Misled Opportunity

I'm just passing this information along...Pardon the typos...

The Opportunity Fund is tax money intended for infrastructure improvements.  The Op Fund board recently recommended a $900,200 grant to the Peninsula Housing Authority to fund the destruction of 33 homes now sitting on land where the housing authority wants to build a new high-rise apartment complex for low income residents.

The Op Fund board described it as  "site development."  The county administrator admitted it was for the removal of these perfectly good homes.

Now, on the official Agenda for Tuesday's (February 28th) County Commission meeting, it has morphed into a grant to "build a Boys and Girls Club.

This type disinformation is or should be criminal.  In any case it is certainly misleading to the general public.

I hope we can get a flash-mob to appear at Tuesday's meeting and protest the destruction of these 33 homes and secondly to protest this kind of subterfuge employed by our county government.

If you cannot make the meeting please email your county commissioner and register your displeasure with this outright lying to the public.
The housing authority has plans to LEASE space in their high-rise to the Boys and Girls club but this grant is not going to that purpose.

Please let these commissioners know it is NOT alright to lie to taxpayers.

Millstone

File under: No Surprise At All.

The Nippon mill is...no more. Kaput. Defunct. Deceased. It rolls out paper...no more.

Ah, but the end of the mill is likely only the beginning of bad news for the City of Port Angeles. Think unemployment. Think ripple effect. Think tax revenue losses. Think a big, big hole in the City's budget. And, not to be forgotten, think about the City's self-identity. ALL will be in crisis.

Now...Who thinks the Port Angeles City Council is able to deal with a crisis?

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Some other subjects to ponder...The upcoming renewal of the City's contract to provide water to the Nippon plant. Currently, they get up to 20 million gallons a day for $15,500 a year. Anyone want to comment on the City's skill in negotiating such things?

Or...What about the harbor clean up? Think a gone, gone, gone Nippon is going to care about doing (or paying) their fair share?

Or...Log yard on the waterfront...Visual blight or charming olde fashioned eyesore?

And...That darned biomass power plant. It was only barelybarelybarely allowable as an "auxiliary" part of the paper mill. Even with that "exemption" that the City pushed through, it's still in violation of the City's own zoning, the state Shoreline Act, and other applicable statutes. Remember how they started work on the project without having their permits from the City? And remember how the City (Hello, Nathan West!) turned a blind eye to that? That sure has paid off, hasn't it? Just like those grants and loans to Pen Ply paid off...With a huge hole in the City's budget.

Notice how it all keeps coming back to a huge hole in the City's budget?

Can anyone think of anything else associated with the City of Port Angeles that has a huge hole in it?

There's No Deficit...Of Stupidity

It just doesn't get any simpler than this:

Spreadsheet errors cost Clallam $494,157

Gosh, and you mean to tell me Selinda wants to quit working within such a well-oiled operation? With such a crack team? Jeepers! Why, who'd wanna step away from that sort of...

Errors on a pair of Clallam County Sheriff’s Office budget documents will cost the county $494,157 in 2017, officials said this week.

A $331,074 Excel spreadsheet calculation error was made on a sheriff’s operations salary worksheet during the annual budget cycle last fall, commissioners learned Monday.

A $163,083 spreadsheet error was made on a sheriff’s jail salary worksheet, officials said.

 

Now, even in Clallam County - which, budget-wise, has never exactly put the count into county - even there, I would never expect 100%, to-the-penny accuracy. That is a nearly impossible standard. But surely...Surely it is not too much to hope that they might notice errors such as these when they were still in the thousands of dollars range...Or even the tens of thousands of dollars range...As opposed to the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.

Because, as Chief Accountant but-strangely-speaking-as-a-private-citizen Stan Creasey had to point out:

"This is a really big number."

 

I guess, again, using Clallam County standards, we could see this as the Sheriff's Office really (no pun intended!) excelling. After all, as you may recall, the Auditor's Office recently "lost" around 200 ballots. Pikers! Leave it to the manly men of the Sheriff's Office to show you what "running up the numbers" really looks like in Clallam County.

My favorite definition of comedy is this: Comedy is tragedy that happens to someone else. Given that I now live well away from Clallam County, boy, does this strike me as funny. For local residents, on the hook for the money one way or another...Probably not so funny.

Anyway, let's end it with a little more from Mr. Creasey...

During public testimony the next day, Creasey asked commissioners to ponder two questions: Would the board have made different budget decisions had it known the “true magnitude” of the projected deficit, and who will be accountable for the mistakes?

  

"I Quit!" --- Eventually

Selinda Barkhuis...Heroine or drama queen?

Clallam County...Cesspool of corruption or...Cesspool of corruption?

