Jefferson County PUD leadership, including the General Manager, legal counsel and two-thirds of the elected commissioners (the Fab Four) have not gone so far as The Atlantic‘s Prof. Emily Oster in asking for “pandemic amnesty,” but they share her interest in ignoring a dark and still-open chapter from our Public Utility District’s recent history — just moving on, turning the page — pretending their mandate was not the crime that it was.  And still is.

At the November 1st PUD meeting, GM Kevin Streett dropped this lame stratagem at the very end of his manager’s report:

“Well, on our vaccination policy, we have come to agreement with the Laborers Union. We’re moving forward with non reps [non-represented employees] and contractors. I did talk to the IBEW late yesterday, and again this morning. We feel there is a pathway forward for us, so I will keep the board informed. But per the Governor’s resolution, that took some of what he had imposed, [it] went away. As of tomorrow, we will slowly be moving in a little bit different direction with our vaccination policy. And with that, we’re done.”

“A pathway forward.”  Moving “slowly,” in a “little bit different direction.” Weasel words for a weaselly policy shift. You’d think he was negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. No, simply reversing a year-long wrong-headed and deleterious decree.

My public comment followed immediately after.

“Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you. Ken. I hope that you’ve heard about the case in New York, where the court lifted the mandates for New York City employees. They have to have back pay, they get their jobs back, and the mandate was called arbitrary and capricious because of how they treated people differently, and other details. But the PUD has violated all the same things, and it is just, it’s beyond unconscionable that you’ve dragged your feet like this. The only PUD — twenty-six other PUDs did not do this. You did not need to do this, and you still manage to drag it out for a year. It is just unconscionable.

I don’t know — if this doesn’t make you feel ashamed, I don’t know what would. We knew a year ago that these products did not prevent transmission and infection. I will read to you from the Free Press article that went out last December, where Kurt Anderson is reminding you…”

I proceeded to read a paragraph from the Free Press Dec. 23rd, 2021 article wherein this courageous soon-to-be-fired lineman addressed the absurdity of the mandate. Counter-factual discrimination was the rule:

“One only has to look to the PUD roster to see this truth, after being fully vaccinated a PUD employee contracted covid. The fully vaccinated coworkers of this individual were allowed to continue working regular and overtime hours, the unvaccinated coworkers were sent home on unpaid time off for 10 days quarantine with the requirement to complete a covid test as directed by the county health department, option to use PTO [paid time off] allowed. Some online training classes were set up to help offset the unpaid time off.”

I returned to my own comment:

“These are exactly the sorts of things that were in that lawsuit in New York. And, frankly, you really deserve to be sued for this. It was so unjust, and the fact that the rest of the PUDs did not do that simply exposes you… it’s mendacious, is what it is.”

At that point, just over two minutes into my comment, board chair Ken Collins abruptly stopped me with “thank you for your comment,” moving on to ask if anyone else had a comment.  My audio still on, I responded “You’re not supposed to cut off the commenters, Commissioner…” I had intended to say more, but lost my train of thought with his autocratic interruption.

Arbitrary and Capricious

The New York Superior Court October 24th ruling laid the case bare, concluding that the mandate was “arbitrary and capricious” on numerous counts [see p. 13]. Here is an excerpt:

The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance. If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued… we shouldn’t be penalizing people who showed up to work, at great risk to themselves and their families, while we were locked down. If it was about safety and public health, no one would be exempt. It’s time for the City of New York to do what is right and what is just… The terminated Petitioners are hereby reinstated to their full employment status, effective October 25, 2022, at 6:00AM.

And so should be the case with fired PUD employees (reinstate full employment with back pay) and with contractors. The National Law Review provided a Covid-19 litigation update in this Oct. 21st report, showing that legal efforts seeking redress for these injustices are nowhere near over:

Of late, the greatest source of new cases challenge the steps taken to stem the COVID-19 tide, in the form of vaccine mandates. The number of such lawsuits has surpassed 1,200. Many of these complaints opposed governmental mandates at all levels, Biden Administration efforts to implement mandatory vaccinations upon large swaths of the U.S. workforce often being the targets. Overall, however, approximately 70 percent of these lawsuits have been filed against individual employers that have adopted policies requiring vaccination as a condition of employment.

