Clallam County politics didn’t take Thanksgiving week off. From an Ethics Commission breakthrough to a mysteriously funded church program with zero participants; from activists boycotting Home Depot—except when they need to potty—to a hospital that can’t manage basic transparency in 2025, this holiday brings no shortage of eyebrow-raising moments. Yet amid the hypocrisy and misplaced priorities, there are reminders that Clallam County’s greatest strength remains its people. Here are ten short stories capturing the week’s contradictions, frustrations, and reasons to still be thankful.
Ethics Reform Passes Unanimously
For the first time in 11 months, the Charter Review Commission achieved something rare: a 13–0 unanimous vote. The Commission approved a ballot measure that could finally give Clallam County an enforceable Ethics Code for elected officials and a functioning Ethics Commission by 2027. It’s a milestone in a county that has struggled for years with inconsistent standards and selective enforcement. Expect to see this charter amendment on your ballot in November next year.
But the same meeting highlighted the very problem the new Ethics Commission might one day address. A majority of commissioners voted to declassify a confidential document that Commissioner Jim Stoffer improperly forwarded to his private email and to a tribal ambassador. Instead of addressing the breach, the majority erased it from the record. The Prosecutor’s Office is still reviewing the legality.
During the discussion, Stoffer even read a Washington statute prohibiting commissioners from referring to him by name while discussing his own breach of attorney-client privilege—an oddly self-serving move during a meeting about ethics. The unofficial motto of the night? “Some of the rules, some of the time, for some of the people.”
A Letter to the Editor and the $100,000 Parking Lot
Not everyone thinks the Charter Review Commission spent the year sidelining dissent and prioritizing special interests. Janet Kreidler wrote to the Peninsula Daily News praising the Commission as “diligent and productive,” and condemning what she described as “personal attacks.”
This isn’t Kreidler’s first appearance in CC Watchdog. Last year, a letter to the Sequim City Council referenced her as Mission Committee Chair at Trinity United Methodist Church—the same church where Commissioner Jim Stoffer serves as Safety Chair. That letter promoted the church’s “safe parking” program for women and transgender individuals.
The county has poured $100,000 into that program for 3–5 parking spaces—and yet no one is actually using it. A taxpayer-funded empty lot.
So the question writes itself: If the County is paying $100,000 for a church program with zero clients, where exactly is that money going?
Colonization, Reparations… and a $28 Turkey Dinner
This year, Clallam County officials emphasized “systemic racism” and “generational trauma caused by colonization,” issuing a proclamation condemning colonization’s painful legacy. The League of Women Voters pledged to amplify tribal interests due to “ongoing harms of colonization.” Jamestown leaders continually reference reparations and healing from colonial harm.
And at the same time, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe invites the public to celebrate Thanksgiving—the very holiday used as an example of colonial oppression—with a three-course turkey or ham dinner at the House of Seven Brothers for $28 a plate.
A $120 take-home family meal is also available.
This is less a moral judgment and more an observation of the contradiction: a holiday framed as a symbol of historic oppression is also a profitable event night at the casino.
Condemn colonization and profit from its holiday from 11 AM to 9 PM today at the Seven Cedars Casino (colonizers under 5 eat for free!)
Indivisible vs. Home Depot (Until Nature Calls)
Indivisible issued a hardline Thanksgiving-to-Cyber-Monday directive: Do not shop at Home Depot, which they accuse of “enabling ICE terrorism” by allowing federal agents to arrest undocumented workers on its properties.
Except… earlier this year, during protests, Indivisible encouraged members to park in Home Depot’s lot and use its restrooms.
So the stance appears to be: Home Depot is a fascist stronghold—unless you really need to go potty.
Revolutions, it seems, have their limits.
A Hospital That Can’t Click “Upload”
The Washington Coalition for Open Government highlighted an embarrassing reality: Olympic Medical Center commissioners refuse to post videos of their public meetings because the recordings might be “manipulated by bad actors.”
Problem: No one can find a single example of doctored public-meeting videos in Washington. Not even Google’s AI or ChatGPT could identify one. And the only questionable example Gemini found involved a Florida school district editing out its own member’s hot-mic embarrassment (“I [expletive] hate transparency”).
