Thanks to the "screw the process and spend the money" duo of Bill Peach and Mark Ozias.
Transparency? Accountability? Fiduciary responsibility? Proven need for a new park? Demonstrated ability to pay for maintaining a new park? Public comment?
All totally unnecessary - at least from the "let's hurry and get this done" perspective of Peach and Ozias.
How messed up and irresponsible is all this? Let's leave it to Mark Ozias to - unintentionally - sum it up:
"What we are talking about here is a systemic failure. There are a number of individuals, well-intentioned over the course of time, that have made decisions that have led us to be where we are now."
So sure, we're talking about a systemic failure, engendered by (supposedly) well-intentioned people. In that context, I guess go-along-to-get-along Mark Ozias is just trying to fit in by engendering one more piece of the failure pie. I don't know if he's a conscious hypocrite, or an unconscious idiot, but either way, Mark Ozias sounds awfully stupid saying these things. For a would-be progressive, he sure seems most comfortable with progressing backwards into the good ol' days of the good ol' boys in the backroom.Or, as another well known political figure might say: "Sad!"
Looking forward to hearing Mr. Peach and/or Mr. Ozias "explaining" to us that this unnecessary expenditure is really a "savings" of half a million dollars.
ReplyDeleteAt these prices, Clallam County can't afford NOT to buy a new park!
DeleteWatch the EDC get involved and say how it will attract new business. The "composits" scammers will get into the act and incorporate it into their power point slide show. Cherie will say that's why she loves being here, and gush more nonsense. The county will call it a magnet for tourism.
DeleteLots of PDN press, a "ribbon cutting" with the usual suspects with their feet on shovels (like they've ever actually dug a hole).
And, then we will never hear about it again.
That's how you do things out in Crazy Clallam County.
Gentlemen of the Clallam County Commission and members of the press:
ReplyDeleteHave just read the proposed settlement agreement in the Lange v Clallam County affair. One of the items leaped out and grabbed my attention. The plaintiff, Scott Lange is made to forswear he will never file a 1983 style action against the county.
In case you do not know, the 1983 Chapter in the U. S. Code has to do with “conspiracy to deprive.”
If he is made to swear he will never file such an action you can be sure he has threatened such action.
This would cause one to think Lange has personal knowledge of such actions taken against him by someone in county government. Since conspiracy takes two or more we need to know who might be the other co-conspirator(s).
Conspiracy is both a civil offense and it is a crime for which office holders can be removed and possibly incarcerated, depending on the facts of the case.
Do we know if money changed hands in furtherance of a conspiracy?
We have a list of suspects who may have been involved if there was a conspiracy to deprive this man of his lawful rights. Some are still in office some are out of office.
This is all the more reason this case needs to go to trial. The voters/taxpayers have a right to know if some of their public officials are involved in illegal conspiracies.
If you settle, with this cloud over the proceedings, then you too will have become part of the conspiracy to deprive. This time depriving taxpayers of their right to know.
Please, ditch this settlement agreement and proceed to trial.
This is the manner in which you chose to handle the county treasurer just three months ago–why not now.
If memory serves me correctly two or more of you authorized the county prosecutor to file suit against the county treasurer to have a judge ascertain if she had correctly responded to public records requests. What’s the difference in this case?
If and when the treasurer files suit against the county for hostile workplace you can bet this episode will high on the list of “proofs.” Here you will have folded in “gender discrimination” when you treat one county official different from another with the only difference being gender.
Why would you treat one Constitutional office holder different from another?
If it can be proven that you have personal knowledge of any such conspiracy, or even accusations thereof, then you too are culpable and possibly guilty of a coverup.
Finally, it is very possible, if there is a criminal conspiracy to deprive then the county taxpayers may be off the hook for the cost of this settlement. That should be reason enough to take this to trial.
It is my understanding the county has already spent half a million dollars to keep this out of the public eye and is about to spend another half million to settle out of court.
This will be a permanent black-eye on this county for all time, unless you take this opportunity to root out whatever evil we may have in the bowels of this county’s government.
At least get to the bottom of these conspiracy accusations before spending any more of the taxpayer’s money.
Thank you.
Dale Wilson, taxpayer
P. S. Today I am posting to Kitsap County Superior Court a Motion for Intervention, pursuant to Rule 25 of the Washington Rules of Civil Procedure. I hope to bring these facts before the court before it approves such a settlement agreement as planned.