PUD Dishonest from the Outset in Union Contracts

For months now I’ve been Zooming in to PUD meetings to inquire about the timeline for dropping the bogus mandate. I was initially ignored, then GM Streett began blaming the holdup on the unions. A public records request did not confirm that to be true, but revealed that the IBEW business representative, Jonathan Finch, perceived the mandates to be an obstacle to enticing new hires in this communication with the PUD HR manager on July 22, 2022:

“Additionally, your team approached this office with a desire to roll back the vaccination mandate for work on the property. I have some ideas of what that might look like and would like to have further discussions. This too may have an impact on recruitment.”

The Zoom meeting where the incentives and jab mandates were covered happened on August 8th. The Open Records Act didn’t require recording of that internal meeting, so we are not privy to what happened there. We are also not privy to Finch’s singling out “work on the property” in the mandate “roll back.” What does this mean for those who work in the field? I also recently learned that legal counsel Paisner’s communications are not subject to the Open Records Act because he is not a PUD employee, he’s a consultant. Have strings been pulled behind the scenes since July to maintain the mandate proponents’ position until the clock runs out on Dec. 31st?

The preamble of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Laborers and International Brotherhood (IBEW) Unions presents the foundational lie:

“…The [Governor’s 21-14-COVID Vaccination Requirement] Proclamation prohibits state agencies from permitting contractors who engage in work for the agency if the personnel performing the contract (including subcontractor personnel) have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as set forth in the Proclamation. Jefferson County PUD has a contract with WSDOT and, as part of the performance of that contract our personnel are subject to the vaccination requirements set forth in the Proclamation.”

Fact Check: Misinformation!

Jefferson County was the only PUD out of 27 in Washington State to choose this route. The other 26 followed the Washington PUD Association’s (WAPUDA) guidance issued after consultation with the WSDOT, exempting PUD’s from the vax requirement. The drive to impose a mandate came from GM Streett, counsel Joel Paisner and Commissioners Collins and Randall.

The IBEW and Laborers’ Unions represent thousands of utility workers in Washington. JPUD employees appear to be the only ones in the state restricted by a mandate that was signed into effect on October 25th, 2021, strangely set to expire at the end of 2022. Why this artificial deadline so far out, when breakthrough infections were already occurring? Why is the Union official so tentative in his language, nearly as cautious as Streett, about dropping the mandate when the MOU says it can be ended at any time by mutual agreement?

Emergency Orders and No-Bid Contracts

There is suspicion that the molasses pace of rescinding the jab mandate has more to do with the bidding process than protecting public health. As we reported in February, the winter storm at the end of 2021 opened the door for a Declaration of Emergency, which opened the door for no-bid contracts. Miraculously, the outcome coincided with the Fab Four’s strident wish for a “fully vaccinated” PUD. The whole process was suspect. Our dock crew — the back-up electrical line crews that smaller PUDs rely on to get through emergencies like the one we just experienced — was FB Titan. They were essentially fired by the new JPUD policy, explained in our coverage at the time:

Streett said Titan left because of the mandates and “vaccinated crews were tough to come by.” He claimed that there were some locally, but they were busy. He admitted that Palouse “is a bit more expensive.” Commissioners Dan Toepper and Jeff Randall inquired further about bidding, with the latter asking if there will be a bid process. Streett replied, “For the next while Palouse will be our contractor… We’ve gone through our [RCW] obligations, it was difficult” referring to the challenge of finding vaxxed crews.

Yes indeedy, Palouse is a bit more expensive than Titan. Roughly 100%, at last tally. I won’t be expecting an honest accounting from our PUD any time soon. Maybe ever. Then there’s the added expense to the customer/owners, aka ratepayers, of now needing hiring incentives like moving and housing expenses and guaranteed overtime.

The PUD will cry foul, and say that recruitment has been difficult for most utilities for years. Exactly. That’s probably why all the other PUDs, and the investor-owned utilities too, decided that a jab mandate was a terrible idea.

Did the delay in rescinding it have anything to do with state bidding requirements or retaining Palouse through next year?

They can’t say they weren’t warned.

