The Pit
Ten snapshots from a county struggling to decide whether accountability still matters
From homelessness policy that stabilizes despair instead of resolving it, to elected officials who deflect responsibility while rewarding failure, Clallam County continues to drift further from transparency, accountability, and common sense. These ten short stories—each drawn from a single week of public record, reporting, and observation—raise a simple question: who, exactly, is minding the store?
The Pit Without a Ladder
Homelessness and addiction often intersect at the lowest point in a person’s life. Picture it as a pit—one of despair, shame, and hopelessness. There are two ways a society can respond.
One approach lowers a ladder. People at the top say: If you climb—rung by rung—we will help you. We will help you out of the pit, and once you’re out, we will help you rebuild your life.
The other approach removes the ladder entirely. Instead, supplies are lowered into the pit—tents, sleeping bags, crack pipes, needles. The message becomes: We want you to be more comfortable down there. Stay in the pit.
Last year, Clallam County Commissioners approved more than $50,000 in so-called “warmth and hygiene” supplies for the Harm Reduction Center in Port Angeles.
The commissioners supplied combs, brushes, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, gloves, socks, and Mylar blankets. Many of these items are used once and discarded. Others are never opened at all.
Mylar blankets now line the banks of Tumwater Creek, waiting for the next high-water event to carry them into the harbor.
Clallam County is not investing in ladders. It is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars reinforcing the pit.
A Revolving Door with No Brake
Readers first learned of Lonnie Priester last summer, when he was arrested on charges including assault, driving with a suspended license, possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. Priester is a registered sex offender from Eastern Washington with a long criminal history.
Last month, he was arrested again for possession of a controlled substance and failure to register—and released on January 2. Yesterday, he was booked once more on the same charges.
This is not an isolated failure. It is a system operating exactly as designed—release, reoffend, repeat.
What’s notable is that the Prosecuting Attorney, Sheriff, Port Angeles Police Chief, and State Representative have all expressed openness to a public town hall to explain what they can—and cannot—do. The County Commissioners, however, continue to refuse engagement.
Accountability is available. The commissioners simply decline to participate.
Organization of the Year… or Country of the Year?
According to KONP Radio, the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce has announced finalists for “Organization of the Year,” including 4-H, the Peninsula Trails Coalition, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
One of these is not like the others.
The tribe is not an organization. It is a sovereign nation. Is Canada in the running next year?
How exactly is a volunteer-driven youth program like 4-H supposed to compete with a sovereign government possessing treaty rights, tax exemptions, and enterprise revenue?
This isn’t recognition—it’s category confusion.
Which City Is “Our City”?
An Olympian article from 2024 profiles Mark Hodgson, written a year after he applied for a City Council appointment while simultaneously running for Clallam County Charter Review Commissioner—and a year before his campaign for Port Angeles City Council.
In the piece, Hodgson repeatedly refers to Olympia as “our city.”
Mark Hodgson, chair of the city’s Social Justice and Equity Commission, spoke during the council meeting about why the committee suggested the civilian group. “After all, Olympia isn’t associated with high-profile incidents of police misconduct,” he said. “In fact, our city is often a leader in fair, equitable and compassionate law enforcement practices.”
So which is it? Port Angeles—or Olympia?
Residency is not just a mailing address. It’s allegiance, attention, accountability, and attendance.
One Day. One City. One Pattern.
All in a single day in Port Angeles, according to the Clallam County Scanner Report:
This is not anecdote. It is accumulation.
January 6th Comes to City Hall
At the first Port Angeles City Council meeting of 2026, Councilmember LaTrisha Suggs, after noting a two-week vacation, chose to reflect at length on January 6, 2021—drawing comparisons to September 11th and Pearl Harbor.
This was not a national forum. It was a municipal council meeting in Port Angeles.
Residents tuned in expecting discussion of roads, housing, economic development, and public safety. Instead, they received a five-year-old Washington, D.C. retrospective framed as local governance.
Buckle up. If this is the tone for another term from Suggs, Port Angeles residents should expect national politics to continue crowding out local responsibility.
The $118,000 solution
Clallam County Commissioners have increased funding for the Sequim safe-parking program at Trinity United Methodist Church to $118,000—for three parking spaces.
The program has zero qualifying participants.
Why? Because vehicles must have registration, insurance, and title—requirements the target population largely cannot meet, and which the church’s insurer demands.
One subscriber offered a suggestion worth considering:
“How about the tribe providing safe parking? They have a huge parking lot and security. Since they are a sovereign nation, I assume they wouldn’t need to comply with the rules mandated to Trinity requiring documentation like car registration etc. Maybe all those folks who signed up at Trinity to volunteer for the safe parking program could set up free daycare at the church so the mothers and fathers could look for work.”
Why not tribal safe parking? Large lots. Security. Sovereign jurisdiction. No insurance constraints imposed on Trinity.
It’s a question worth asking—especially before writing another check.
When Leadership Means Owning Failure
Local blogger Mimi Smith lays out a compelling case in “City Council: DO NOT Vote Carr for Mayor” and readers should follow her Substack closely.
Her argument is simple: leadership requires accountability.
Navarra Carr and LaTrisha Suggs chaired the William Shore Memorial Pool District board during a period when fraud occurred—undetected, unchallenged, and unmanaged. The State Auditor’s fraud report could not be clearer: the board failed in its fiduciary duty.
Carr now seeks the mayoral position, a role structurally identical to the board chair she already held.
If oversight failed at a $2.7 million pool district, what confidence should taxpayers have at $150 million?
Compassion Without Boundaries Has Consequences
As accused child rapist Miguel Midel Lopez sits in Clallam County Jail awaiting a costly retrial, it is worth revisiting Lisa Dekker’s October article in Clallam Democrats Rising on immigrant protections and community advocacy.
Her piece is detailed and highlights the extensive networks designed to protect vulnerable populations.
But it also underscores an uncomfortable reality: systems built to shield everyone must still grapple with those who exploit them.
Public safety and compassion are not opposites. Ignoring that balance serves no one—least of all children.
Equity Person to the Rescue!
If you’ve ever walked out of a public meeting wondering how a simple question turned into a fog bank of jargon, The Strait Shooter is speaking directly to you. Their latest piece, “Equity Person™ Deploys Emergency Clipboard After Residents Ask ‘Too Many Questions,’” imagines a county where curiosity itself triggers a response—complete with a silent official whose job is not to answer, but to absorb accountability.
What makes the satire work is how close it is to real life. Questions about fees, data, or timelines slowly dissolve into values talk, answers get longer and less useful, and people leave feeling slightly embarrassed for having asked in the first place. The glowing clipboard is funny because everyone recognizes the moment when clarity quietly exits the room.
If you like local satire that knows the territory and doesn’t pull its punches, follow The Strait Shooter. It’s smart, dry, and just uncomfortable enough to be true.
The Commissioners did not answer yesterday's question. Here is today's email:
Dear Commissioners,
The County has increased funding for the Sequim safe-parking program at Trinity United Methodist Church to $118,000 for three spaces, yet it has served zero participants due to insurance and vehicle-documentation requirements. Given those constraints, would the Commissioners consider approaching the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe—whom Commissioner Ozias has described as the County’s most important partner in local governance—about hosting a safe-parking program on tribal property, where secure parking already exists and these barriers may not apply?
The party of props, stunts, frauds and swindles has taken over our County.
In my adult lifetime they have wasted billions on bureaucracy.. perpetual government roster spots...
We could have built a homeless compound in every county by now.
Instead what we get are RV and grocery cart props to justify another property tax.