What begins as a road dispute grows into a cautionary tale about power, character assassination, and the cost of speaking up in a community where “inclusion” is preached in public, but dissent is punished in private.
It’s been nearly two years since a walk on the Towne Road roadbed in September 2023 changed everything. At the time, we thought it would be our final walk; the road was scheduled to reopen in a few weeks. But my husband saw a notice fluttering on a stake: Towne Road might never reopen and could be converted into a park. The notice instructed citizens to contact the Director of Community Development and local commissioner, Mark Ozias.
The answers I received about Towne Road differed drastically. One elected official wasn’t telling the truth, and Commissioner Ozias compounded it with multiple subsequent falsehoods about the road’s delay.
Weeks later, concerned citizens held a “Support Towne Road” rally at the Dungeness Schoolhouse. Residents from Diamond Point to Port Angeles rallied for the quiet county road they had paid for and rightly expected back. After the meeting, a woman told me to be careful, but it wasn’t a threat. She warned that I was going up against powerful institutions that would try to discredit me, destroy my reputation, and stop at nothing to cause harm. At the time, I thought I was untouchable.
I was wrong.
The lawfare attempt
In January 2024, while reviewing public records about Towne Road, I accidentally discovered that a family had reported harassment, stalking, and intimidation to Commissioner Ozias. They alleged an individual had threatened visitors to their property and their children. Commissioner Ozias and the family enlisted Sheriff Brian King and Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols to investigate—the monster who had terrified the family, they said, was me.
“We filed a police report with the county because of Jeff Tozzer trespassing on Nash's farm next door and walking past and stalking our home and how we access it daily, and posting about it. It's scary to think that someone is watching your family and letting others know what is going on because of their deep obsession for a county road project.”
The supposed proof included screenshots from CC Watchdog and social media posts criticizing Commissioner Ozias for representing special interests. There were no photos of the family’s home, no witness accounts, nothing to substantiate the claims—because it had never happened. Despite the serious accusations, I was never contacted. No laws had been broken, and the investigation ultimately concluded that nothing illegal occurred.
Commissioner Ozias had chosen to avoid addressing the real issues—Towne Road, missing money, misleading the media—and instead weaponized county resources to target a vocal critic.
The Charter Review Commission
My time on the Charter Review Commission started off without conflict, but it quickly turned contentious when I opposed Sequim School Board member Pat Johnston’s push to hold public meetings on sovereign tribal land. Johnston went so far as to argue that, because I was a commissioner, I had no First Amendment right to share publicly available information about the Commission’s meetings on CC Watchdog.
Pat Johnston’s close ally, Chairwoman Susan Fisch, opened the next meeting by asking if Commissioner Jim Stoffer had any additional agenda items. He did: a request to add “Free Speech” to the agenda. What followed was no coincidence. Johnston immediately launched into a five-minute, prewritten speech aimed squarely at shaming me.
“You could choose to use your platform to uplift and build rather than to denigrate and attack, helping your readers to feel good about their community rather than spreading cynicism and fear. You could make a difference for the better. I hope you choose to do so.” — Pat Johnston
The setup was obvious—Stoffer raised the very topic Johnston had prepared remarks for, giving her the floor under the guise of “public comment on agenda items.”
This maneuver set the stage for Fisch to call for the Bylaws Committee to reconvene, with the express purpose of drafting a new rule designed to restrict what CC Watchdog would be allowed to report. It was an ambush orchestrated by Johnston, Fisch, and Stoffer.
During the meeting, Stoffer and Fisch repeatedly framed my engagement with Johnston as a threat, suggesting social media commentary made them uncomfortable and raised hypothetical concerns about “integrity” and “respect.” Instead of sticking to substantive issues, Stoffer and Fisch devoted hours of county resources to personal attacks, threatening the Commission’s neutrality and stifling free speech.
Stoffer’s behavior on the Charter Review Commission has been consistent: petty vendettas, personal attacks, and obstruction of public discourse, rather than honest engagement with the community.
When volunteer work becomes a liability
Long before Towne Road, my connection to the community had nothing to do with politics. I volunteered at Tim’s Place, a respite program at Trinity United Methodist Church for caregivers of those living with memory loss. This was more than just any church to me. TUMC was where I had been baptized, where I had attended youth group, and where I had always felt at home.