Meanwhile, county councils and city governments across the state routinely record, livestream, archive, and post videos. OMC, the county’s largest employer, stands nearly alone—with a track record of financial losses, leadership turnover, and repeated regulatory issues—insisting that giving the public more access is dangerous.
The hospital needs more transparency, not less. If dozens of agencies can hit “upload,” why can’t the one in crisis?
Why Are Public Schools Outsourcing Curriculum to Advocacy Groups?
The League of Women Voters—an openly activist organization—recently took local students to the Elwha Klallam Museum after teaching lessons from its civics book, The State We’re In (Grades 3–5). The book is endorsed by the Washington State Indian Education Association and is referenced in Washington’s Since Time Immemorial tribal curriculum.
The material includes pre-contact tribal governance, modern tribal government, and tribal interaction with local jurisdictions. These are valuable topics—but they are also deeply political, tied to contemporary policy debates over sovereignty, land, treaties, and governance.
Meanwhile, at the Crescent School District:
30% of students are chronically absent.
A quarter lack foundational English skills.
30% don’t meet grade-level math.
1 out of 5 students is behind in science.
And yet activists are presenting museum tours, tribal governance modules, and curriculum materials that prioritize ideology over literacy.
The question isn’t whether tribal history should be taught. The question is: Should activist organizations be shaping public-school curriculum when basic academic proficiency is collapsing?
Thanksgiving Satire, Public Comment Limits, and Excessive Gratitude
This week’s edition of the Strait Shooter delivers holiday satire that lands a little too close to reality. The commissioners’ “thankful list” includes:
Public comments limited to three minutes
“Public engagement portals” nobody uses
The magic phrase, “We need more data”
There’s also a hilarious piece on a new group, the Coalition for Excessive Gratitude, insisting that all non-tribal residents demonstrate “proper appreciation” for living on ancestral lands.
Don’t miss Clallamity Jen’s latest memes, and stay tuned for her upcoming podcast interview of the Clallam County Watchdog—your questions are welcome at clallamityjen@gmail.com.
Another Arrest for One of Clallam’s Most Frequent Fliers
Michael Heller—one of the most documented repeat offenders in county history—has been booked again, this time for obstructing an officer and malicious mischief.
County commissioners recently justified tax increases by citing the rising cost of indigent defense—the constitutionally required legal representation for defendants who cannot afford an attorney.
Heller is indigent. He is also a known drug user. And he lives in a county that hands out crack-pipe cleaning kits, meth pipes, and fentanyl-smoking foil as harm-reduction tools.
At some point, we have to ask the real question: Are we paying more for indigent defense because we encourage people to remain indigent?
Shop Local, Support Local
The Holladay Barn Christmas Market kicks off tomorrow in Dungeness—a chance to keep your holiday dollars circulating in the community while supporting dozens of local artisans.
You may remember the couple who found themselves unexpectedly caught in an identity-politics feud despite years of supporting local artists and makers. This weekend is our chance to show them, and every local vendor, that community loyalty matters.
Shop local and support the people who support Clallam County.
What We’ve Lost, What We’ve Found, and What Still Makes Clallam County Home
For some, holidays get harder as the years go by. There will be another empty chair at our table tonight, but her grandson has flown across the country to make her old “Keebler Salad” recipe; it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it. These days, it feels like there are more empty chairs than full ones.
What would we tell those we’ve lost about the Clallam County of today?
I’d tell my mother that a beloved local artist was fatally attacked during the Irrigation Festival—on a sunny afternoon, in public—and the media didn’t report it for six days. I’d tell the family member missing from our table tonight that a local Olympic gold medalist was stabbed within sight of her home after helping a family in need, hours after the attacker was released from jail.
But I’d also tell them about what happened next.
I’d tell them that the community raised over $100,000 for the good Samaritan who almost died. I’d tell them that crowds gathered to honor an artist most had never met—showing his family that he mattered and that their grief was shared.
I’d tell them that the spirit they loved in Clallam County—neighborliness, courage, generosity—is still very much alive.
It’s in the people who write letters to their leaders.
The people who show up to meetings.
The people who volunteer, who help neighbors get ballots in, who give rides, who step to the podium for the first time in their lives to speak truth to power.
There is an awakening here. A strengthening. A community refusing to give up on itself.
And that is what I’m thankful for.
I’m thankful for community.
And I’m thankful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
