Shows / Clallam County Watchdog
Episodes
Clallam County WatchdogAsk Mike French’s Supporters About the Issues, and They Change the Subject
Indivisible activist Martha Rudersdorf went behind the camera to ask why protesters support Mike French, and none named an issue. Meanwhile, French “liked” a…
Clallam County WatchdogSlashed Signs, Septic Rules, and a Bus That Already Failed
The Seegers/French race is coming down to the wire, and your ballot could decide it. Meanwhile, a vandal was caught on camera in Blyn, a Dignity Bus like the…
Clallam County WatchdogFrom $118,000 for Three Spaces to $260,000 for 20 Pods: OlyCAP’s Next Ask
OlyCAP wants Port Angeles to help fund a converted motor coach with 20 individual sleep pods. The request comes from the same leadership that oversees a Safe…
Clallam County WatchdogMike French’s Climate Plan Puts Race First in Clallam County
Sixty years after the civil rights movement, racial segregation and discrimination are poised to make a quiet comeback under the leadership of the Clallam…
Clallam County WatchdogCommunity Power in Action: Reopening Olympic Hot Springs Road
In this Sundays With Seegers, County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers shares powerful news: 659 of our neighbors signed the petition to reopen Olympic Hot…
Clallam County WatchdogMike French’s Emails Show Who Gets a Seat at the Table
Public-records emails from Commissioner Mike French reveal detailed, ongoing collaboration with arts advocates to advance a cultural-access sales tax…
Clallam County Watchdog$800K Shortfalls, $350K-Per-Unit Housing, Tribal-Only Cash, and a Bunny Break for County Leaders
Serenity House is covering nearly $800,000 in shortfalls while chasing roughly $12 million for a 36-unit low-barrier permanent supportive housing project in…
Clallam County WatchdogForks Didn’t Get the Welding Classes. Jamestown Got the Hydroseeder. French Still Calls It 900 Jobs.
Commissioner Mike French sold Clallam County voters a five-year plan to put 900 people into family-wage jobs. The number has already been cut to 603. The…
Clallam County WatchdogBerry and French’s Harm Reduction Leaves a Body Count on Highway 101
This summer, a Clallam County Sheriff’s deputy followed a frantic man into the dark along the south side of Highway 101 in the “Baker Dip” in east Port…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Health Officer Who Threatened a President
Board of Health Chair Mike French has hammered Jake Seegers over a two-year-old church metaphor. Meanwhile, the health officer French oversees once posted that…
Clallam County WatchdogHow to Destroy a Tank
Lincoln warned that a free people die by suicide, not by foreign armies. Shogren applies that to Clallam elections: a tabulation system she says an auditor…
Clallam County WatchdogCCWD Voters’ Guide
Ballots are in the mail today. After serving as a Charter Review Commissioner last year and closely following Clallam County politics for the past three years…
Clallam County WatchdogMike French’s Tax Playbook: Separate the Levies, Raise the Bill, Call It Flexibility
Reminder: Today, October 13, 10:30 a.m. — pack the room. The comprehensive plan public hearing is open for comment in person or virtually; if the next 20 years…
Clallam County WatchdogFuturewise Does Not “Share a Goal.” It Sues Until the Plan Is Theirs. (Part II)
(Read Part I first: “The Board Wrote Futurewise’s Lawsuit for Them.”) This is the second half of what happened at the Comp Plan hearing. The first half was…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Alley Behind the Shop: Why Clallam’s Small Businesses Are Choosing Jake Seegers
Intro by Jeff Tozzer Warning: This article contains graphic images of human waste. Every morning before the doors open at Van Dyke Hardwoods on First Street…
Clallam County WatchdogFollow the Money – Auditor Style
A county cashier once walked off with more than $600,000 because one person took the money, recorded it, and reconciled the drawer. Shogren argues the Auditor…
Clallam County WatchdogBelieve Your Eyes
You know Mike French is up for reelection when the paper tells you not to believe your eyes. This week’s potpourri is the gap between the official story and…
Clallam County WatchdogNobody Requested It. They Are Reading It Anyway.
