by Jim Scarantino | Nov 2, 2020 | General, Politics
2020 saw young conservatives emerging as activists in Jefferson County. They had not previously been involved in politics of any kind. They are fearless, motivated and already making a mark on their community. They have deep roots here, all of them having grown up in Jefferson County. These are people to watch.
The year started with Josh Peacock being pulled over by police in Port Townsend. Two 911 calls had come in of a young man flying a big Trump flag off the bed of his pickup. In defiance of the sometimes oppressive political local monoculture, Peacock had established a routine of driving a circuit around Uptown and Downtown with a flag pole on the back of his truck. On one of these days, a police cruiser followed him and its lights came on. The officer told him about the 911 calls. He had been watching Peacock but couldn’t see him doing anything wrong. He apologized, wished him a good day and complimented Peacock on his good driving skills.
Word of what happened to Peacock sparked other public displays of support for President Trump during the following year. Those 911 calls backfired.
Peacock and his friends later marched in the January Women’s March–or Womxn’s March, whatever it is. They brought up the rear flying Trump banners and a huge American flag. For blocks they shouted, “Four more years!” to the consternation of people in odd pink hats who looked back over their shoulders at the boisterous crew at their heels.
Peacock has participated in protests and rallies in Portland and Seattle in support of President Trump and law enforcement. He participated in the peaceful march of thousands of Proud Boys across a bridge and into downtown Portland. He works in security professionally and has provided his services to protect others against the violence of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
Danielle Rain’s business was declared “non-essential” by Governor Inslee, though it was absolutely essential to her family’s survival and well-being. She was instrumental in launching the Reopen Washington State Facebook group. That resource has connected those forced out of work by the Governor’s “guidance,” business owners ordered to shut down and bleed red ink, local officials seeing their communities ravaged not by a virus but by the Governor’s actions and medical patients denied critical care because the Governor had inserted himself into the doctor-patient relationship. It has served as an organizing tool for rallies across the state. That group now has over 50,000 members.
Rain and other young women organized the first Reopen Jefferson County rally on May 19, 2020. I wrote about that event in “Fear and Loathing in Port Townsend.”
Rebekah White jumped into the County Commission District 1 race against incumbent Kate Dean just weeks before election day. She’s not kidding herself about her chances. She stepped up to make a statement, gain experience and build towards another run for office in the future. She says she had to do something after watching Dean ally herself with Black Lives Matter and push a “systemic racism” declaration through the Board of Health while for four years Dean has done nothing about the county’s suicide, drug addiction, joblessness and affordable housing crises. Dean was instrumental in preventing Sheriff’s deputies from receiving small gift bags for law enforcement appreciation day. White had raised the funds for those tokens of recognition and assembled dozens of the bags. Before a similar complaint made it to the Port Townsend Police, White rushed to the Port Townsend police department and left bags for every officer in the reception area. She is resourceful in that kind of creative, fun, tenacious way, like posing for a campaign shoot in front of Dean’s failed Cherry Street Project. One of her major goals is to get more young people involved in local politics. White is a pediatric medical assistant. Her campaign Facebook page is here at this link.
Leanne Dotson is a powerful woman in many ways. She teaches weight training for women and can dead lift more than most men. She comes from a law enforcement family. Her father was Sheriff and her husband is a deputy. She had seriously considered pursuing a career in law enforcement, but opted against it so that both parents of her children would not be putting their lives at risk every day they stepped out the door.
Watching the political attacks on law enforcement spreading to Jefferson County, in particular the calls to disarm police and leave them defenseless, drove her to say, “Enough!” With other law enforcement wives, Dotson organized several pro-law enforcement demonstrations around the county, culminating in the massive August 30 Back the Blue motorcade. That event drew over 400 vehicles that formed a six-mile line of cars, trucks and motorcycles stretching from H.J. Carroll Park in Chimacum to downtown Port Townsend. Her confident and calm leadership and her wide network of contacts in the community made that such an impactful and successful event. Dotson works as a courtroom administrator and continues to steer her piece of the pro-law enforcement movement in Jefferson County.
If Jefferson County has more Culp for Governor signs per capita than any other county the credit goes to Robyn Middleton. Middleton is the Jefferson County coordinator/field manager for Loren Culp. She has never participated before in any political campaign, let alone been in charge of one. Her efforts have spilled over into neighboring counties. She produced the 1,300 person rally for Culp in Port Angeles in September.