Finally, I hope to prevail upon our Superior Court Judges to empanel a Grand Jury to look further into this matter.
Here's the weird thing, and they haven't published much info about this: By RCW they are supposed to appoint a public records officer. I don't know if they have any resolution or anything in their minutes documenting if they ever have. But, they're talking about having records personnel in each department. This seems cumbersome and wasteful and the likelihood of emails and documents falling through the cracks increases. Do they not have a document archiving system? Do they not have a public records request officer or procedure? They don't even have to reinvent thee wheel, just ask any other local agency that is doing it well. The RCWs on the open meetings act and the public records act are pretty straightforward.
ReplyDeleteThe county prosecutor, Mark Nichols is the ultimate responsible party for getting out public records requests. Right now he is spearheading a project to make Jim Jones' clerk be the fall guy for the next set of lawsuits stemming from fraudulent and incomplete release of county records. I'm sure Nichols enjoyed having this power until it bit him on the ass and now he wants to toss it over to someone already over worked and underpaid. These guys, how do so many wind up in Clallam County? It's like the country got raised up by the east coast and all the nuts rolled out to the west coast, tilt it up a bit and they all roll into the northwest corner and here we are...
DeleteThe point is (according to a Seattle Times article last year), nobody is doing it well. They claimed that not one County in the entire State has avoided paying claims for violations of the Pubic Records Act. The act has become "The New Lotto" as a cottage industry has sprung up with "frequent flyers" filing hundreds, if not thousands of frivolous Public Records Act requests to try and force a local government to make a mistake, so they can collect "damages". The Act, while very well-meaning, needs to be modified to at least allow over-burdened governments to be able to ask a Judge to throw out a request if it is obviously nothing but a scam / ransom, or a sand-in-the-gears attempt.
DeleteAnonymous 6:45 Am...I'm going to assume (and hope!) that you meant to say "Public Records Act," and not...Well, you know...
DeleteThe act has already been modified. The fine used to be up to $100 per page per day for records not released according to the law. Now they can only get a maximum of $5 per day per page. This just shows the legislature intends to enforce this law and agencies need to become professional about this part of "public service." They have plenty of well-paid people to handle it. If not there are a lot of unemployed people who would love the job. In this case it was not "we can't find the record" but more like, "you can't have this, it makes us look bad." This kind of thinking put the county residents on the hook for a half million and counting.
DeleteI think for Clallam County, "pubic records" is closer to it. I approve of the typo.
Delete@ Anon 6:45
DeleteWell, as is so often the case, a real, valid instance of screw up by the County Prosecutor and County is attempted to be white washed by generalizations about a supposed "cottage industry", insinuating fraud and wrong doing by those seeking real justice and accountability.
That is not the case, here. The County and County Prosecutor admit screwing up, and see this as a way out of paying more when they go to trial.
The issue is not that they screwed up, but that they, including the Commissioners, attempted to hide the whole affair from the public under the heading of an "emergency budget" what ever.
Kudos to Dale Wilson for exposing all this.
It goes to show how all things "governance" have degenerated.
ReplyDeleteI know, here I go "complaining" again. (The troll will be thrilled, I'm sure)
But I've been involved directly and indirectly in a lot of groups and local government for a long time. A lot of years.
Yes, it used to be the media controlled what we knew about pretty much everything. There were the major news companies, and newspapers. Most watched the evening news to learn what was going on. Then the internet came along, and we became a "knowledge based economy", which doesn't mean what most people think it does.
As a result, people stopped watching the news on TV, or reading the major papers, and now proudly say "I get my news from the internet". Problem is, the internet is a place where anyone can put up a convincing website, video or story about anything, regardless of whether it is true or not.
With little effort, you can find a realistic video that "reveals the truth behind" some really wacko topics. Humans haven't actually landed on the moon, don'tcha know. Obama is really an alien reptile, and there is video to prove it.
So, when you get a group of people together these days, you often see the results of "the information age". Try to get anything done, when so many believe there is some nasty conspiracy at play. Or, that because THEY know the real truth (that they saw on the internet), those that don't see things they way they do, are wrong, or the enemy. A either/or mentality has been created, and we see this in so much of what passes for public discussions and votes. Highly polarized.
When decisions come before those we elect, what kind of feedback are they getting? Vote this way or that because you have to support "us"? Who knows what it is really about, because the objective facts of the situation seem to have little to do with the outcomes. We need only to look at the Cherie meltdown story to see a perfect recent example.
