Clallam County Watchdog

The library says it’s broke—but the receipts tell a different story. While warning of cuts and asking voters for millions more, NOLS has already spent over $50,000 on DEI consultants, curated “community conversations,” and ideological programming that raises a bigger question: are taxpayers funding services—or a transformation? The North Olympic Library System wants voters to believe it’s facing a...

A letter supporting the transfer of federal refuge land wasn’t drafted by Sequim officials—it was handed to them. Emails show the Mayor moved quickly to put it on the agenda, unchanged, until public pushback forced a pause. At Monday night’s Sequim City Council meeting, Mayor Rachel Anderson said she placed a proposed letter of support on the consent agenda because she “didn’t think that any counc...

They filmed themselves committing the act. They admitted it. The damage was real. And yet—no charges. A new memo reveals why prosecutors walked away, raising deeper questions about accountability, politics, and a growing double standard in Clallam County. It’s hard to imagine a more straightforward case. A group of self-described activists—calling themselves the “Troublemakers”—walked onto Departm...

What happens when public lands quietly change hands, water policy tells two completely different stories, and the people footing the bill are the last to know? This potpourri connects the dots—from a petition over the Dungeness Refuge, to a commissioner admitting key stakeholders were left in the dark, to growing questions about who gets heard and who gets left out. Add in contradictions on water...

County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers takes a hard look at the North Olympic Library System’s proposed $3 million tax increase and asks a question many residents are quietly starting to raise: Why is a shrinking user base costing more than ever, while core public safety remains stretched thin? With staffing up, usage down, and services expanding far beyond traditional library functions, April...

Land acknowledgements are showing up across Clallam County—from schools to nonprofits and now to county advisory boards. Supporters say they’re about respect. Critics call them empty gestures. But as the practice takes hold locally, a more practical question is surfacing: what do these statements actually do, and are they bringing people together—or quietly dividing them? If you’ve been to a publi...

Another week in Clallam County, and once again the public is being asked to accept a series of explanations that don’t quite line up with reality. Activism shows up in schools while academic performance lags behind. Funding labeled one way turns out to benefit something else entirely. Repeat offenders cycle through the system while officials talk about “solutions.” And across it all, the same ques...

Property owners across Clallam County are opening property tax statements with disbelief. Double-digit increases are hitting households already struggling in one of Washington’s most economically fragile regions. At the same time, millions of taxpayer dollars are flowing into projects owned or operated by sovereign tribal governments—entities that do not pay the same taxes local residents do. As O...

Port Angeles residents may soon be asked to swallow a new public-safety sales tax approved by council instead of voters. A federal “once-in-a-generation” jobs grant is starting to look a lot more like a social-services slush fund. A familiar name from last week’s Agnew standoff comes with a long criminal trail, the county’s harm-reduction contradictions keep getting harder to defend, and even prot...

This isn’t Sundays With Seegers. It’s a Sunday about Seegers. Just over a week ago, Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers tried to publish an opinion in the Peninsula Daily News —not as a candidate, but as a Port Angeles resident concerned about his community. He sent it from his personal email, offered solutions, and asked a question many residents are asking about the county’s harm-...

A public comment before the Clallam County Commissioners included an unexpected moment: a self-described communist praising Commissioner Mark Ozias for attending a protest in Sequim. The speaker was longtime activist Tim Wheeler. His political lineage, activism, and connections to several local groups raise a broader question for residents: how much influence do openly ideological activists have i...

This week offered a reminder that engaged citizens can still change outcomes in Clallam County. After public pushback, commissioners backed away from renaming the courthouse. But other concerns remain: homelessness spreading into public spaces, activist fear campaigns shaping policy, and public meetings tied to behavioral-health bureaucracy held on sovereign land. The lesson is simple — when citiz...

