Jim McEntire interviews Brian Pruiett for the Port Townsend Free Press. Pruiett is a candidate to represent the 24th Legislative District in the Washington State House of Representatives, a position held by long-time incumbent Steve Tharinger. McEntire is well-known around the Peninsula, having served as a Clallam County Commissioner and a Port of Port Angeles Commissioner. McEntire’s questions are followed by Pruiett’s answers.
What lessons learned can we gather from our most recent crises?
SARS-CoV2 is a serious virus. We are all grateful that the transmission rate can be managed. However SARS-CoV2 and it’s threat of COVID19 disease symptomology caused two far more serious actions on our Peninsula. The catastrophic chain reaction of consequences in the governor’s edict to allow larger businesses to remain open while demanding the closure of all our small businesses now is set firmly as a legendary failure in decision-making, based more on hypocrisy than justifiable pandemic management.
SARS-CoV2 , a reverse-transcriptase, polymerase chain reaction, is a killer. When the disease arrived here in January and outbreaks detected in early February, the governor could have enacted the state Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan approved in 2013.
The Pandemic response appendix in that plan is 90 pages long. Page 16 shows the state responsibility for stockpiling testing supplies, such as swabs, and equipment, such as ventilators and PPE and other medical needs. Do you recall the governor’s rants about how the Feds weren’t giving him all these supplies? It was practically a daily occurrence.
The focus of our legislature has been to drastically take more and more money out of our state’s businesses every year by taxation. In December of 2019, mass media was already talking about increasing taxes by another $12,000,000,000. Our two state representatives dutifully approved the taxes and 400 new laws including the act which sexualizes young children, dismantles the family structure needed to provide stability for children, and mandates gender confusion as a false new normal in mandatory school curriculum.
Our two legislators also passed laws which violate our state constitution related to the Second Amendment.
As the seventh year in the timeline passed since the requirement to stockpile pandemic supplies remained unfunded by our Democrat-controlled legislature, conservative members submitted numerous amendments to halt overcommitment of spending. No support was given to requests for structuring a deeper cash reserve by our two House representatives. No urgency was allocated to begin stockpiling Pandemic supplies either until it was far too late, continuing the pattern of the past 7 years.
Our two house legislators instead voted in much more new spending. Their news letter to Peninsula public members in May states ‘Three months ago we hadn’t heard of the coronavirus.’ In the investigations I covered as an Inspector General, that is called willful ignorance unless damages or death occur, in which case attorneys then make a determination of suitability for prosecution.
We are in a global economy. Who doesn’t understand that? We compete for resources worldwide.
Now we face an eight billion dollar crisis but…. the next shoe to drop is our legislator-backed governor’s proposal to repeat the shutdown of our small businesses. Again we’re facing the biased and hypocritical closure of our Peninsula small businesses. The east side major corporations and corporate-owned big box stores stay open and get all the consumer spending. I intend to stop this inequality with legislation.
We have crises, plural: societal, economic, and pandemic. The governor’s mismanagement and wrongful legislator actions are coming to an end. The public has had enough. Every community I visit has an overwhelming focus on replacing the incumbents.
The key words we should be taking away are environment and location. The science shows our Peninsula climate and lifestyle have extremely low viral transmission rates, attested to by the packed private campgrounds and streams of mainland visitors who flocked here beginning the first weekend in March. Tens of thousands of big-box store visits have so far yielded a total absence of transmission.
The social crisis of mob takeover of Seattle, looting by a gang of a hundred members in Bellevue, burning of cars and businesses with accumulations of human waste mixed with used drug gear on their main streets, are all unwelcome on our Peninsula.
Good-hearted people here are ready for change. I have the human resource background, the military education for successful management, as well as a solid environmental career in my resume. I know I am uniquely suited to restore our peninsula, revitalize our businesses and families, and am focused on resolving the looming education crisis which is almost upon us. Repairing our education system will take more than a few months.
Already former House Majority Leader Frank Chop is pushing the concept of $2,000,000,000 in taxes but that simply means more unpayable debt. Rebudgeting is the only escape route. Capital Construction spending must be slashed immediately, otherwise many more state employees will go unpaid or lose jobs entirely. I will achieve this during the next session. Our small businesses deserve a tax holiday to match as many days as they have been forced to be closed. Their recovery is essential.
Blanket statewide orders meant to address a problem occurring in King County are mandated while our Democrat controlled legislature refuses to meet. Even in times of emergency, our legislators need to be active in providing much needed checks and balances so that we do not devolve into single person rule. A special session to repeal the new $12,000,000,000 in taxes is required.