I find it notable and revealing that this story, which is very much the definition of a Big Story, is buried way down the page on the PDN's website, rather than being right up top where you can't miss it.

Good luck with your (expected) lawsuit, Selinda. Here's hoping you can make 'em sweat a little more.

Unanimous Stupidity AKA Gone Wishin' AKA Bitch or Cut-Rate

Oh my god...Even by Port Angeles standards, this is stupid. I mean capital "S" STOOPID.

The headline, appropriately enough, from the local fish wrapper:

Port Angeles City Council slams cut in fishing; says limited season hurts economy

When you can't win, whine. It is one thing the Port Angeles City Council is good at. "Oh! Poor pitiful us! Darn you, (insert other governing body here)!"

Can you believe that the Port Angeles City Council voted unanimously to whine to the state about the limits put on the halibut fishing season? Can you believe that even they are that shameless? That clueless? That stoopid?

Let me explain the whole conservation thing to you, okay Council members? I'm sorry that this will have to include numbers, because I know they make your widdle bitty heads hurt, but...Anyway, here goes.

Imagine that you have a savings account at the bank that has $1,000 in it. Wow! You're rich! Life is good! So, living the good life, every single week day you go to the bank and withdraw $25 to spend at...Well, someplace in Sequim or Poulsbo, okay? Okay.

Now, that means that every week, you're withdrawing $125 from the bank. Right? Still with me? Life is good, because you've got cash to spend every blessed week day. Glory, glory hallelujah!

Okay, now let's say that you're also working and making fairly typical Port Angeles wages, so every week you deposit $100 in this savings account. Jeepers, I mean, you're really socking it away, right?

Except that...Uh oh! The reality is that, over time, you're taking more money out than you're putting in. Which means that, unless some sort of drastic steps are taken, unless some sort of change is made, some day your savings account will click over into the negative column. As in, red ink. No more money, honey.



Now, and this is the hard part, I need you to do two things: Replace the word "bank" with "big water place," and replace the word "money" with the word "fish," and you'll see why there have to be limits - very strict, limited limits - on the number of fish people take out of the big water place. Because, if you don't limit it, then, soon enough, there will be no more fish at all to take.

Sorry to shout, but, IS THAT REALLY SO HARD FOR YOU MORONS TO UNDERSTAND?

Like I said, even by Port Angeles standards, this is clueless, stupid and pathetic. Which is to say, fairly typical.

Heck of a job, Sissi!



Adam Chamberlain: STILL a Cowardly Loser

From the Port O Call...

Clallam County Sheriff’s Department, after an exhaustive investigation, referred charges against Adam Chamberlin to the County Prosecutor’s office. County Prosecutor, Mark Nichols said Tuesday he has not made a charging decision yet.

Chamberlin is accused of pepper spraying a family in their car last summer as they were driving on Bean Road.

The investigation shows Chamberlin lay in wait for the family as they visited friends in the area. During the time the family was visiting friends video from a nearby business caught Chamberlin’s vehicle cruising the vicinity several times in a 20 minute period.

According to the complaint filed with sheriff ’s deputies, the family left the home they were visiting and saw Chamberlin sitting in his truck, parked on the roadside, headed south on Bean Road. As the family headed north they pulled even with Chamberlin and asked why he was stalking them. In response Chamberlin allegedly reached out the window of his truck and drenched the family with pepper spray.

Adam Chamberlain: Loony Local Loser



Swabs taken from the family’s car were sent to the crime lab and came back positive for pepper-spray.

Chamberlin is already slated for trial on charges of possession of a sawed off shotgun, possession of 10 stolen cell phones, possession of a “sack full” of data chips taken from other stolen cell phones and for uploading video of a sex act taken from one of the stolen cell phones.

Pursuant to a search warrant served on Chamberlin’s residence Port Angeles police officers confiscated a total of 16 guns from Chamberlin’s residence. Fifteen of them came back “stolen” on the FBI’s NCIC database. NCIC stands for National Crime Information Center. Possession of the sawed off shotgun and uploading racy videos belonging to another are both felonies.

Prosecutor Nichols has been reticent to charge individuals associated with the Facebook group, “Our Town.” He has appeared before the group several times in the last year to make presentations. Chamberlin was one of the administrators of the Our Town Facebook page open by invitation only. It was on this Facebook site where plans were hatched to torch a travel trailer sitting on the side of the road out on Highway 112 a few months ago.

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Be sure to call Mark Nichols and let him know that you expect the wheels of justice to grind forward, however slowly. Should that not work, be ready to contact interested parties at the state level, as well as regional media outlets, who are doubtlessly primed to cover yet another bizarre crime story out of Clallam "Brand 'Em or Bulldoze 'Em" County.

As for your local news, be sure to support Port O Call.