Medication-Assisted Treatment) clinic access to cultural healing, reimbursed at $719 per encounter.
If traditional healing is so effective, why is it not already being offered—Medicaid reimbursement or not?
Attempted gun grab outside homeless shelter
According to Port Angeles Police, on Friday, June 6, 2025, at 7:52 AM, officers responded to vehicles camped illegally in the 2300 block of West 18th Street—home to the Serenity House Adult Shelter. During a cleanup, a 6-foot-7, 260-pound suspect physically interfered with officers, attempted to grab a gun from an officer’s holster, and successfully activated a Taser.
The suspect was arrested and booked. The shelter, which promotes itself as a “low barrier” facility that tolerates substance abuse, remains a hub of ongoing safety concerns.
Taxpayer-funded pizza and performative politics
At today’s 9:00 AM work session, county commissioners will discuss the 15-year Towne Road and Lower Dungeness Floodplain Restoration Project.
On Tuesday, they’ll debate changes to Frequently Flooded Area regulations.
County employee Donella Clark clarified:
The code changes do not make it so you cannot build in the floodplain. Those rules are the same as they were.
The change of the flood levels had been adopted by FEMA and was already being done during development. You are required to account for storage on your property if you change the flood level so that it does not push it downstream.
Meanwhile, the cost of feeding drug users at the Harm Reduction Center continues rising—from $189.31 in March to $239.92 this week.
Also on the agenda: A resolution opposing new offshore oil and gas leasing. There is still no resolution from the Commissioners rejecting the Marine Resource Committee’s position that residents of 3 Crabs should be removed from their land. Once again, the commissioners engage in performative national politics while ignoring issues in their own backyard.
Water crisis or manufactured scarcity?
As drought conditions are declared statewide and the Charter Review Commission pushes for a “Water Steward,” some numbers tell a different story. An image from the Seabrook Development presentation held at the 7 Cedars Casino estimates that even if population doubles by 2041, water use will only reach 62% of capacity.
In the meantime, the Jamestown Tribe has quietly renamed its training center, the “Water Utilities” building—just down the road from the proposed 600-home Seabrook development.
The CC Watchdog Podcast
Are you listening to the Clallam County Watchdog podcast? It’s definitely unedited and reminds the consumer that above all, this is opinion—not news. I answer listener questions, debut a new intro song each week, and still haven’t invested in better audio equipment. Just two weeks in, we’re already nearing 50,000 downloads, with daily downloads creeping toward 10,000.
Charter Review or comedy show?
If you miss the antics of junior high, tonight’s 5:30 PM Charter Review Commission meeting might be for you. Chairwoman Susan Fisch arrives early to assign seats to make sure she sits next to friends. The Chair of the Water Steward Committee has publicly called me an “asshole”—twice, and now refers to this blog as “Clallam County Crotchdog.”
Following a CC Watchdog critique of the Water Steward position, one commissioner called for me to control the messaging to my “people.” This inspired a new t-shirt: “Tozzer People,” playing off “T.P.” and featuring a cartoon toilet paper roll with the caption, “This is how I roll.”
Never a dull moment at the courthouse.
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