What in your personal experience makes you ready to play your appropriate role as a legislator in crisis?
My 34 years of military service coupled with my experience in the career Federal Service makes me very aware of the importance of leadership and teamwork. Leadership without teamwork is an autocracy that is destined to fail. Teamwork without leadership is a mob. I am ready to harness those tools in my background for the well-being of the voters of the 24th Legislative District. My extensive career in the Federal Government has covered Human Resources, Equal Employment, as well as complex environmental issues. I am well versed in the complexities which a legislator in the 21st century must deal with. My experience dealing with international law, federal and state laws, is well documented.
Where do you stand on the Second Amendment?
In respect to the totally unrestrained mob violence across several counties, the criminally violent element in major cities scoffing at gun laws, and the 13 murders in Clallam County in the past two years, I propose a Safe Castle law and would consider a Stand your Ground law appropriate to our society. Restoration of our state laws to be brought into full alignment with our constitution. America is under assault by radical anarchist forces. Well organized, well trained, and well-funded, these destructive cadres have made it clear that no neighborhood is safe. Our police are overwhelmed and frankly over-constrained. Often it is only armed neighbors standing together between bomb-throwing mobs and total mayhem. We are often outnumbered. Lawful access to firearms to defend our homes, our families and ourselves is clearly a right.
What are your legislative priorities?
The budget is my most immediate concern. There should be a special session going on now to address the upcoming, very real shortfall. Raising taxes will precipitate an even worse fiscal crisis. To protect future budgets, we should be rolling back taxes today. We no longer have a choice between austerity and flush budgets. Austerity has been thrust upon us by our current two legislators. It is the legacy they gave us..
I believe we also need to address the legislature’s role in emergency powers declaration in the light of recent events. Throughout our district people tell me their voice hasn’t been heard in Olympia. I will work to change the law so that within two weeks of an emergency powers declaration, the governor must call for a special session of the legislature. The legislature must consider itself “in session” throughout the duration of the emergency declaration. The majority of our Peninsula people are demanding Inslee never be re-elected and promote their candidates in strident voices.
What other issues would you like to address?
We need to take a look at our priorities in light of environmental protection of the Salish Sea. The State Department of Ecology is pretty good at clamping down on commercial polluters but metropolitan governments are now the biggest source of toxicants killing our marine life and endangering salmon along with others. Environmental enforcement needs to focus on major metropolitan pollution restrictions.
Where do you stand on the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) clinic proposed for Sequim.
I deeply resent how our two legislators sourced and implemented this project. A friendly, peaceful community of diverse peoples and interests is now increasingly divided at the pending increase in criminal trafficking and crime they understand to be associated with giving outpatients drugs such as methadone to carry home with them. We all want to reduce the slavery of addiction, but county law enforcement busts are frequently finding the treatments handed out are being trafficked. More addicts are winding up in our jails with addictions such as heroin. I don’t know where communities will find the funds to deal with increased law enforcement, confinement, and judicial requirements. But if the legislature is going to give us A MAT clinic, it needs to give us the resources to deal with its aftermath.
Where do you stand on the recently enacted Sexual Education bill?
This sex ed bill SB 5385 reflects the worst outcomes of single party rule. Passed in the middle of the night after rejecting literally hundreds of thoughtful amendments, the bill is a sociopolitical triumph, that demolishes the authority of local school boards, and by implication, parents over their schools’ sexual education curriculum. Effective locally approved sex ed programs will forcibly be replaced with a government mandated, ideologically driven program of propaganda that sexualizes our children down to the kindergarten level. I was proud to help gather signatures in support of Referendum 90 which seeks to overturn SB 5385. Due to many hard-working volunteers, R-90 will be on the ballot in November. Regardless of the outcome of the vote on R-90, if elected, I will join the numerous co-sponsors opposed to this act, to overturn it.
Do you have any final thoughts?
Taxes. My opponent is very good at raising them and creating innovative new ones. I am focused on reducing them. I will never vote for an income tax in any shape or form. I absolutely oppose Carbon taxes.
Education. I am Pro-Choice for schools, giving parents more options for educating their kids, not less. I want a full fledged trade certification option for high schools students in lieu of the current standard college bound curriculum. Our youth should be able to decide to walk out of high school right into a good-paying apprentice position, fully qualified at that level without requiring another two years to do so. College is a wonderful choice for those who really want it and can pay for it, but I hear we are still having 20 percent of our kids failing to graduate statewide.
Life. All life is precious and all lives matter to our God and Maker. I am proudly Pro-Life at both ends of life’s progression. I will act to protect life in the womb and in advancing years by resisting all calls for health care rationing.