She seems to know or know about everyone in Jefferson County. She is a fighter. She has hunted down sign thieves and relentlessly replaces destroyed Culp signs, working day and night with her husband and the crew of volunteers she has built. She also cares for a seriously ailing father, driving him to medical appointments and taking him hunting. She never says much about her own battle. While working overtime for Culp and her family, Middleton is living on 2/3 of a kidney and waiting for a transplant. How she finds the strength and energy to keep going astounds all around her.
Aside from the stunning proliferation of Culp signs, Middleton has engaged hundreds of people who, like her, have never “been political” about anything. They are the working poor and the old rural families forgotten and ignored by Port Townsend’s political elites. That is the mark of a real leader and an effective activist.
He is only starting out, just getting on his feet in the position, but honorable mention goes to Aronn Wilke, the head of the brand new Jefferson County Young Republicans. You read that correctly: young Republicans. Imagine that.
However this election turns out, it is encouraging to see a desperately needed diversity of voices speaking up and being heard in Jefferson County. Keep your eye on these people in 2021 and beyond.
by A Concerened Citizen of Port Townsend | Oct 30, 2020 | General
As voters, are we complicit to a crime if a candidate has become compromised beyond a shadow of a doubt, yet we continue to support his campaign in an effort to secure his ascension to higher office?
Pulitzer Prize winning author David Mamet states in his book, The Secret Knowledge, “In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments, modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.” This election season there could be plenty of reasons why the voters might appear to not know things. For instance, the over the top censorship demonstrated by Twitter, Google and Facebook over the last several weeks.
If this sounds like a conspiracy theory then perhaps a review of the events of October 27th might clarify the issue. During a Senate hearing on that day the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, perjured himself while testifying under oath. He stated that Twitter was now allowing users to access the astounding story in the New York Post outlining the Biden family’s successful efforts to extract millions of dollars from foreign governments in exchange for access to a Vice President who could become a future President.
More than a curious few immediately attempted to verify Mr. Dorsey’s claims, only to discover that Twitter continued to block the New York Post expose’. Is Mr. Dorsey pretending not to know things?
This example leads me to believe that social media platforms are allowing users to see and hear only what they want them to see and hear, and that would be Joe Biden’s statement from the final presidential debate. When asked by his opponent why he had received 3.5 million dollars in a wire transfer from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, Joe Biden replied “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source, ever in my life.”
After testimony early last week from Tony Bobulinsky, the man hired by the Biden family to manage Biden Inc.’s overseas business ventures, I think I can comprehend the truth in that statement.
Records revealed by Mr. Bobulinsky show the former vice president did not take a single penny from a foreign government; indeed his family received millions from several foreign governments, Ukraine, Russia, China, to name a few. His son was used as the bagman so Vice President Biden could maintain, “plausible deniability”, the favored phrase of political elites when explaining how they get away with so much.
Why should it matter what a politician does to earn a few extra bucks? After all the Vice President makes a measly $230,700 annually, has complimentary gold plated health care, unlimited use of government limousines, jets, and helicopters, free rent at the Vice-Presidential Mansion, free office space in the White House with only eighty staffers, round the clock Secret Service protection, a government pension upon retirement, and a bust of his likeness will be carved from marble and enshrined in the Senate wing of the Capitol Building. With such a paltry compensation package one would definitely need a second job to make ends meet.
Sarcasm aside, we are just a few days away from an election and this is what has become clear to me: China owns most of the factories that produce everything Americans need or want. China owns our debt. China owns Hollywood, and now, considering Joe Biden’s statement from the first debate, “I am the Democratic Party”, China owns the DNC.
So I ask again, should we search out the truth and cast our vote knowing all there is to know, or should we pretend not to know and risk becoming complicit in the election of a candidate compromised by Communist China?
by Jim Scarantino | Oct 29, 2020 | General
It looks like a scene from Seattle. A transient/homeless village of at least 35 tents, RVs and vehicles has taken over the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
“I’ve been here 12 years,” says Terry Berge, the Fairgrounds campground host. “I’ve never had a a year like this. It has been tough. Frustrating. Seventy percent of these people have mental health problems. Police are out here at least twice a week. Five times last week. Last night three officers were here until midnight.”
