Clallam County Watchdog

Short-term rentals help many Clallam County families cover rising property taxes and costs. Commissioner Mike French backed last year’s failed multi-million-dollar levy lid lift and continues pushing higher tax limits, while his own housing policy paper advocates caps on STRs. The new Comprehensive Plan language creating a countywide registry and life-safety inspections aligns directly with his ag...

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 comments exploded. CC Watchdog pulled the reports. Here’s what they show. The Numbers the City Wants You to See In the Peninsula Daily News , Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith recently highlighted encouraging figures from the Washington Associa...

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 and warning of “hate squads.” Deputy Mayor Navarra Carr—French’s campaign manager—ran the meeting and did not interrupt. The episode reveals deeper ties between Carr and French, years of progressive activism, and a pattern that raises serious...

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. Official language now supports restrictions on armoring and recommends managed retreat. Residents who want to protect their homes have a narrow window to speak up before the County Commissioners make it policy. The Comp Plan is finally here, and re...

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 addiction crisis keeps costing lives and money while supply finds every opening. Wednesday’s Watchdog “Potpourri” returns with these Clallam County stories. Safe Parking Program Graduates Four—But Still Needs More Money Sequim’s Trinity United...

A week after the ribbon-cutting at North View —the 36-unit luxury permanent supportive housing complex in Port Angeles featuring quartz counters, dishwashers, and harbor views—Peninsula Behavioral Health CEO Wendy Sisk appeared on “Coffee With Colleen” to push back against critics. She dismissed concerns about prioritizing criminals and drug addicts as “misinformation,” insisted the program requir...

Commissioner Mike French’s reelection Facebook page lights up with polished claims of bipartisan goodwill and moral high ground—connecting his opponent to key groups “no matter who wins” and publicly denouncing smear blogs. A polite email from CC Watchdog seeking simple clarification exposes the gaps. The replies and the record reveal selective memory, private forums recast as public stands, and s...

In this powerful episode of Sundays With Seegers , Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers sits down for an unfiltered conversation that cuts through campaign noise and gets to the heart of what’s happening on the streets of Port Angeles. Seegers reflects on the primary , the humbling support of ordinary residents who want “common sense” solutions, and the personal toll of balancing fam...

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 legally approved timber sales are delayed or stopped. As environmental litigation and activist campaigns continue targeting public timber sales, county officials acknowledge that financial consequences are already showing up in the budget. The qu...

Stickers of Jake Seegers with neck wounds have appeared across Port Angeles deliberately echoing Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Blood-smeared signs and open threats followed, while Mike French and the League of Women Voters stay silent. A local commissioner race has turned toxic — but one candidate is refusing to sink to that level. Election Update: Jake Seegers holds an early lead over incumbent M...

What happens when the people who control county contracts and set public policy also sit atop a community foundation that decides which nonprofits get grant money—including groups that regularly appear before the Board of Commissioners seeking public funds? In Clallam County, that is not a hypothetical. It is the structure of the Olympic View Community Foundation. A community foundation is suppose...

Clallam County Health and Human Services showcased soft “success stories” at its July Board of Health meeting while expanding its campaign against misinformation. When Jake Seegers presented coroner data, near-zero treatment conversion rates, and a history of shifting overdose counts, Health Officer Allison Berry defended the department’s numbers, and Commissioner Mike French immediately shut down...

Americans are free to move wherever they choose—but local policies decide which communities become magnets. Clallam County’s expanding services, open camping tolerance, and taxpayer-funded projects like North View’s 36 units risk drawing homelessness and addiction from far beyond our borders while working families are priced out. County Commissioner Candidate Jake Seegers asks: What kind of commun...

Commissioner Mike French condemned “dehumanizing” rhetoric in his first comments on Jake Seegers and called for civility—yet his campaign ecosystem has tolerated vicious personal attacks, family smears, and grotesque fabrications from aligned anonymous outlets. French champions church-state separation in words, but not always in county spending that benefits connected institutions. Voters now face...

Registered sex offenders with histories of child rape and molestation are being arrested for new crimes — including burglary and theft — only to be released back onto our streets within hours. Small businesses face smashed windows and lost revenue while residents wonder who is truly being protected. In Clallam County, the revolving door of justice isn’t just frustrating — it’s endangering families...

Sequim City Council is reviewing a request from the Jamestown Corporation to use taxpayer money to bus local elementary students to its Dungeness River Nature Center festival. The tribe, reporting over $100 million in annual revenue, wants the city to cover buses, ads, food, and staff time for its environmental event. Critics question why a profitable tribal corporation needs public dollars to sha...

Today, Clallam County residents can tour North View — the new “luxury” apartments for the homeless that serve as incumbent Commissioner Mike French’s flagship project. At over $350,000 per unit, this is anything but affordable for the taxpayers funding it. Marketed as the housing crisis solution, it creates dependency instead of scalability. This is your chance to see the harbor-view terraces and...

After a 4th of July gathering, a Port Angeles woman forgot to reactivate her outdoor camera motion sensors. Hours later, a man climbed her fire escape and tried to enter her condo while she slept inside. The intruder? A known offender who would be identified within hours by county commissioner candidate Jake Seegers. What is incumbent Commissioner Mike French’s suggestion for the resident’s safety...

Indivisible invited Jake Seegers to complete their questionnaire and explicitly promised to publish his responses to help voters decide. Seegers submitted thoughtful answers before the deadline and received confirmation that they were received. Instead, the group published glowing coverage and answers for Mike French while attacking Seegers — and never posted his responses. By breaking their own c...

In a front-row seat at Olympic Theatre Arts’ 2026 Lavender Melodrama, I watched a thinly veiled caricature of myself — dressed as a floppy-eared dog — devour a bag of human excrement, sob about his lineage, and conspire with “Pioneer Pete,” a stand-in for old Sequim families who dare resist change. What began as local satire revealed itself as a deliberate character assassination, complete with di...

Washington spends more per student than the national average, yet many students continue to struggle in reading, writing, and math. At the same time, the state has spent more than a decade expanding mandatory tribal sovereignty curriculum and encouraging schools to integrate activist-oriented civic lessons. Should schools spend more time on academic fundamentals before asking students to become ac...

Fresh light is shining on the local Socialist chapter’s election-related activities in Clallam County. The DSA is set to host a voter registration and ballot-printing event this Saturday, July 25, during the Tree Park Collective’s harm reduction outreach. The developments are raising new concerns about potential influence on low-information voters — particularly since Commissioner French also sits...

In this special edition of Sundays with Seegers , Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers flips the script — instead of interviewing a guest, he sits down for an in-depth, no-holds-barred interview conducted by Will (“syspig”), moderator of the Port Angeles subreddit. For months, rumors and critiques about Seegers have circulated on Reddit. After Seegers publicly offered to address conc...

While Clallam and Jefferson counties desperately need more mental health services, Jamestown Salish Seasons’ grand opening next month and patient admissions starting in September come with a major caveat: This tribally operated facility is positioned to generate substantial revenue from taxpayers through special billing advantages that let it charge and collect far more per patient encounter than...

A vandalized roadside sign, a former state representative’s truck struck by gunfire, and public comments minimizing property destruction all point to the same unsettling trend: in Clallam County, political disagreement is increasingly crossing the line into damaged property, intimidation, and shrinking tolerance for opposing views. A sign on Highway 101 — and what it represented Members of the loc...