The other day in Port Townsend as the Black Lives Matter march passed through Uptown. I saw many people I know, good people, thoughtful people, marching with this group. I wondered to myself why these people would show their support for an organization whose name leads us to believe that lives matter, but then openly uses violence and intimidation that often destroys the communities they say they support.
It’s in the name really. No decent person could oppose the concept that Black Lives Matter. I can’t. But there is that pesky voice in my head. What is really going on here? What does Black Lives Matter really want? Who is behind this organization?
The story is complex and convoluted to say the least. I cannot do it justice here. Yet understanding the origins of an organization can lead to clearer view of what the heck is going on. I leave it up to the reader to make their own conclusions.
From the Black Lives Matter website:
Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the U.S., U.K. and Canada whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted in Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors founded Black Lives Matters with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013.
In 2015, while being interviewed on Real News Networks, Ms. Khan-Cullors stated, “We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.”
Here is a brief definition of Marxism from dictionary.com: “The state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by the dominant class and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after a period of dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and classless society.”
According to Brietbart News, Cullors is also the protégé of Eric Mann, an accomplished California based community organizer specializing in Black militant groups, and a former agitator for the Weather Underground domestic terror organization who spent 18 months in prison for an attack on a police headquarters in New York State in November of 1969.
In North America, Black Lives Matters is physically represented by fifteen chapters in the U.S. and two in Canada. Black Lives Matter does not have a central office or 501(c)(3) designation, but is incorporated. They describe their organization as a decentralized network of activists with no formal hierarchy. Black Lives Matter explains their situation is not unusual for an organization that is applying for non-profit status, but has yet to receive that designation.
I have not been able to confirm if they are actually applying for non-profit status. I have not been able to determine why an organization founded in 2013 has yet to receive non-profit status.
Black Lives Matters currently “borrows” the non-profit status of another organization whose name is Thousand Currents. It seems this is allowed under IRS regulations. Thousand Currents is self-described as providing grants to organizations led by women, youth and indigenous people.
If you donate to Black Lives Matters, the money is initially processed through another non-profit named Act Blue. Act Blue is self described as “an online fundraising platform available to democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations and non-profits that share our values for no cost other than a 3.95% processing fee on donations.”
Once collected, Act Blue transfers the donations, minus their fee, to Thousand Currents. Thousand Currents, according to IRS rules, designates where the Black Lives Matters funds are directed.
When I visited The Thousand Currents website recently, I could find very little information on the organization. Yet thanks to an article written for the Daily Caller by Andrew Kerr on June 25, 2020 we have recently learned that the Vice-chair of Thousand Currents, one of the main people in charge of distributing Black Lives Matters funds, is convicted terrorist Susan Rosenberg.
“Rosenberg’s involvement with the May 19th Communist Organization, which carried out its bombing campaign to create a contrast to former President Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign promise, earned her a spot on the FBI’s most wanted list, according to The Washington Examiner. She was arrested in New Jersey in 1984 while unloading 740 pounds of stolen explosives and a sub-machine gun from a truck.
Rosenberg was released from prison in 2001 after having her sentence commuted by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office. She served 16 years of a 58-year prison sentence.
U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White lobbied aggressively against Rosenberg’s commutation at the time noting that she had allegedly been one of the getaway drivers in the 1981 Brink’s robbery, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one security guard.”
Let me be clear. I am not judging. I am not story-telling. I am repeating facts revealed through research I did for myself to better understand what the Black Lives Matter Movement is all about. I share this with the hope that the good people, the thoughtful people I know here in Port Townsend might gain a better understanding of what it might mean to be involved with Black Lives Matter.
I leave you with a couple of quotes from an article titled, The Complex Funding and Ideology of Black Lives Matter, written by John Howard for Brietbart News, June 2020.
“Many people think, “Black Lives Matter” is a slogan, an ideal, or a grassroots movement, not a political organization with eight figures of funding and a hardcore left wing agenda….Many of BLM’s donors are signing on to a new social contract with a great deal of fine print they should read more carefully.”
[Editor’s Note: The author of this article, fearing retaliation for raising questions about Black Lives Matter, requested that it be published as authored by A Concerned Citizen of Port Townsend.]
A young Black man could be dead if not for Port Townsend police. The story has received no coverage by local newspapers. Nothing from Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County. None of the high school kids who blocked traffic while shouting “Black lives matter!” have joyfully shared on social media the saving of a Black life, someone they may even know.
It could have gone the other way. But it didn’t, because police cared.