Those officers were dealing with a woman who had taken over the bathroom and refused to leave during a mental health episode.
What about drug use? Was he seeing it? “Constantly,” Berge says. “Three times the police had to use Naloxone” on people who had overdosed on heroin.
Was he seeing stolen property being brought to the camp? “Yes. There is an awful lot of stuff piling up here. We’ve had 50 to 100 bikes. There’s one in the dumpster now.”
When I visited the Fairgrounds this summer, tents were lined up against the fence by the apartments. Neighbors had been complaining about loud music, fighting, shouting at all hours, and open drug use. (“Lines Form in Battle for Fairgrounds’ Future“)
“We had complaints about buckets,” Berge said. “The smell and seeing it being done.” He was talking about people using buckets as toilets, defecating in the open. “We took four or five buckets from one tent. Neighbors could smell it.”
Only five paying visitors were staying overnight at the campground this day. “They feel like they are being taken advantage of,” Berge said. “One of the saddest things is the people who would come back here every year. They said this was a gem. They’d come from California and other places. Now they pull in and turn around, or stay only one night.”
The transient/homeless campers are not paying anything, not for the use of their spaces, for water, the bathrooms or trash removal. The dumpsters were completely full. So people would not use buckets, at its own expense the Fairgrounds brought in a portable toilet and pays for servicing.
“I found it smeared with feces,” Berge said. On this day it smelled pretty bad, even from a distance.
A homeless camper’s RV caught fire. The owner was told not to come back. The Fairgrounds had to spend $6,000 to clear away the wreck. That person has returned and cannot be evicted because of the Governor’s order prohibiting evictions during his declared pandemic emergency.
“The people that were paying at the beginning,” Berge said, “stopped when the Governor’s order came down.”
As I discovered this summer, quite a few of the transient/homeless campers have incomes, from Social Security, even retirement. But because of the Governor’s order, they have collectively decided not to pay anything.
In a little while heavy rains will come and the Fairgrounds will turn into a muddy mess. In anticipation, Berge is taping off large areas of the field to prevent vehicles from driving through what will become bogs. Living conditions are going to rapidly deteriorate for those in tents.
Berge looks weary of it all. Instead of being a campground host, he has become the community’s front line representative in dealing with a large, troubled, lawless homeless population. “There’s new people here all the time,” he says.
The pay box for the Fairgrounds has been robbed. He has to negotiate with factions of the homeless who are hostile towards each other. He has to do his best to keep the place from getting worse. He has seen not one elected city official and no County Commissioner since Greg Brotherton came out several months ago. The encampment is receiving no social services, though a Dove House employee does come by occasionally to talk to some of the residents.
County Commissioners have been getting public comments and many letters from neighbors reporting crimes, people passed out on their lawns, vandalism and discarded syringes. They have also been told of drug dealing going on in the camp.
Berge pointed to the empty, overgrown pastures and corrals. “We can’t have horses here,” he said. “It wouldn’t be safe for them.”
There is another homeless site in the trees behind these trailers.
Driving away, I felt sorry for Terry Berge. He did not sign on for this. And he’s getting no help except when the situation becomes so bad police must be called.
by A Concerened Citizen of Port Townsend | Oct 23, 2020 | General
After weeks of listening to the talking points from the mouths of our national leaders on the left, I sent this message to the Senators and Congressman representing Jefferson County, Washington at the federal level.
“Instead of congratulations for running a successful campaign that offers any viable alternative to the Trump Presidency, I am contacting you to register my shock and dismay with the leaders of the Democratic Party clearly signaling to the electorate that they will refuse to accept the results of the upcoming election if it is not in their favor. Joe Biden threatens the American population with continued rioting if the Republican candidate is re-elected, and through the Transition Integrity Project we learn that Democratic Leaders continue to war game for a coup to remove the president. This is not a Democratic Party I recognize or can support. Please tell me you will stand for the rule of law in the coming months. Please make an immediate public statement to your constituents that you support free and fair elections and will condemn any rioting that demands a duly elected candidate must go because a violent mob says he is illegitimate.”
