PUD “Slowly Moving” from Jab Mandates?
Not So Fast!

by Annette Huenke | Nov 11, 2022 | General

Jefferson County PUD leadership, including the General Manager, legal counsel and two-thirds of the elected commissioners (the Fab Four) have not gone so far as The Atlantic‘s Prof. Emily Oster in asking for “pandemic amnesty,” but they share her interest in ignoring a dark and still-open chapter from our Public Utility District’s recent history — just moving on, turning the page — pretending their mandate was not the crime that it was.  And still is.

At the November 1st PUD meeting, GM Kevin Streett dropped this lame stratagem at the very end of his manager’s report:

“Well, on our vaccination policy, we have come to agreement with the Laborers Union. We’re moving forward with non reps [non-represented employees] and contractors. I did talk to the IBEW late yesterday, and again this morning. We feel there is a pathway forward for us, so I will keep the board informed. But per the Governor’s resolution, that took some of what he had imposed, [it] went away. As of tomorrow, we will slowly be moving in a little bit different direction with our vaccination policy. And with that, we’re done.”

“A pathway forward.”  Moving “slowly,” in a “little bit different direction.” Weasel words for a weaselly policy shift. You’d think he was negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. No, simply reversing a year-long wrong-headed and deleterious decree.

Commissioners Jeff Randall and Ken Collins, General Manager Kevin Streett

My public comment followed immediately after.

“Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you. Ken. I hope that you’ve heard about the case in New York, where the court lifted the mandates for New York City employees. They have to have back pay, they get their jobs back, and the mandate was called arbitrary and capricious because of how they treated people differently, and other details. But the PUD has violated all the same things, and it is just, it’s beyond unconscionable that you’ve dragged your feet like this. The only PUD — twenty-six other PUDs did not do this. You did not need to do this, and you still manage to drag it out for a year. It is just unconscionable.

I don’t know — if this doesn’t make you feel ashamed, I don’t know what would. We knew a year ago that these products did not prevent transmission and infection. I will read to you from the Free Press article that went out last December, where Kurt Anderson is reminding you…”

I proceeded to read a paragraph from the Free Press Dec. 23rd, 2021 article wherein this courageous soon-to-be-fired lineman addressed the absurdity of the mandate. Counter-factual discrimination was the rule:

“One only has to look to the PUD roster to see this truth, after being fully vaccinated a PUD employee contracted covid. The fully vaccinated coworkers of this individual were allowed to continue working regular and overtime hours, the unvaccinated coworkers were sent home on unpaid time off for 10 days quarantine with the requirement to complete a covid test as directed by the county health department, option to use PTO [paid time off] allowed. Some online training classes were set up to help offset the unpaid time off.”

I returned to my own comment:

“These are exactly the sorts of things that were in that lawsuit in New York. And, frankly, you really deserve to be sued for this. It was so unjust, and the fact that the rest of the PUDs did not do that simply exposes you… it’s mendacious, is what it is.”

At that point, just over two minutes into my comment, board chair Ken Collins abruptly stopped me with “thank you for your comment,” moving on to ask if anyone else had a comment.  My audio still on, I responded “You’re not supposed to cut off the commenters, Commissioner…” I had intended to say more, but lost my train of thought with his autocratic interruption.

Arbitrary and Capricious

The New York Superior Court October 24th ruling laid the case bare, concluding that the mandate was “arbitrary and capricious” on numerous counts [see p. 13]. Here is an excerpt:

The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance. If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued… we shouldn’t be penalizing people who showed up to work, at great risk to themselves and their families, while we were locked down. If it was about safety and public health, no one would be exempt. It’s time for the City of New York to do what is right and what is just… The terminated Petitioners are hereby reinstated to their full employment status, effective October 25, 2022, at 6:00AM.

And so should be the case with fired PUD employees (reinstate full employment with back pay) and with contractors. The National Law Review provided a Covid-19 litigation update in this Oct. 21st report, showing that legal efforts seeking redress for these injustices are nowhere near over:

Of late, the greatest source of new cases challenge the steps taken to stem the COVID-19 tide, in the form of vaccine mandates. The number of such lawsuits has surpassed 1,200. Many of these complaints opposed governmental mandates at all levels, Biden Administration efforts to implement mandatory vaccinations upon large swaths of the U.S. workforce often being the targets. Overall, however, approximately 70 percent of these lawsuits have been filed against individual employers that have adopted policies requiring vaccination as a condition of employment.