Because police also took risks and used force, the story could have gone the route of CNN/MSNBC/BLM falsehoods and propaganda about police racism and brutality. It could have stirred up anger if someone had caught video of a fractional moment of the story instead of knowing all the facts.
Here’s what could have been the CNN/MSNBC/BLM agitation-propaganda for the June 6, 2020 incident on the south side of Port Townsend::
“After racially profiling him, Port Townsend police chased, surrounded and attacked an unarmed young Black man who had committed no crime. 911 reports told police of suspicious activity by a young Black man wearing a hoodie and running through White neighborhoods. Video of the incident captured by onlookers showed several very large police officers pulling the man’s arms roughly behind his back as he struggled for freedom and pleaded to be released. More officers joined the fray until the young Black man was overcome and placed into handcuffs. After being attacked by so many police, the young man was seen going limp but being held up by an officer who continued to twist his arms behind his back. One of the officers in the pursuit and attack admits to turning off his body cam.”
Here’s What Actually Happened:
I obtained the following facts by submitting a public records request for all documents relating to the incident. The name of the young man was redacted from the records. Though I know it, I won’t print it here to protect his privacy and that of his family. I will refer to him as AB:
On June 6, 2020, at 5:34:59 p.m., the 911 operator received a call that AB had taken 20 Xanax pills. The call was from his mother. AB said he wanted to die and was refusing to go to the hospital. She did not know if he would be aggressive with law enforcement or if he had taken other drugs. She said there were no guns in the house but it was unknown if he had other weapons. Officers responded but AB ran away from them and they could not catch him. The 911 dispatcher then broadcast that AB was wearing a light colored hoodie. There is no mention in the transcript of the 911 tapes of AB’s race.
A Port Townsend police officer, Trevor Hansen, was listening to the radio traffic on his way to report to work. He knew AB and knew that Xanax, a sedative, could be lethal if taken in large quantities. “I was immediately concerned that if officers did not locate AB soon and get him medical help, he could suffer serious injury or death,” Hansen wrote in the case report. He signed into service and joined the search.
Police teams canvassed the area and received several tips from passersby as to where AB might have gone but could not locate him.
As they searched, 911 operations received a call that AB had been seen staggering near Nor’ West Village Apartments (1921 Sherman Street). Within minutes of receiving that information, Officer Hansen arrived there. A witness told him he had seen someone running and pointed toward woods behind the apartments. Officer Hansen saw movement in the woods and went to investigate but could not find AB.
At this time he lost radio contact and was headed back to his vehicle when he saw AB walking across the parking lot, talking on his phone. He appeared to be unsteady and stumbling on his feet, making Officer Hansen concerned for AB’s safety.
“I approached him quickly and took control of his arms, moving them behind his back. I detained him in this fashion because he had already fled from police at least twice, and I believed there was an urgent need to get him medical attention.”
AB immediately resisted and tried to pull away as he was walked toward the police vehicle. Officer Hansen asked if he spit up or vomited the pills. “No. They are still in me,” AB answered. “I don’t give a fuck.” He said at another point that he had taken 20-30 Xanax pills. Officer Hansen said they were trying to get him help. AB responded that Hansen should “get the fuck off him,” said Hansen didn’t really care about him and called the officer names which Hansen does not repeat in his report.
AB started struggling so vigorously Hansen needed both arms to keep AB’s elbows behind his back. Hansen noticed a Jefferson County Sheriff’s vehicle passing and called for help. He was soon joined by JCSO Sgt. Ryan Menday who helped him get AB into handcuffs. They were shortly joined by three PTPD officers and the Department’s navigator. AB, who had been fighting police, started going limp. Hansen struggled to keep him on his feet.
East Jefferson Fire Rescue had been alerted by the 911 calls and had been staged nearby. They responded on scene and took over. AB now came alive and started kicking and fighting and the officers had to help emergency responders get him on a gurney. They applied ankle restraints as well as the gurney’s straps as AB continued to buck and kick.
During this time AB continued to say he wanted to die and nobody cared. He said the police did not care about him, “despite us repeatedly assuring him we wanted him to live and believed his life is important,” Hansen wrote.
Due to AB’s combative behavior, a police officer rode along in the back of the ambulance. Officers met the ambulance at the Emergency Room and helped staff place him in soft restraints and undress him. AB was argumentative and aggressive. “He would fight actively, jerk against his restraints, and yell at staff,” Hansen reported. He managed to kick one officer. Officer Hansen had to lay across AB’s legs to keep him from kicking. Between fighting and kicking, at times AB strangely joked with police and nurses.