Every Thursday, I helped lead the program, turning ordinary afternoons into something joyful for our friends suffering from dementia. We painted, we sang and made music, and we shared in conversations that mattered. For eight hours each week, Tim’s Place became a place that reminded people they still had importance, and it reminded me there was something on the other side of grief after losing my mom to Alzheimer’s. It wasn’t just the participants who benefited—it was their families, the caregivers who found rest, and especially me.
But politics has a way of creeping in where it doesn’t belong. Commissioner Jim Stoffer, who held a leadership role within the church, used his position not to serve, but to settle personal grudges.
After making disparaging online remarks about me, Stoffer turned around and accused me of verbally harassing him in the church parking lot—an incident that never happened. It was a manufactured charge, designed to discredit me, and he carried it into the church as though it were fact.
When I asked church leadership for details about the supposed “parking lot incident,” Jim Stoffer quietly shifted his story. His complaint was revised to claim that I had stood at the front door of the church and made threats, which prevented him from entering. That allegation was serious—and also easily verifiable. I knew that area of the church was covered by video surveillance, and I asked to see the footage.
Instead of producing evidence, Stoffer’s complaint was amended yet again. This time, the story dropped the claim of blocking the doorway and became something far more vague: that my mere presence on church property made him feel intimidated. In other words, when one version of the accusation could be disproven by video, the charge was simply rewritten to fit a narrative that couldn’t be tested against facts.
No incident had actually occurred. What happened was the weaponization of personal dislike, disguised as a complaint. Yet rather than insist on evidence or fairness, church leadership allowed these shifting allegations to stand—placing more weight on Stoffer’s personal grievances than on truth or accountability.
This is where church leadership failed. Instead of taking the congregation’s example of grace and fairness, they bypassed the truth. Video evidence existed that could have cleared me outright, yet it was never reviewed. No questions were asked. No investigation was made. Instead, Stoffer’s word carried weight it did not deserve, and leadership allowed hearsay to stand in for justice.
Worse, I was accused by church leadership of attacking the church itself, supposedly by writing in CC Watchdog that the church “hates men.” That line was a fabrication—something I never wrote and that was never published. The claim should have been dismissed immediately, but instead it was repeated as though it were fact, further poisoning the atmosphere.
The church of my childhood deserves better. The congregation that strives for kindness and inclusivity has been overshadowed by leadership that chooses politics over principle, and by Stoffer’s willingness to use the church as a stage for personal vendettas.
I had to step away. Not because of the congregation, who had always shown me support, but because leadership allowed one man’s grudges to distort the truth and disrupt the mission. I had become a distraction to Tim’s Place, and an important community resource was threatened because of my participation. Leadership had turned a blind eye to the church’s values, and in doing so, allowed a good program to lose a committed volunteer.
Volunteer work should never become a liability. Yet when politics and personal animosity are allowed to override fairness, even a church can become compromised. In this case, it wasn’t the people of TUMC who failed—it was Jim Stoffer’s conduct and the leadership’s unwillingness to stand up for their own congregation’s values.
The pattern
From Towne Road to the Charter Review Commission to Tim’s Place, the message is clear: some Clallam County leaders and community figures will stop at nothing to silence dissent. They hide behind false narratives, weaponize public and private institutions, and use personal attacks instead of addressing issues openly.
I am sharing this not as a call for sympathy, but as a warning. There are people in this community who will seek to intimidate and shame anyone who dares to speak out. Those who feel afraid to step forward have every reason to be. And Jim Stoffer’s pattern—sneaky, inappropriate, and personal—illustrates the lengths some will go to avoid accountability while attacking those who hold them to account.
The lesson is clear: when local leaders cannot defend an argument, they attack the person. They target what you love, weaponize institutions, and leave a trail of intimidation. It’s a civic reality—and a challenge for anyone committed to truth, transparency, and service in Clallam County.
Bonus content
Still hungry for more personal attacks? Looking for diatribes that dodge every issue and go straight for character assassination? You’re in luck.
Ixodes runs an entire Substack devoted to combing through the finer points of my marriage (Doug and I are on the rocks), finances (I’m filthy rich), and mental health (I have early-onset dementia) — because apparently, that’s what passes for public discourse these days. Read here
Sumgui takes a different tack, devoting their Substack to essays about my supposed racism, white privilege, and my “constant attack of Indigenous groups.” Read here
And if that’s not enough, there’s even a Reddit thread where CC Watchdog is dismissed as “hot garbage,” I’m branded a conspiratorial MAGA extremist, and one commenter helpfully adds: “Tozzer is a terrible human and seems to be okay with his racism framing.” Read here
What’s the old saying? The flak is heaviest when you’re over the target.
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