In Clallam County, traditions that arrived only recently are increasingly treated as sacred heritage, while many places, symbols, and experiences that defined this community for generations are vanishing. Heritage can be created, adopted, celebrated, and even marketed—but it can also be erased. The question worth asking is simple: when everything becomes heritage, whose heritage survives? “The tot...

From a proposal to rename the Clallam County Courthouse after a state Supreme Court justice, to questions about taxpayer-funded nonprofits sponsoring festivals, to citizens discovering they were accidentally cut out of a major county planning process, this week’s roundup highlights the many ways local decisions—large and small—affect everyday residents. In the podcast: Public comment highlights fr...

In this powerful podcast conversation, Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers sits down with Stacey Richards, a local woman who has been sober for more than 25 years. For Richards, September 11, 2001 is more than a historic date—it marks her personal “ground zero,” the first day of a life that would ultimately be rebuilt after addiction nearly destroyed it. The day before that turning...

On the morning of February 24, Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry sent CC Watchdog a message accusing the publication of spreading misinformation about the county’s harm-reduction policies. Less than two hours later, a series of public commenters appeared at the county commissioners meeting praising Berry and urging stronger support for harm-reduction programs. Several of those speake...

Across Clallam County, troubling stories are unfolding in plain sight — a prowler frightening families in Carlsborg, harm reduction policies kept “under the radar,” duplicate ballots in a public election, drug deals outside the courthouse, and bureaucratic blunders wasting taxpayer money. Yet residents searching local media outlets for answers often find… nothing. Instead, the reporting is happeni...

Washington enacted the largest tax increase in state history last year, and lawmakers now signal interest in even broader revenue tools. Supporters say the money is needed for education, behavioral health, housing, and public safety. But newly released state materials show millions in climate-related grants flowing to Clallam County’s second largest employer — prompting a straightforward question:...

In this potpourri: a commissioner declines to engage with a tax-paying constituent because she reads CC Watchdog, dogs become collateral damage in the county’s harm-reduction experiment, tents pop up in the Health Department parking lot, businesses quietly leave town, a transportation bill could reshape Highway 101 through Blyn, nonprofits tout “Platinum Transparency” badges, and volunteers in Sea...

In this week’s Sundays with Seegers , County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers questions why county leaders appear poised to expand public messaging around harm reduction instead of reexamining outcomes. With talk of a Public Information Officer and efforts to counter “misinformation,” he asks whether taxpayer dollars are going toward optics rather than reform. Seegers highlights disputed syring...

A quiet application filed with the Department of Natural Resources could permanently change who governs a large swath of land overlooking Sequim Bay. The proposal states there is “no known opposition,” yet many local residents are only now learning it exists. Framed as conservation and cultural restoration, the transfer also references commercial shellfish revenue and long-term land consolidation...

At Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, a coordinated show of support for harm reduction policies collided with growing public frustration over crime, environmental damage, and declining quality of life. As county officials defend ideology and donors benefit from policy shifts, taxpayers, parents, and volunteers are left asking who this system is really serving — and who is being ignored. “Th...

Peninsula Behavioral Health receives millions in taxpayer dollars. The county commissioners control the purse strings. Yet when residents ask basic questions — about outcomes, sobriety standards, or eviction policies — the answers dissolve into abstractions, deflections, or silence. This isn’t just about one email exchange. It’s about a structural problem in Clallam County: publicly funded NGOs op...

This week’s potpourri is not light reading. From 40,000 pounds of trash in a single quarter to expanded gambling, sparse services, courthouse politics, and a water-rights warning from across Puget Sound — the throughline is hard to ignore: systems that are growing less transparent, less accountable, and more disconnected from the people footing the bill. Here are ten stories you won’t hear framed...

In this week’s Sundays With Seegers , county commissioner candidate Jake Seegers responds to claims that volunteer syringe cleanups amount to “theft” and offers a documented tour of encampments along Tumwater Creek. Contrasting government discussions with on-the-ground conditions, he questions whether current harm-reduction policies are delivering measurable results and calls for stronger accounta...