Once he was fully in soft restraints, police left AB with hospital staff. Officer Hansen had his body camera on the whole time except upon entering the hospital, when he turned it off to protect the privacy of uninvolved citizens receiving medical care. As soon as AB again became combative, he turned it back on.
What Could Have Gone Wrong:
Besides someone rushing to misjudgment if they saw only the struggle between AB and police, this could have gone another way if teams of police had not pursued AB and Officer Hansen had not skillfully employed force.
1. AB could have gotten away and died in the woods alone.
2. AB could have grabbed one of Officer Hansen’s weapons and escalated the confrontation.
3. AB could have injured one or more police officers or hospital staff.
4. People could have so distrusted police they did not help, which would have resulted in scenario 1.
5, Police could have reacted as many people would when cursed to their face by someone who fights and kicks. They may have escalated the situation and used inappropriate force.
6. This occurred to me after I posted this story so this is an update. AB could have died as he fought restraint from the drugs he ingested and police would have been accused of killing him.
If this situation were to occur without skilled and trained police involvement, say with only a social worker responding, as has been proposed as part of the “defund police” movement, we can only imagine what would have happened. AB would likely never have been caught as there would have been no coordinated search and pursuit by several police units. Once he was encountered, he would likely not have been restrained. Hansen is not a small man and he wrote in his report it took all his strength at times to hang on. He is also trained in how to use his physical power. Later it took several officers to restrain AB, and he still managed to kick one officer. One, even two social workers would have been overwhelmed. I am not aware of any physical strength requirements for a social worker’s license. Very few of them have the power of male and female police officers. A social worker would have have failed to capture and thereby make it possible to save AB’s life. That social worker also may have been seriously injured when AB became violent.
Because Port Townsend police did their job and did it right, a young Black man is still with us. Without police he would likely be dead. It is that simple.
[Update: A question was raised about the legality of police restraining someone who is attempting to harm themselves. It is permitted by Washington law upon the officer having reasonable cause to believe that the person requires emergency medical detention, such as in this case where AB admitted to ingesting a life threatening quantity of sedatives with suicidal intent.]
Hospitals overrun. Critically ill COVID patients without beds. A healthcare nightmare.
Governor Jay Inslee is blowing that horn again. He recently claimed that Yakima County ran out of hospital beds due to a spike in COVID cases there. That very alarming claim went out nationwide, repeated breathlessly by national and regional media. Hospital authorities had to issue a correction to stem the panic. They were not close to being out of hospital beds. They had sent 17 patients to Seattle (which has excess capacity) because COVID treatment requires larger than usual care teams.
Inslee has done this before. During the peak of virus activity in March he was sowing panic almost daily. More and more hospital beds were needed, he cried. We could see people dying in hallways or on streets. So sports arenas were converted to overflow hospital wards. The U.S. Army built a field hospital which Inslee, trailed by camera crews, toured for the benefit of evening news audiences.
None of those extraordinary facilities were required. Inslee ended up giving away the field hospital (and other materiel he had once said was in dangerously short supply). An as yet uncounted number of patients were denied medical care because the Governor’s orders had given COVID almost exclusive claim to hospital beds. We’ve since learned that our hospitals were operating far below capacity the whole time the Governor was prohibiting them from providing care. This author was one of those denied needed care. When I finally got to the hospital where a surgery had been canceled by force of the Governor’s order, I learned that facility had been operating at 25% capacity and had been laying off nurses.
Even with Inslee’s alarming proclamations on a recent spike in COVID cases, the state is still at half the usage of hospital beds for COVID patients compared to the peak COVID bed usage. At the virus’s peak, we were nowhere close to maxxing out the state’s capacity. According to The Seattle Times’ analysis, the peak week of virus activity statewide produced only 519 COVID admissions. Currently, we have 211 COVID admissions statewide.
That is a very small fraction of Washington’s hospital bed capacity. Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton alone has at least 297 beds. Overlake in Bellevue has 347. Providence Regional in Snohomish has 468. The Swedish hospitals have nearly 800. According to the Washington State Hospital Association there are more than 5,200 hospital beds in King County. A 2019 survey found more than 10,340 staffed hospital beds statewide in Washington.
Inslee’s Big COVID Lie
We are using fewer ICU beds now than we did in September of 2019.
The State Department of Health’s tracking of hospitalizations for patients with “COVID-like” symptoms goes back to September 29, 2019. That is the earliest date on their COVID dashboard. You’ll need to click on this link and open a separate window to better understand what follows.