Free Press editor Ana Wolpin’s coverage of the PUD’s October 4, 2021 meeting detailed employee and customer-owners’ realistic concerns. She reiterated what she had already put in writing to the board:

1) Given the well-documented viral spread by those fully vaccinated for Covid, why are the unvaxxed being singled out as potential health threats? On its face, these mandates are simply a way to stigmatize those who are refusing experimental shots. There is a growing body of evidence that the mandates are political, not valid health measures.

2) Our PUD cannot afford to lose more staff. Attracting qualified employees has been a challenge for Jefferson PUD without this added restriction. Loss of staff if a mandate were to be enacted could potentially cripple our utility’s ability to function.

After absorbing what took place at that same meeting, I wrote to the commissioners and GM on Oct. 7th, 2021 with my observations:

Gentlemen:

I listened to the recording from Monday night’s meeting. I wish to raise a few concerns.

Jeff — to suggest that “debate” in the chat box is somehow problematic for a Public Utility District indicates contempt for democracy and the first amendment. You basically said “we gave you your three minutes (which we are not obligated to respond to), shut up and move along now. We’ll take it from here.”

Some of us are not willing to move along now. The chat box is one of the few remaining community forums that we have a paid right to access. Our voices are censored from local media, and now it seems you would like them confined to three easily-ignorable minutes per agency. Perhaps you would like them removed from the public square entirely.

Most of us in this small town do know someone who works in the JH hospital system. I’m hearing a different story than “the hospitals are full of unvaccinated covid patients.” I’ve heard that half of the covid patients are at least partially jabbed. I hear that JH is internally in chaos.

Hospital administrators bear great responsibility for this meltdown. Twelve-hour shifts, requirements for cross-training, unpopular managers and mandated jabs have all contributed to staffing issues you readily blame on the unvaccinated. Shrinking staff results in shrinking beds. Our hospital is not “full.” It is understaffed, and according to many who have or continue to work there, poorly run.

Ken — your intimation that those of us who listen to the many renowned scientific/medical experts (now censored) who have no ties to industry/NGOs, or the agencies that lubricate their influence, are plagued by confirmation bias is patently offensive. That suggests you feel you are above confirmation bias. Please…

Local electeds’ continual alluding to resisters as partisan is pure projection. A lifelong independent voter, my party activism consists solely of caucusing for Dennis Kucinich. I’ve wanted nothing to do with aligning with either of the majority parties, which I view as toxic wastelands.

I don’t imagine that the unions or either of you would be in favor of these mandate policies if they came from Trump, or if our governor was a Republican. I recall the video of Kamala Harris stating defiantly that she absolutely would not take a vaccine that Trump mandated. Now the administration she is part of is simply playing through with the same Operation Warp Speed conceived during Trump’s admin. The Dems, including the rank and file, are blindly unaware of their own unbridled political partisanship.

The jabs are not preventing transmission or infection. Their purported benefits are grossly exaggerated while the serious risks are minimized. Many whistleblowers are saying the hospitals are not full of unvaccinated people, rather people who have had one or two jabs. They’re threatened with their jobs for speaking out about it.

If these mandates were truly necessary for population-wide public health, there would be no exemptions for anyone, including congress, the “vaccine” makers, USPS and all the rest of the uber-menchen I sent along earlier.

This is not about public health. If you don’t have the time or desire to dig deeper than NIH, CDC and FDA special interest-conflicted Newspeak and do your own research, don’t condemn those of us who make it a priority.

Annette Huenke
District 1

Commissioner Collins replied less than 2 hours later:

Annette,
There is absolutely no point in trying to have a dialogue with you on vaccine mandates.

Kindly do not copy me on future emails as you will not get a response.

Sincerely,
Ken Collins

Commissioner Collins’ rejection of dialogue around “vaccine” mandates a year ago persists today, as revealed in his cutting me off mid-comment at the November 1st meeting. All too common in government today, he views himself above having to defend his position.

I saw him walking across the street in downtown PT a couple of weeks ago on a nice fall afternoon, wearing one of those blue polyester masks that don’t prevent viral or bacterial spread, but do shed microplastics when you breathe. Not a soul anywhere near him.

It appears that our rights end where his fear begins.