PUD Dishonest from the Outset in Union Contracts

For months now I’ve been Zooming in to PUD meetings to inquire about the timeline for dropping the bogus mandate. I was initially ignored, then GM Streett began blaming the holdup on the unions. A public records request did not confirm that to be true, but revealed that the IBEW business representative, Jonathan Finch, perceived the mandates to be an obstacle to enticing new hires in this communication with the PUD HR manager on July 22, 2022:

“Additionally, your team approached this office with a desire to roll back the vaccination mandate for work on the property. I have some ideas of what that might look like and would like to have further discussions. This too may have an impact on recruitment.”

The Zoom meeting where the incentives and jab mandates were covered happened on August 8th. The Open Records Act didn’t require recording of that internal meeting, so we are not privy to what happened there. We are also not privy to Finch’s singling out “work on the property” in the mandate “roll back.” What does this mean for those who work in the field? I also recently learned that legal counsel Paisner’s communications are not subject to the Open Records Act because he is not a PUD employee, he’s a consultant. Have strings been pulled behind the scenes since July to maintain the mandate proponents’ position until the clock runs out on Dec. 31st?

The preamble of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Laborers and International Brotherhood (IBEW) Unions presents the foundational lie:

“…The [Governor’s 21-14-COVID Vaccination Requirement] Proclamation prohibits state agencies from permitting contractors who engage in work for the agency if the personnel performing the contract (including subcontractor personnel) have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as set forth in the Proclamation. Jefferson County PUD has a contract with WSDOT and, as part of the performance of that contract our personnel are subject to the vaccination requirements set forth in the Proclamation.”

Fact Check: Misinformation!

Jefferson County was the only PUD out of 27 in Washington State to choose this route. The other 26 followed the Washington PUD Association’s (WAPUDA) guidance issued after consultation with the WSDOT, exempting PUD’s from the vax requirement. The drive to impose a mandate came from GM Streett, counsel Joel Paisner and Commissioners Collins and Randall.

Legal Counsel Joel Paisner – shielded from Public Records Requests?

The IBEW and Laborers’ Unions represent thousands of utility workers in Washington. JPUD employees appear to be the only ones in the state restricted by a mandate that was signed into effect on October 25th, 2021, strangely set to expire at the end of 2022. Why this artificial deadline so far out, when breakthrough infections were already occurring? Why is the Union official so tentative in his language, nearly as cautious as Streett, about dropping the mandate when the MOU says it can be ended at any time by mutual agreement?

Emergency Orders and No-Bid Contracts

There is suspicion that the molasses pace of rescinding the jab mandate has more to do with the bidding process than protecting public health. As we reported in February, the winter storm at the end of 2021 opened the door for a Declaration of Emergency, which opened the door for no-bid contracts. Miraculously, the outcome coincided with the Fab Four’s strident wish for a “fully vaccinated” PUD. The whole process was suspect. Our dock crew — the back-up electrical line crews that smaller PUDs rely on to get through emergencies like the one we just experienced — was FB Titan. They were essentially fired by the new JPUD policy, explained in our coverage at the time:

Streett said Titan left because of the mandates and “vaccinated crews were tough to come by.” He claimed that there were some locally, but they were busy. He admitted that Palouse “is a bit more expensive.” Commissioners Dan Toepper and Jeff Randall inquired further about bidding, with the latter asking if there will be a bid process. Streett replied, “For the next while Palouse will be our contractor… We’ve gone through our [RCW] obligations, it was difficult” referring to the challenge of finding vaxxed crews.

Yes indeedy, Palouse is a bit more expensive than Titan. Roughly 100%, at last tally. I won’t be expecting an honest accounting from our PUD any time soon. Maybe ever. Then there’s the added expense to the customer/owners, aka ratepayers, of now needing hiring incentives like moving and housing expenses and guaranteed overtime.

The PUD will cry foul, and say that recruitment has been difficult for most utilities for years. Exactly. That’s probably why all the other PUDs, and the investor-owned utilities too, decided that a jab mandate was a terrible idea.

Did the delay in rescinding it have anything to do with state bidding requirements or retaining Palouse through next year?

They can’t say they weren’t warned.

Free Press editor Ana Wolpin’s coverage of the PUD’s October 4, 2021 meeting detailed employee and customer-owners’ realistic concerns. She reiterated what she had already put in writing to the board:

1) Given the well-documented viral spread by those fully vaccinated for Covid, why are the unvaxxed being singled out as potential health threats? On its face, these mandates are simply a way to stigmatize those who are refusing experimental shots. There is a growing body of evidence that the mandates are political, not valid health measures.