Immediately below is the graph you will see at frame 6. It is interactive. If you click or hover your cursor over different points on the black “all” line a table will pop up. Be patient. It comes and goes, but it is there. Those tables tell you the total number of ICU beds occupied on a weekly basis from September 29, 2019 to the present. Because this data is updated regularly, this graph as it appears today may look different after this article is posted.
COVID-like symptoms, according to the DOH, are fever and respiratory illness. They recognize that those symptoms include a wide range of illnesses that will not result in a confirmed COVID diagnosis. Flu is an obvious alternative diagnosis to COVID that presents similar symptoms.
This graph is superficially deceptive. One may think it shows a huge spike in demand for ICU beds in March and April 2020. It does not. It shows an increase in the percentage of ICU beds being used by men and women presenting with fever and respiratory illnesses. But the number of ICU beds being used in March 2020 was significantly less than those in the last four months of 2019.
For the week of March 22, 2020, 4,673 ICU beds were in use statewide. It dropped to 4,609 the week of March 29. On April 5 it grew to 5,766, and stayed around there through May. It dropped to 5,619 at the end of June, then moved back up to 5,915 where it is today.
These numbers are considerably below the ICU bed use in 2019. The week of September 29, 2019. saw 6,375 emergency admissions. October 6 saw 6,389. November 17 saw 6,188. December 22 saw 6,281 emergency admissions.
Thus, the number of admissions for patients requiring emergency care has been lower for the entire period of the Governor’s emergency decree than it was months before his declaration of a pandemic emergency.
What of emergency admissions for patients with confirmed COVID infections? For the entire period of time since DOH began counting, going back to the start of this year, that number stands at only 4,630. You can find that figure on the DOH COVID Dashboard and at the bottom of the “Confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county” table from the DOH’s coronavirus website. It is updated daily.
Many COVID patients require long periods of hospitalization, two weeks and maybe more. But some patients are turned around and released the next day (e.g., the 90-year old Jefferson County woman diagnosed with COVID in June). Those patients who sadly die no longer occupy a hospital bed. Those who recover–which is everyone else–return home and free up their bed. DOH, curiously, does not report COVID recoveries on any table or graph I could find. I have also never heard Jay Inslee celebrate recoveries in his unrelenting press conferences.
With a staffed hospital bed capacity every night in excess of 10,300, Washington has had approximately 1.54 million bed nights during the virus’ outbreak (that is 10,300 multiplied by the number of days since the first COVID case). The total COVID patient demand on Washington’s hospitals has been far from overwhelming. That holds true even if all those patients were hospitalized for 21 days, bringing their usage to 97,230 days, or 6.3% of Washington’s hospital capacity during the period of the Governor’s emergency.
It is definitely nowhere near the doom and gloom scenarios Inslee trots out to justify yet another dictatorial edict or a unilateral extension of his emergency powers. If Inslee is repeatedly not telling the truth on this critical metric, it is hard to believe him on anything else.
[This article was edited since publication for clarification of the statistical discussion.]
Time is of the essence. That was the single most important observation gleaned from 1,200 miles of travel through Washington’s Phase 3 counties. To get to them we had to drive through Phase 2 counties and some still in a variation of Phase 1. These “phases” refer to Governor Inslee’s Four-Step Plan for removing the irons he placed on economic and social activities under his COVID decrees. Each higher phase allows increasing degrees of return to liberty and normalcy.
At the time we made our journey, ten counties were in Phase 3, spread from Pacific County in the west to Pend Oreille in the state’s far northeast. We visited communities deep in forests to towns baking in the sun and surrounded by fields of wheat to misty fishing villages shivering in cold morning fog.
Those counties that jumped at every opportunity to resuscitate their economies are showing positive results across a broad spectrum of metrics. They are generally experiencing significantly lower unemployment than counties in Phases 1 and 2. At a 16% unemployment rate, Jefferson County in Phase 2 is doing worse than every Phase 3 county except the chronically depressed Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.
The southeast corner of the state has the greatest concentration of counties in Phase 3. They have unemployment rates of 9.9% (Lincoln), 12.7% (Garfield), 10.5% (Columbia), 8.3% (Asotin) and 7.7% (Whitman). These counties, along with Jefferson, were considered “distressed” by the Washington Employment Security Department at the start of the year. Now they are outperforming even King County.
The Phase 3 counties we visited had a brighter vibe than Jefferson County. There were far more people on the sidewalks and in the cafes and bars. The attitude of clerks, servers and hotel proprietors, was upbeat and optimistic. There was a strong sense of communities committed to rebuilding and thriving, and not being beaten down by fear.
