Takeover complete

Tribe tells County which stakeholders deserve a voice

The messaging is constant and comforting: the Jamestown Tribe champions community involvement, encourages meaningful stakeholder participation, and defends transparency. We know this because the Tribe tells us.

The email below was written two years ago. It concerns a resident who raised “dam safety issues” to the Tribe regarding a massive above-grade reservoir proposed behind Sequim that will be jointly constructed with Clallam County. The Tribe contacted the County to discuss how to address this resident’s concerns. After explaining that meaningful participation is a priority, the Tribe put guardrails in place to prevent the resident and others from participating in the process too much.

An email from the Tribe’s natural resources director to the County hydrologist suggests restricting public involvement.

It’s unclear if the resident concerned about dam safety knew that the Tribe had deliberately breached a dike holding back the Dungeness River two months earlier, or that the Tribe’s actions came close to causing a mass-casualty flooding event for the Dungeness community.

Last Friday, without any community engagement or meaningful stakeholder participation, the US Fish & Wildlife Service signed over management of the Dungeness Spit and Protection Island to the Jamestown Tribe in a deal that will pay the Tribe at least $500,000 annually and allow them to commercially harvest non-native oysters in a 50-acre parcel within the Refuge.

US Fish & Wildlife Director Martha Williams (seated left) signed documents handing over management of two National Wildlife Refuges to the Jamestown Tribe, led by CEO Ron Allen (seated right). The Tribe’s natural resources director, Hansi Hals, stands between them. — photo courtesy JST Facebook page.

The Tribe says it will improve the National Wildlife Refuge because the sovereign nation can access taxpayer funds that state and federal agencies cannot. Possible changes include acquiring additional land near the Spit to grow the 2,000-acre land base already in tribal ownership — a feat that, according to the Tribe, has been achieved without Federal assistance.

Biography from www.congress.gov.

However, the Tribe doesn’t see value in all community engagement. Two years ago, when one resident found discrepancies in the Jamestown Tribe’s different floodplain restoration policies, the Tribe’s habitat program manager, Randy Johnson (not to be confused with the county commissioner by the same name), advised Clallam County’s habitat biologist Cathy Leer that the resident was an unknowledgeable crackpot.

Johnson also alerted Jamestown Tribe staff and Clallam County employees about speculative statements made on a website called Clallam County Watchdog.

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From: Randy Johnson

To: Hansi Hals; Wendy Clark

Cc: Emery, Bruce; Donisi, Joe; Lear, Cathy; Baumann, Cheryl

Subject: Fire response routes and driving times to Dungeness Date:

Friday, December 15, 2023 3:57:44 PM

Attachments: Fire response routes and times to Dungeness.pdf  

Hi Hansi and Wendy

Recently, the website Clallam County Watchdog posted speculative statements regarding public safety and possible insurance rate consequences of leaving the levee segment of Towne Road unpaved and gated. The site highlights the August 23 fire at 2794 Towne Road and a delayed fire department response time.

The response time was delayed because the fire truck from Sequim mistakenly headed down Towne Road and couldn’t get through the gates at the levee. At the time of the fire, this segment of Towne Road had been closed for almost exactly one year, and emergency responders didn’t know. Clearly, they don’t use this route very often.

Why was the fire truck planning to use Towne Road in the first place? Sequim Dungeness Way is a faster route from the fire station to the fire, even had Towne Road been open. The attached document shows driving times from the four nearest fire stations to the residence that burned last August. It shows that Towne Road, had it been open, would not have been the fastest route from any fire station.

Should the Towne Road levee segment be paved to provide a narrower, slower, winding emergency response route to Dungeness? Thanks, Randy

Randy Johnson (He/him/his) Habitat Program Manager Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe  

Clallam County Watchdog had been reporting on the public safety impacts caused by Towne Road’s closure. The reporting about emergency response times and hikes in fire insurance rates wasn’t speculative; this information was sourced from county documents.

Ten years ago, community stakeholders held a “Towne Road Work Group” meeting. In attendance were county employees, the fire chief, and residents living on Towne Road (including vocal landowners who have asked that their names be redacted). The Jamestown Tribe was also represented. Notably absent were stakeholders and community members who lived north of Towne Road — no residents who would be negatively impacted by the road’s closure were at the closed-door meeting.

The meeting generated a list of pros and cons on a whiteboard summarizing how the permanently closed road would affect the community. “Response time + 3-7 minutes” is mentioned on the whiteboard.

Jamestown Tribe employee Randy Johnson should know that the increases in response times and insurance rates aren’t speculative — he was at the meeting.

A sovereign nation is dictating to our local government which public opinions are to be valued and which are to be dismissed. Another nation, led by representatives not elected by or accountable to We the People, appears to be putting up guardrails and controlling who participates in the public process.

Community engagement and meaningful stakeholder participation are only beneficial if those making the decisions are willing to listen.

de·moc·ra·cy, [dəˈmäkrəsē]

A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.