In 2023, Sequim officials promised action to protect downtown businesses from crime and public disorder around Seal Street Park. Two years later, a local women’s support group is pleading for basic safety—while the City Council chooses to honor birds instead. This week’s Flashback Friday looks at what was said, what’s been ignored, and why vulnerable women are being pushed aside in downtown Sequim.
In March 2023, Sequim city officials publicly acknowledged the growing problems at Seal Street Park and downtown businesses. Police Chief Sheri Crain assured residents and merchants that they were taking the situation seriously. “We’re not going to turn into Seattle,” she said. “I want you to call every day.”
More than two years later, one group of women has been calling—literally and figuratively—but still hasn’t been heard.
During public testimony on July 14, 2025, Katie, a representative of the Women’s Resiliency Group, spoke to the Sequim City Council about their ongoing safety concerns near the Ramen Shop where their confidential women’s support group meets every Monday night. The group includes women recovering from abuse, trafficking, illness, poverty, and domestic violence. The location is ideal—neutral, accessible by bus, and a safe haven. Or at least it was.
“We’ve had frightening experiences on numerous occasions with these campers,” Katie told the council, referencing the group of men who frequently live and loiter in Seal Street Park. “They have urinated and defecated on the stoop,” attempted to enter through locked doors, and verbally abused the women during their meetings. Some group members are afraid to return. Others never come back at all.
The women have witnessed drug dealing—often involving minors—called the police, and requested simple, reasonable steps from the city: signage stating “No smoking, vaping, drug use, camping, storage of personal possessions in the park,” and regular patrols to keep the area safe. Businesses nearby have voiced support.
Katie was clear: “We have great sympathy and empathy for the homeless. However, we are also aware that these particular people who gather there have not been willing to take advantage of the support offered to them.”
One floor above the park, Calvary Chapel Sequim—home of the Soup in the Alley program—has offered jobs, housing, and support. All declined, according to Katie.
Two weeks later, another woman returned to speak. Annie, a survivor of addiction and trafficking who helps lead the support group, reiterated the plea.
“I personally feel threatened, and I know a lot of the guys who live down there,” she said. “Last Monday, they were smoking joints right outside the shop.” She said it seemed the men "have, in fact, more rights in downtown Sequim than vulnerable women."
She doesn’t allow her own daughter to visit downtown anymore.
Instead of responding to this testimony, the Sequim City Council read a proclamation honoring birds.
Yes—birds.
The “Community Wildlife Habitat Designation” recognition celebrated the Audubon Society and emphasized that “birds require the same natural resources we humans do… Where birds thrive, people can thrive also.”
Apparently, not if you're a woman in recovery trying to meet safely downtown.
Wildlife proclamations are fine. But when they take the place of public safety, something is out of balance. When City Hall can congratulate birds while ignoring a group of local women pleading for protection from verbal abuse, public defecation, and drug activity outside their meeting place, it suggests a profound failure of priorities.
The City's own police department once held meetings with merchants to address these very concerns. In 2023, officers said these issues would be taken seriously. That support seems to have vanished when it came to a group of women quietly doing the hard work of recovery and resilience in a ramen shop every Monday night.
As Annie put it, “Are we really helping people when we enable them to engage in a destructive lifestyle where drug use is easy and they have a lovely living room at the citizens’ expense?”
The question remains: does Sequim’s City Council believe birds deserve a cleaner, safer environment than women healing from trauma?
These are Google Street View’s images of Seal Street Park.
Response from Councilmember Kelly Burger
(Disclaimer: My views expressed in this email are my own and do not reflect the views of Sequim City Council as a whole.)
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for reaching out with your article you have written on City Council and this very important topic. I have of course heard of your blog and articles but admittedly have not read many of them other than the ones you have emailed council. Having not read most of your articles I am not sure if I agree with many of your viewpoints but what I can say is that I support any persons first amendment right to speak out, blog, write articles, meet, peacefully protest ect.. on things they see as important. I do know that you focus heavily on transparency in our local governments which I can appreciate and which is also why I am emailing you back. I feel like this most recent article leaves out a very big part of the picture of the situation at Seal Street Park.
In your article you mentioned the public comments that were made on July 14th, but you made no mention of the discussion council had after the public comment period to discuss the issue brought up by the Women’s Resiliency group, or that we decided to discuss the issue directly after the public comments instead of waiting until Open Council Discussion at the end of the meetings. There was no mention of Council directing staff to look into the issue with the Police Department or looking in the feasibility and legality of putting up the sign the people from the Resiliency group recommended. I believe that if you are going to demand transparency then you should also be as transparent as possible in the articles you write, especially if it is through a medium where many people get their information about their local governments and issues in their community. I am not saying you intentionally left out that information, but I will admit it is hard to see it otherwise.
Also, as far as I know, you never reached out to anyone at the Sequim Police Department, City Council, or City Staff to get more information about this issue. I think if your goal is transparency and/or journalistic integrity then it would have benefited you to reach out to someone at the city about this. I think having the perspective from someone directly involved at the city would have helped shed some light on this issue more which is why I decided to email you. I can assure you that the city and in particular Sequim PD take this issue very seriously. I will share some of the email from Police Chief Hill that he sent to council on Monday about this.