None of the early entrants into advanced stages of increased economic activity are seeing the spikes in virus activity which Jefferson County leaders had feared if our economy were revved up rapidly and started drawing large numbers of outsiders. Jefferson County leaders, with the exception of County Commissioner Greg Brotherton, have allowed those fears to hold back the county from accelerated reopening.
Lessons from Diverse Communities
Republic, Washington
In Republic, the county seat for Ferry County, a grocery store clerk said there had never been much of a shut-down. She’d been processing credit cards from around the country throughout the Spring without a let up. We saw motorcycle clubs and lines of RVs heading into town. Ferry County did not exactly have a booming economy before the lock down order. But on the day we visited its largest town was very lively. When we walked into a busy cafe wearing masks the conversations died suddenly and people turned around to stare. “Nice masks,” someone called out. We saw no masks on anyone except employees in stores and restaurants. Yet, even today, Ferry County has had only a single COVID diagnosis and no hospitalizations or deaths.
Stevens County, which we rolled through at the start of a Friday evening, was bustling. The parking lot of a microbrewery and all its tables were packed. A combination grocery store, antiques shop, liquor store and coffee shop/bakery had a steady stream of customers. A shoe store clerk in Colville said they had been doing great, and were actually busier than the same time last year. Why? “Everybody worked together and got it [movement to Phase 3] done,” she said. “It was something we knew we had to do, or else. And we pulled it off.” Stevens County is outperforming neighboring Spokane County on unemployment. Even remote Pend Oreille County was doing better, until its major employer, a newsprint mill, announced closure due to decreased demand for its product across the country. It now faces a severe economic challenge which its Phase 3 status may help, but certainly cannot overcome.
Locally Nourished Coffee, Dayton, WA
In Columbia County, one of the very first to jump on early entry into Phases 2 and 3, new businesses have been opening. Alicia Walker, proprietor of Dayton’s Locally Nourished coffee shop and bakery, told us that if the local chamber of commerce and county commission had not aggressively embraced early openings she would have pulled the plug before opening her doors. Two other new businesses have opened their doors despite the pandemic, “a testament to a community that will step up and help each other,” says The Waitsburg Times. (We found yet another brand new business down the road in Waitsburg). Because Columbia County opened early, they have been doing exceptionally well with visitors from counties in more restrictive stages. At the same time, they have seen no spreading of the virus to make them regret moving forward.
C’mon in, the water’s fine at Skamania Lodge.
Skamania County also opened extremely quickly, moving into early Phases 2 and 3 as soon as the Governor made it possible. The Seattle Times covered the first early Phase 2 weekend when the tourist mecca of Stevenson in the Columbia River Gorge was deluged with visitors from Portland and Seattle. Fears that this would trigger such a spike in COVID cases that the rural health care system would be overwhelmed have proven baseless.
Stevenson and surrounding towns have been taking in large numbers of tourists now for over two months. The massive Skamania Lodge has drawn families from all over the Northwest and beyond. Their golf course was busy, as was their pool, zip line and gym.
Business is strong for those businesses who welcomed a chance at early opening. We did, though, find an exception in one shop proprietor who seemed angry that anybody was allowed to come to Stevenson. We got the impression she will never be able to cope with any kind of reopening. She embraced a “we are all going die” outlook unlike anything we had encountered elsewhere. We needed an appointment for an exclusive opportunity to browse her shop, which was neither small nor cramped. Just next door, by contrast, a truly cramped second hand store had its doors wide open and shopping was unrestricted. It had plenty of customers; the grim proprietor’s store did not.
The surge of tourists has not brought a surge in cases. Since March Skamania County has had only 2 hospitalizations for COVID-like symptoms and no deaths.
Off the beaten track, Wakiakum County, with lower unemployment than Jefferson.
Port Townsend may feel relatively shut down and lifeless, but nothing compares to Newhalem on the Skagit River, Seattle Power and Light’s company town that serves its hydroelectric power station. Security patrols, barricades and crime scene tape keep anyone from going in unless they live there. Likewise, the movements of residents off rez were severely restricted. Essential employees are prisoners to Seattle’s fear that its electricity may be interrupted if these workers get sick.
The second most onerous precautions we encountered were just to the south of Jefferson County in Hoodsport, where Mason County is in Phase 3. A coffee shop we always visit was buttoned up tightly. It had established a take-out window fenced off with a crude wooden barricade to keep anyone from getting close. We were given long enough at the window to read the multiple signs lecturing us on masks, how we were spreading the virus, and what could be done to protect the workers inside. The interaction in ordering was kept to a minimum, then the window snapped shut. All the windows on the building appeared to have been covered over from the inside. After some time, a door ten feet away cracked open and without a word our drinks were placed outside on a bench.