I don't doubt that Mark (Ozias) is a decent guy. I'm pretty sure he sees himself as a progressive. So do Betsy Warton, and Ed Chadd. Similar personalities. And similar results. CK puts it in correct perspective pointing out "go-along-to-get-along Mark Ozias is just trying to fit in."
Leadership ain't what it once was.
Prediction: The county will never even break ground on this "park," and the property will be quietly (they hope) put up for sale in the not so distant future.
ReplyDeleteI mean, really, how stupid do they think we are?
The majority of us seem to actually BE that stupid.
DeleteAll I can say is THANK GOODNESS that our burning need for another underfunded and underutilized county park has been addressed. Maybe next the city can finally get to work on the idea that Kent Myers had for a ferris wheel on the waterfront. Priorities, people!
ReplyDeleteWith the way the wind blows across downtown, maybe they can power the ferris wheel with wind!
DeleteOh, that's right. No one will want to be on the ferris wheel on a windy day. Which is often.
Ferris wheel would have been a better choice than a sewage tainted fake beach.
DeleteWhy? The fake beach, and all the "park amenities" could handle way more people than any ferris wheel, but the reality is; they built it, and nobody came.
DeleteLet this one through, and pretty soon there'll be a "budget emergency" for everything.
ReplyDeleteGood point - and heads up.
DeleteBack to $550k for three properties. Cost to demo buildings, remove bulkhead and build park? Where is all that money going to come from?
ReplyDeleteThat money will come right out of the taxpayers pockets. The "risk pool" will not pay for Public Record Act violations. Be at the hearing, make your voice heard.
DeleteActually, it is a structured settlement, the $550,000 holds true. A total of one million dollars will have been spent to hide the fact that our county prosecutor conspired with someone else in another county department, probably Sheila Roark Miller, to keep this information from being released to hide the fact that someone probably BOUGHT an illegal permit from Miller and this had to be kept quiet. Now the only one left, if these are the only two conspirators, is Mark Nichols. Now Mark Ozias and Billy Peach are providing cover for Nichols illegal conspiracy. They know exactly what is going on and they are endorsing it. Chapman is not blameless he did not have to let it come to a vote but did. Ladies and gentlemen, what you have here is a full blown criminal syndicate operating in your local courthouse. Please be at the Hearing at 10:00 am on July 5th and let these bastards know you disapprove. Let them know their days are numbered in public office when they endorse criminal activity that costs the taxpayers close to a million dollars just to keep the crime quiet.
ReplyDeleteI thought Nichols was a good choice. Evidently I was mistaken. And, seems that anything that SRMiller touches has been tainted.
DeleteAs for Mark O, he looked like he was going to be a better choice, but clearly, the campaign contributions went to his head. He has no spine, and is an easy push-over.
Please do not vote Chapman into any higher office. PLEASE.
Anon11:40 surprise surprise surprise governmental process and procedure are not for the lay-person. Your heroes and champions are struggling like their predecessors. Guess you should shut your pie hole and take a seat. It's a lot easier to be perfect from your spot in the unemployment line than at the table making decisions.
Delete@Anon 1:53 "Guess you should shut your pie hole and take a seat." Wow. How eloquent! Guess you win a lot of arguments with logic like that.
DeleteBut, more disturbing than the stupidity you display in writing at all, are the attempted rationalizations.
".. governmental process and procedure are not for the lay-person." So, the public is supposed to sit back, and let city staff run things? That the public should "..shut your pie hole and take a seat.", in other words, shut up and sit down, and stop interfering with what staff wants to do?
Whose country is this? Who is supposed to be working for whom? Ever hear of the concept of "public servants"?
If there are people in the unemployment line, they are there because of people like you? Because you couldn't do your job adequately, and solve the problems you want us all to shut up, sit down, and let you do?
As I posted in the original thread, another big issue besides the county's wet-dream settlement is this practice of declaring a "budget emergency" to pull funds from elsewhere to fund it.
ReplyDeleteThis lawsuit has been ongoing for years now, and it seems the county never dealt with it correctly by earmarking funds for a contingent liability, which is what the government is supposed to do when originally served with process.
To declare a "budget emergency" for this is itself an abuse of that protocol. Especially when the stated *real* purpose is to expand a park.
If this is done here, then the commissioners will create a blank checkbook for themselves. Something that gets further away from accountability and responsibility than ever before.
Another reason to show up at the public hearing and tell all of them their time is up.