I reviewed the public comment from the July 14th Council meeting via video and have read the letter the Women’s Resilience Group of Sequim submitted. Additionally, I personally spoke with all three speakers from public comment to get additional background information. This week Deputy Chief John Southard and I also met with two outreach/ advocacy groups that operate in Sequim and made multiple trips to Seal Street Park and spoke with the people present there. As I am sure you can appreciate there is more information gained than could possibly be shared in this correspondence, but I will attempt to summarize. To get to the point I will start with the action plan, rather than end with it.
Strategic Action Plan:
Enhance visibility of law enforcement during known meeting times to prevent undesirable activities. - PD
Continued collaboration with social services to address the underlying causes of congregation at the park. - PD
Encourage timely reporting of incidents to enable prompt police response and follow-up – PD
Signage considerations (refer to the letter from the Women’s Resilience Group of Sequim). – City/ City Council.
Women’s Resilience Group of Sequim: I had great conversations with Katie, Annie, and Teresa and learned about them personally, was given information about the group, and listened to their concerns. All were thankful for the response from the City, affirming they were heard. The number of members in the group ebbs and flows, but there are often 4-8 members attending the weekly meetings. Although there were some specific incidents I was informed of, they were spread over a period of months. There was more of a general concern with certain people in the park and their behavior at times, which often went unreported for varying reasons. In reviewing calls to police, there are very few complaints that are known to have come from the group (2 total over the last year). There is a margin of error related to the number of these reports as other people from the group may have called and we do not know their names, or people may have asked to remain anonymous. Looking back over call history to PD, there are also very few incidents reported during the meetings. I passed on the importance of reporting disruptive and/or unlawful behavior when it was occurring so we can address it. Some members do have understandable concerns of retaliation if they call. This has been mitigated as we now know the dates and times of meetings so we can be more present when available in order to deter poor behavior and deal with violations.
Sign Request: Regarding the signage request they made in the letter to Council. They would still like something considered but are aware there are varying degrees of likelihood of all the suggestions being applicable based on WA state law, ordinances, and the back and forth with case law on the topic.
Seal Street Park: Picking up on the previous point of deterring poor behavior. As mentioned, I, along with John, and on a second occasion with Officer Paul Dailidenas, visited the people congregating at the park this week. One occasion there were two people there, the other four. Some told us they are experiencing issues including housing. As mentioned previously during our Annual Report presentation to the Council, John and I have been doing regular downtown foot patrols for months in response to the Community Survey, we are in regular contact with people at Seal Street Park and have good rapport with them. We continued to educate them on law, municipal code, and had discussions on general behavior. Of note, most of the people there usually stop by to visit and leave.
It is important to recognize that Seal Street Park is unique. It differs significantly from other City Parks, primarily due to location, which makes it somewhat of a thoroughfare that allows access to local businesses and parking.
Outreach: During one of our stops at Seal Street Park earlier this week, a staff member from Peninsula Behavioral Health (PBH) was there speaking with the two people present, this occurs on a regular basis. PBH recently increased staffing at their Sequim office as well. John and I met with outreach supervisors from Reflections Counseling Services and PBH on Thursday to help with their outreach and priorities, both have outreach groups. They are working with people who frequent the park, have engaged them with services, and navigators continue to go there. John also attends monthly virtual meetings with the East End Operational Work Group regarding social services outreach and intake.
On the topic of panhandling, courts have repeatedly addressed this as free speech and upheld those protections. Police can deal with behavior outside of free speech, such as being aggressive or threatening through words and actions, or following a person through a parking lot repeatedly making requests. Those types of calls are rare in Sequim. What we typically see is a person standing with a sign, which is not a violation, and the number of people ebbs and flows. However, if a person is being aggressive or threatening, reporting that while it is occurring helps greatly so we can observe the behavior and take appropriate action.
What we have seen over the last several years are a variety of court cases mentioned in the Fact Sheets. These are what we base enforcement actions on, and some have changed over time. Often these issues are addressed at state and national levels, and local jurisdictions, such as Sequim, must follow those decisions.
These are just some snippets from the lengthy email from Chief Hill on what they are doing in regards to this issue. The emphasis is on increased patrols, especially during the groups meetings, and educating the public about reporting and calling in to the PD when the disruptive and criminal acts are happening as it is difficult for the PD to do anything after the fact.
Personally, I wish there was more that could be done but it seems state laws and statutes make it difficult for a more direct solution a lot of the times.
My hope in emailing you today is that maybe next time you write an article you can reach out to those who are more directly involved so you can give your readers a more accurate and transparent idea of what is happening in their community. I know it probably seems like some might not be willing to respond to your requests but this is me letting you know that you can always feel free to reach out to me and I will try my best to respond in a timely and as knowledgeable manner as I can.
Kelly Burger
City Councilor
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