This morning the commissioners will read an Indigenous Peoples’ Day proclamation that no one requested, and that last year no one showed up to receive. A…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench Told Rotary the Quiet Part: Harm Reduction Grew to Feed the Sequim MAT Clinic
At a Sequim Rotary forum, Commissioner Mike French said Clallam County expanded harm reduction after the Jamestown Healing Clinic opened, so the program could…
Clallam County WatchdogThey Are Being Bussed Here
In this Sundays With Seegers, commissioner candidate Jake Seegers addresses a rumor head-on. Everyone has heard the stories: people struggling with addiction…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Board Wrote Futurewise’s Lawsuit for Them
Jake Seegers told the Board of Commissioners that the Climate Element portion of the Comprehensive Plan is written for government, nonprofits, and activists —…
Clallam County WatchdogBoycotts, Ballots, Fees, and the Harm Capsule
This article and podcast were delayed due to a power outage. If you want a snapshot of Clallam County right now, skip the official talking points. Look at the…
Clallam County WatchdogFeelings, Convenings, and $9.8 Million
Olympic Community of Health spent a year and a fortune “connecting people so they could thrive,” then published an annual report with almost no jobs, no cost…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Debt That Never Clears
Port Angeles’ deputy mayor just told council that “respect and decorum” are artifacts of a white male heterosexual society. The commissioner whose campaign she…
Clallam County WatchdogFace to Face on a Divided Peninsula
This podcast-only episode of Sundays with Seegers is not a campaign commercial. It is an unfiltered conversation between Clallam County commissioner candidate…
Clallam County WatchdogJamestown Gets the Award and Hosts the Dinner. Alaska Has the Backstory.
This Saturday, the Jamestown Tribe will collect a healthcare award at its own resort. The same week, a new Substack author — the Grim Reporter — published the…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Skunk Brigade, the Grant Machine, and Another Week in Clallam County
Mike French’s camp has a talking skunk. A county-funded drop-in center has taken sides. A wildlife meeting is tonight, a Seegers rally is Saturday, and…
Clallam County WatchdogClallam County’s Two Camps: Recovery, or Managed Decline
This is no longer a debate about dignity. It is a debate about where Clallam County is taking people. One camp wants to keep expanding a two-decade…
Clallam County WatchdogShall, Not Should: MRC Letter Turns the Comp Plan Into a 20-Year Land-Use Weapon
The Marine Resources Committee just told Commissioner Mark Ozias how to write Clallam County’s next 20 years: replace “should” with “shall,” treat climate…
Clallam County WatchdogA Tale of Two Waterfront Towns
Last week in Excelsior, Minnesota, County Commissioner Candidate Jake Seegers found a waterfront town that looks a lot like Port Angeles—except the storefronts…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench’s “Easy Answer” Leaves Out the Invoice
At last month’s Calico Cat Club forum, resident Karen Parker asked what non-tribal taxpayers gain when public money subsidizes jobs and business growth for…
Clallam County WatchdogChurch Rules for Thee, Campaign Rules for Me
Mike French wants a public apology for a two-year-old church announcement. His supporters then book a private “election protection” workshop in a Sequim…
Clallam County WatchdogNine Years of Mike French: The Promises That Never Arrived
Mike French entered Port Angeles politics in 2017 talking jobs, roads, housing, and common sense. The voters’ pamphlets show how the pitch evolved—and how…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench’s ORCAA Vote: More Process, Higher Fees, and the Same Unfunded Mandate
ORCAA spent $345,000 last year on outdoor burning and recovered $27,400 in fines. Clallam County Commissioner Mike French voted to expand the agency’s tracking…
Clallam County WatchdogFrom Treehouse to Family Enterprise
In this podcast-only episode of Sundays With Seegers, County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers sits down with Hans Bailey — the former Sequim pastor who went…
Clallam County WatchdogTwo New Government Jobs. One Trainee.
Two years into a $35.6 million federal “jobs” program, the public scoreboard is 21 people who finished training and later reported work or higher pay. The…
Clallam County WatchdogDon’t Fear the Family Home. Fear the Record.
Lauren Churchill told PDN readers that “common sense” means fearing Jake Seegers and keeping Mike French. The record says otherwise: pool-board failure, $1.5…
Clallam County WatchdogWhen “Critical Areas” Swallow a Working City
Port Angeles Deputy Mayor Navarra Carr just spent a work session asking how much of the city isn’t a “critical area” — downtown fill, the mill, the port, the…
Clallam County WatchdogWhen Disrespect Is Policy, a Meme Becomes a Police Matter
Allison Berry wants deputies to referee her critics. Board of Health Chair Mike French sits beside her and laughs through the same public comments. The people…
Clallam County WatchdogCode Enforcement’s New Appetite
In this Sundays With Seegers, County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers shows how Clallam County’s Code Enforcement manager told the Planning Commission she…
Clallam County WatchdogRecompete Was Sold as Jobs. The Fine Print Is About Who Gets the Money.