I have heard nothing of any substance in return from Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, or Congressman Kilmer. I am not surprised. They are busy people.
I have struggled lately to explain to my kind, intelligent and thoughtful friends in Port Townsend why I am astounded at the general lack of interest in the recent revelations surrounding the most monumental criminal conspiracy in the history of American politics. I hear their dismay when they described how rude it was for a Presidential candidate to be interrupted in a debate, but no one seems to be able to grasp that for the last four years there has been an active and ongoing effort at the highest levels inside and outside of our Federal Government to overthrow a duly elected president. People I speak to admit to little more than just wanting to move on. I am left to think that a crime in progress, perpetrated on the American people by officials in their government, is too much for them to comprehend. They seem to think if we just pretend not to notice, all this trouble will go away, and will never happen again.
Some have described this action as a “Soft Coup”, but after researching the origins of this term I think Phil D’Agostino, writing for The American Thinker back in December of 2019, defines what we are experiencing in far better terms.
“As evidenced by the statements of many current players behinds the scenes who have been actively trying to fundamentally transform America, it would seem that in the 20th Century, it was determined by those committed to the transformation, that the people of the USA would never willfully throw away their freedoms and embrace some form of Marxian socialism. Therefore, in order to effect this change, there needed to be an internal use of the system itself to subvert it through legislation and regulations to become a de facto state of Marxian socialism without ever calling it such, nor voting for such.”
D’Agostino continues: “Ever since, there have been bureaucrats and presidents who have worked against the will of the majority in order to ‘overthrow’ the duly elected government and replace it with their own view of what the US government ‘should’ look like. It is a war, not a coup. They are relentless, indefatigable. They will never stop.“
He goes on to say we might think this is just about Trump, but it is not.
Any person, “Who embraces the ideals of small government, personal freedom of choice, personal property rights, and the ability to defend our ownership of what we’ve created or accumulated, will be the next target. A relative handful of people would superimpose their views as a minority onto the will of the majority because they believe themselves to be smarter, better, more correct.”
So, for my kind, intelligent, and thoughtful friends in Port Townsend this is what has been pre-eminent in my thoughts over the last few weeks. I ask that you consider the undeniable truth that is there for all of us to see if we wish to do so and ask yourself, Do you want to be ruled by people who are sure they are smarter, better, more correct and know what you need better than you do? Or do you prefer the original intent of what was given to us so many years ago, government of the people, by the people, for the people? The choice between the two has never been more stark.
by Jim Scarantino | Oct 23, 2020 | General
Who is this sign thief? She was photographed just after she stole a Trump sign. The location was Irondale Road at the bottom of a driveway, close to where 7th Street turns off. The sign had been standing along the road near the bottom of a drive for a single wide that is not currently occupied.
Port Townsend Free Press will pay $100 for information leading to her citation for the criminal offense of damaging/stealing political signs.
[Update: the thief has been apprehended and cited for eight incidents of stealing campaign signs. Good work, deputies. The woman who contacted the Sheriff’s Office has not claimed the reward. This thief wasn’t too smart. Not only did she pose for these photos, she recorded herself in the act and posted a TikTok video of her crimes.]
by Jim Scarantino | Oct 19, 2020 | General
Bayside Housing has not yet committed to taking on the failed Cherry Street Project.
“First, let me tell you this is not a done deal,” says Gary Keister. He is serving as the acting managing director of Bayside Housing. It has been without a permanent managing director since last year.
“We were being pressured into this by Homeward Bound,” Keister told Port Townsend Free Press.
Keister is the man behind the Old Alcohol Plant. His group of investors bought the building out of foreclosure in December 2014 and renovated a hotel that had been vacant since 2011. Beginning in 2016 the tower at the Port Hadlock property has been rented to Bayside Housing, a non-profit that provides transitional housing. The Old Alcohol Plant itself operates as a for-profit hotel and restaurant and bar business.
On Wednesday September 30, both the Port Townsend Leader and the Peninsula Daily News reported that Bayside Housing was going to take over the Cherry Street “affordable” housing project following the default by Homeward Bound Community Land Trust. Homeward Bound had been resurrected by the City of Port Townsend to take on turning a 70-year old four-unit apartment building barged from Victoria, B.C. in May 2017 into affordable rentals.
