Port Angeles: A No-Account Town

Let's start with a headline from today, and work backwards from that, shall we? (After all, Port Angeles is so good at working backwards.)

Attorney general declines to file perjury charge against Port Angeles deputy mayor

Yes, once again, Gavel Gertie has skated out from under a threat, however minor. Despite there being video evidence of the fact that the meeting she was chairing was, in fact, not dangerous or out of control, she has been given a free pass because she shouldn't be penalized for "expressing" her "opinion" about what happened. That's quite a free pass. To tie it in to a number of national stories, I guess it's no different than police officers being given a free pass for shooting, unarmed and/or handcuffed black men, because they felt "their lives were in danger."

Obviously for Cherie Kidd, the danger threshold is much, much lower - to match her IQ, I suppose.

In any case, once again, we have a situation in Port Angeles that clearly demonstrates that it is a community without real law and order, without consequences, without accountability.

Which brings us back to another story from the last few days. You may have seen this one under the headline: Port Angeles police investigating assault as hate crime.

To sum up: A week ago, a young black man was jumped and assaulted by a group of young white morons. The victim got a photograph of the license plate of one of the cars these cowards were in. The police have talked to the owner of the car. No arrests have been made.

Sound familiar? It should, because it has more than faint echoes of the recent fatal hit and run accident in which the car in question has been identified, found, and...Nothing has happened. No arrests have been made. And someone died in that case.

Just like someone died the first time Amber Steim hit and killed a pedestrian while (presumably) driving drunk. But she was protected by the fact that she was, at the time, sleeping with a local police officer.

No such excuse was offered when the PDN's own Paul Gottlieb also hit a pedestrian and didn't even have to take a sobriety test. (Neither did Amber Steim after her first accident.)



This is the culture that comes from the top in Clallam County. Sexist harassment and violent behavior in the County Courthouse? No accountability. Across the street in City Hall, when Yvonne Ziomkowski was subjected to sexist harassment (among other things) she was fired for simply standing up for herself. A jury of her peers later found her version of events to be more than credible. But were any of those who had insulted, bullied and belittled her ever held accountable?

Glenn Cutler spent years being a hateful, spiteful bully, making enemies, burning bridges and wasting the City's money on crackpot projects like the Turd Tank. But he was allowed to retire on his own schedule, with no scandal or accountability.

Kent Myers was such a lousy City Manager that he got spit out by the City Council. (One of the many reasons being that he passed on the State's investigative report on Karen Rogers to...Karen Rogers, thereby doubling-down on the no accountability factor, for both him and her.) But he still had plenty of hands greasing the rails running him out of town. He was allowed to leave, rather than being fired. He got a sweetheart deal on the short sale of his house. Again, no scandal, no accountability.

Like Grant Munro, who essentially stole valuable equipment from the corpse of Pen Ply - equipment that could have covered the bills the dead company owed the City, for instance. Instead, the City's utility customers had to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid Pen Ply bills. All Munro had to say in response was the now legendary "pound sand." No accountability.

Who has ever - ever - been held accountable for the millions fritted away in Clallam County? Did anyone's head roll over Harbor-Works? The EDC? The dead on arrival "seawall" under the Garbage Bluff? Who's ever been held accountable for allowing the Garbage Bluff to be born in the first place?

 

And on and on and on. Hundreds of people wasting their time on public comments and going to meetings. Thousands of people disappointed in their elected (non) representatives. Millions and millions of dollars wasted, gone, vanished, with not a single positive or concrete thing to show for them.

I am cutting this short now, because there are so many more examples I could reference, but you get the picture - and doubtlessly know many of the other instances yourself. The hard to dispute fact that the upper levels of government in Port Angeles and Clallam County are too often held by out and out criminals, has created a culture and community that is in many respects lawless. No oversight, no accountability, and no hope.

To say this is unsustainable is a massive understatement. To say that it is unhealthy for both individuals and the community is just a starting point. It is poisonous to hope and health and trust and success. There is a direct connection between the sexist, racist morons in City Hall and the County Courthouse and the morons who commit criminal acts on the street. The only differences are order of magnitude, and the amount of cover or deniability they have.