The pitch was simple: Put Peninsula people back to work. The federal slides, the local plan, and the woman hired to run the program say something else. Race…
Clallam County WatchdogTents First, Taxpayers Last: Who Are the Sidewalks For?
Port Angeles starts expensive ADA work on Peabody Street tomorrow while tents and debris already occupy the right-of-way. The same week, a lone island resident…
Clallam County WatchdogOMC Already Got the Big Tax Increase. Now It Wants the Next One.
In 2024, Clallam County commissioners formally urged voters to pass Olympic Medical Center’s levy lid lift. Voters did. Property-tax collections for Hospital…
Clallam County WatchdogA Level III Child Predator in Sequim, Needles in Bell Creek, and a Commissioner Who Tells Business Owners to Join a List
A Georgia child molester classified as Level III — the highest risk to reoffend — settled in Sequim. A registered sex offender from the Spokane area preyed on…
Clallam County WatchdogThe Fair, the Hat, and a County Afraid to Talk
Clallam County does not lack opinions. It lacks people willing to put a name behind them. After the fair, a packed forum, and another Board of Health meeting…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench’s Jobs Program Buys Jamestown a Hydroseeder
Reminder: Candidate Conversation Tonight Mike French is running on Recompete, the $35.6 million federal grant he chairs. Year one produced about 31 placements…
Clallam County WatchdogClallam County’s Homelessness Industrial Complex on Full Display
While Peninsula Behavioral Health rakes in nearly $20 million a year and its CEO banks more than the Vice President, addicts openly use street drugs steps from…
Clallam County WatchdogFrom Campaign Promise to Code: French’s Wildfire Plan Hits Private Property
Commissioner Mike French is touting the new Community Wildfire Protection Plan as collaborative “resilience” while campaigning. Now those voluntary…
Clallam County WatchdogDear Democrats (Part I)
At the Clallam County Fair, the Democratic booth offered pins linked to a blog that has published false, intimate fabrications about my same-sex marriage. My…
Clallam County WatchdogDrugs for Sex
WARNING: This article discusses sexual exploitation, drug use, and crimes against a child. This content is not suitable for children. In this Sundays With…
Clallam County WatchdogClallam Unfiltered
From a candidate debate in Sekiu tonight to Portland shutting down its last major RV safe-parking site, a revolving-door sex offender in Port Angeles, debunked…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench Wants Higher Property Taxes — and a Registry That Opens the Door to Costly STR Regulation
Short-term rentals help many Clallam County families cover rising property taxes and costs. Commissioner Mike French backed last year’s failed…
Clallam County WatchdogPort Angeles Crime Is Down—Or Is It Just That People Stopped Calling?
Police just put out numbers showing serious crime dropped 16 percent last year. A Facebook post reported seven rapes happened in one July week, and the…
Clallam County WatchdogWhen City Council Rules Bend for Politics: Carr, French, and the Attack on Jake Seegers
At a Port Angeles City Council meeting, a supporter of Commissioner Mike French was allowed to spend his full three minutes off-agenda attacking Jake Seegers…
Clallam County WatchdogCounty Comp Plan Opens Door to Shoreline Retreat
The County’s long-awaited Comprehensive Plan draft is out, and it singles out Three Crabs and similar shorelines as high-risk zones for sea-level rise…
Clallam County WatchdogSafe Parking Funds, Fugitives, Trust Lands, and the Drug Crisis
Tax dollars flow to programs that struggle, a wanted man with a long record slips away (then gets caught), more land leaves the tax rolls, and the same old…
Clallam County WatchdogPBH CEO Wendy Sisk Claims “Misinformation” About North View—While Her Own Words and Documents Say Otherwise
A week after the ribbon-cutting at North View—the 36-unit luxury permanent supportive housing complex in Port Angeles featuring quartz counters, dishwashers…
Clallam County WatchdogFrench’s Campaign Claims Collapse Under Scrutiny
Commissioner Mike French’s reelection Facebook page lights up with polished claims of bipartisan goodwill and moral high ground—connecting his opponent to key…
Clallam County WatchdogCommon Sense, Open Drug Use, and the Fight for Real Freedom in Clallam County
In this powerful episode of Sundays With Seegers, Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers sits down for an unfiltered conversation that cuts through…
Clallam County WatchdogWhen Timber Stops, Property Taxes Rise
A 60% collapse in timber revenue isn’t just a forestry story. It’s a county budget story. It’s a property tax story. And it’s a story about who pays when…