As readers of this site know, the Cherry Street Project has been a debacle from the start and keeps getting worse. When Homeward Bound could not find its own financing, the City shouldered a $1.3 million principal-and-interest bond obligation to lend the group the money to cover its cost estimate. Homeward Bound never got beyond putting the building on a foundation when it came back to the city saying it would need at least another $1 million. They did not get more money and defaulted on their loan in July 2020. They still hold title to the property, though the terms of their loan require that it revert to the city upon default.
The city and Homeward Bound prematurely announced that Bayside Housing would accept the project. Even on the fantastically generous terms offered by the city Bayside Housing does not appear to have the resources to take it on. At this preliminary stage, it has already faced financial setbacks.
It failed to secure a $700,000 bank loan. Its request for a separate $100,000 from the county was denied because an analysis of the project’s financial details showed it could not be a viable low income housing project. (See reporting by Patrick Sullivan at the Jefferson County Washington Facebook page).
And there’s this: Bayside Housing has never built or renovated anything. The group rents rooms from the Old Alcohol Plant and provides social services to its clients. It is not a building contractor. It does not own any real estate. According to its most recent IRS 990, it had only 4 employees, and that was before it lost is managing director.
The Port Townsend City Council on September 28 authorized the City Manager to negotiate a takeover of the project by Bayside Housing.
We asked Keister if Bayside Housing had the resources to see the project through and whether it was, in fact, going to assume responsibility for the Cherry Street Project.
In an email from Keister he told the Port Townsend Free Press,
First, as you know the council only voted to allow city management to negotiate a Purchase & Sales Agreement with Bayside. First, the City is not in a position to do that since ownership still rests in the name of Homeward Bound. The Bayside board is considering this matter at its next meeting. No decision has been made. I am not a board member nor an officer of Bayside. My role is to seek housing for the unsheltered. I have tendered my report to the board regarding Cherry Street, and brought to their attention the offer tendered to the city, as you related, for the purchase of the property by Keith Marzan. When and if Bayside makes a decision I will advise you.
The offer to which Keister refers was a $1 million offer from Keith and Jean Marzan to acquire the Cherry Street Project and build affordable housing, on the condition that the old building be removed and the land certified as asbestos free. Port Townsend Free Press had reported discovering in the city’s files an inspection conducted on the building before it was barged to Port Townsend. The inspection found asbestos in kitchen flooring. It also found lead paint on all the walls.
Port Townsend Free Press has also learned that asbestos was found in old pipes during excavation for the foundation.
The City Manager rejected the Marzans’ offer late last week. The Marzans may resubmit the offer with slightly different terms. They remain committed to building affordable housing and hope to work with the city to that end. Keith Marzan has a long career in banking and finance and has built nine homes in Port Townsend. Keith Marzan says he has already lined up an experienced and qualified project manager.
Bayside Housing does not apparently have on hand the more than $1 million estimated by Homeward Bound needed to complete work on the old building. An additional, unknown investment will also be required to compete civil engineering and landscaping outside the building, a sum which Homeward Bound said was not included the final project cost estimate.
In its most recent publicly available filing with the IRS, Bayside reported 2018 net assets of $670,000, after contributions and grants of just over $1 million. But of that sum, $802,000 reported as income was actually pledges and grants receivables. Because the 2019 IRS Form 990 is not yet publicly available, we cannot report whether those pledges were received and what Bayside’s balance sheet showed at the end of 2019.
In April 2020 Bayside disclosed it was facing financial pressures. At the same time that it rents rooms from the Old Alcohol Plant, it also depends on the Old Alcohol Plant and its restaurant for financial support. Because of the Governor’s lock down order, those commercial enterprises, like all Washington hotels, bars and restaurants, saw their revenue almost completely dry up. Jefferson County is only in Phase 2 of the Governor’s reopening scheme, which places severe restrictions on bar and restaurant operations. Washington’s hotel industry has shrunk by about 25% and across the nation nearly 50% of hotel rooms have been vacant.
Under the terms floated by the City to have Bayside assume responsibility for the project, city taxpayers will take a hit of about $2.33 million. This and other details uncovered in two years of investigative reporting can be found by starting with our last report, “Latest Cherry Street Giveaway Hits Taxpayers Harder.”