It was much more pleasant at the gallery next door where the owner was taking full advantage of Mason County’s Phase 3 status. She invited us to sit outside on her deck and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Her business was doing great. She was upbeat. Customers were wandering in as we drank our coffees. She was happy to be working and sharing her store with the world. The difference in attitude made all the difference.
And that, in a word, sums up the most significant unmeasurable metric. Attitude. Phase 3 counties got there with a positive, can-do, go-get-em attitude. The benefits of their early opens fed back into the community, dispelling the gloom and spreading optimism. They are adding businesses while the rest of the state adds its nominees to the list of broken dreams. The collateral damage from the Governor’s lock down order–increased crime, substance abuse, mental health crises, suicides–has yet to be tallied. But one has the feeling those grim stats will be much lower in optimistic Phase 3 counties.
As we neared Port Townsend on our return we started seeing something we had not seen anywhere else in rural Washington: scowling people in cars wearing masks with the windows rolled up tight. We knew we were home. It is worth pondering how this attitude of fear, selfishness and blind trust in fallible big government will play out when and if The Big One strikes and courage and self-reliance become our only recourse.
“Early” Was the Big Deal
We have been writing for months about how foot dragging by the Jefferson County Board of Health and the Board of County Commissioners is hurting our local economy and punishing working age people who need to work for a living. Port Townsend’s Selfish, Cruel Old People® with their retirement incomes, monthly social security deposits, mortgage-free residences and overblown fears have been blocking sensible efforts to rapidly reopen our economy. On the Board of Health it has been retired lawyer Denis Stearns working the hardest to keep working people idled. On the BOCC it is David Sullivan who has fought every step of the way to keep doors closed and outsiders out. While he has been prolonging a shut-down that has halved and wiped out many incomes, he (and the other commissioners) have surrendered not a penny of their own salaries or benefits. County staff have been forced to accept cuts in hours or salaries, but no elected official has offered to share in the sacrifice they demand of others.
Early opens have come without increasing COVID consequences. That is hugely significant. None of the Phase 3 counties have seen anything that can be considered an “outbreak.” As testing has increased they have at most registered a few new positives, but nothing alarming and nothing that is in any way a threat to their healthcare systems. And, as far as we can tell from everyone we talked to, the local news we studied on our journey, and the Department of Health’s daily updates, none of the few new diagnoses in Phase 3 counties were caused by interaction with visitors and tourists.
We are going to have learn to live with the virus. The counties that moved into Phase 3 early have started learning and teaching others how to do it right. If Jefferson County continues to suffer as it has, and sees more business failures, those responsible will be those who delayed our progress towards a return to economic health.
Going into the Governor’s lock-down, Jefferson County had one of the worst economies in the state, with one of the highest employment rates. It was categorized as a “distressed” economy. We could have done with the competitive advantage that came with early reopening. Whereas many of our leaders feared Jefferson County standing out as a beacon of light, leaders in other counties recognized the benefits of that distinction.
Port Townsend’s Selfish, Cruel Old People® have won this round. Because Jefferson County was slow in submitting its application to move into Phase 3 it got caught when the Governor announced he was freezing the process. The Phase 3 counties we visited will continue to recover and move from recession to prosperity. Jefferson County will have to hold its breath for at least another two weeks. Businesses watching their savings evaporate and their debt load increase now face an increased risk of never reopening. Those struggling under the constraints of Phase 2 limitations may never recover fully. Some businesses that opened under Phase 2 limitations are not hiring back all their employees, keeping our unemployment rate abnormally high. Lost opportunities, like our shot at joining successful Phase 3 counties–a shot we earned–are opportunities lost forever. Time was of the essence. That was the whole point.
For our reporting on our leader’s foot-dragging see these articles:
Stevens County, which we rolled through at the start of a Friday evening, was bustling. The parking lot of a microbrewery and all its tables were packed. A combination grocery store, antiques shop, liquor store and coffee shop/bakery had a steady stream of customers. A shoe store clerk in Colville said they had been doing great, and were actually busier than the same time last year. Why? “Everybody worked together and got it [movement to Phase 3] done,” she said. “It was something we knew we had to do, or else. And we pulled it off.” Stevens County is outperforming neighboring Spokane County on unemployment. Even remote Pend Oreille County was doing better, until its major employer, a newsprint mill, announced closure due to decreased demand for its product across the country. It now faces a severe economic challenge which its Phase 3 status may help, but certainly cannot overcome.