2) Our PUD cannot afford to lose more staff. Attracting qualified employees has been a challenge for Jefferson PUD without this added restriction. Loss of staff if a mandate were to be enacted could potentially cripple our utility’s ability to function.

After absorbing what took place at that same meeting, I wrote to the commissioners and GM on Oct. 7th, 2021 with my observations:

Gentlemen:

I listened to the recording from Monday night’s meeting. I wish to raise a few concerns.

Jeff — to suggest that “debate” in the chat box is somehow problematic for a Public Utility District indicates contempt for democracy and the first amendment. You basically said “we gave you your three minutes (which we are not obligated to respond to), shut up and move along now. We’ll take it from here.”

Some of us are not willing to move along now. The chat box is one of the few remaining community forums that we have a paid right to access. Our voices are censored from local media, and now it seems you would like them confined to three easily-ignorable minutes per agency. Perhaps you would like them removed from the public square entirely.

Most of us in this small town do know someone who works in the JH hospital system. I’m hearing a different story than “the hospitals are full of unvaccinated covid patients.” I’ve heard that half of the covid patients are at least partially jabbed. I hear that JH is internally in chaos.

Hospital administrators bear great responsibility for this meltdown. Twelve-hour shifts, requirements for cross-training, unpopular managers and mandated jabs have all contributed to staffing issues you readily blame on the unvaccinated. Shrinking staff results in shrinking beds. Our hospital is not “full.” It is understaffed, and according to many who have or continue to work there, poorly run.

Ken — your intimation that those of us who listen to the many renowned scientific/medical experts (now censored) who have no ties to industry/NGOs, or the agencies that lubricate their influence, are plagued by confirmation bias is patently offensive. That suggests you feel you are above confirmation bias. Please…

Local electeds’ continual alluding to resisters as partisan is pure projection. A lifelong independent voter, my party activism consists solely of caucusing for Dennis Kucinich. I’ve wanted nothing to do with aligning with either of the majority parties, which I view as toxic wastelands.

I don’t imagine that the unions or either of you would be in favor of these mandate policies if they came from Trump, or if our governor was a Republican. I recall the video of Kamala Harris stating defiantly that she absolutely would not take a vaccine that Trump mandated. Now the administration she is part of is simply playing through with the same Operation Warp Speed conceived during Trump’s admin. The Dems, including the rank and file, are blindly unaware of their own unbridled political partisanship.

The jabs are not preventing transmission or infection. Their purported benefits are grossly exaggerated while the serious risks are minimized. Many whistleblowers are saying the hospitals are not full of unvaccinated people, rather people who have had one or two jabs. They’re threatened with their jobs for speaking out about it.

If these mandates were truly necessary for population-wide public health, there would be no exemptions for anyone, including congress, the “vaccine” makers, USPS and all the rest of the uber-menchen I sent along earlier.

This is not about public health. If you don’t have the time or desire to dig deeper than NIH, CDC and FDA special interest-conflicted Newspeak and do your own research, don’t condemn those of us who make it a priority.

Annette Huenke
District 1

Commissioner Collins replied less than 2 hours later:

Annette,
There is absolutely no point in trying to have a dialogue with you on vaccine mandates.

Kindly do not copy me on future emails as you will not get a response.

Sincerely,
Ken Collins

Commissioner Collins’ rejection of dialogue around “vaccine” mandates a year ago persists today, as revealed in his cutting me off mid-comment at the November 1st meeting. All too common in government today, he views himself above having to defend his position.

I saw him walking across the street in downtown PT a couple of weeks ago on a nice fall afternoon, wearing one of those blue polyester masks that don’t prevent viral or bacterial spread, but do shed microplastics when you breathe. Not a soul anywhere near him.

It appears that our rights end where his fear begins.

Bats in the Berry Belfry:
Vax Efficacy Disinformation
— Part Three —

by Annette Huenke | Oct 31, 2022 | General

BERRY: nothing but hope for vaccine efficacy

“The biggest thing that we can do to protect ourselves
and our community as we move into the fall is to get vaccinated,
both with our Covid boosters and get our flu shot.
That’s how we protect ourselves, our neighbors
and our health care system as we move into the fall.”
(9-26-22 BOCC meeting)

FACT CHECK:

By now, it is an indisputable fact that the Covid jabs don’t prevent infection or transmission. Admit it — just about every jabbed person you know has had Covid, at least once. The “vaccines” don’t protect granny or the grandkids. On the contrary, latest research shows that they degrade the human immune system and lead to negative efficacy (more on that later). One can only wonder if our public health officer has caught whatever it is that President Biden has.

Delusion and speculation have been the bedrock of nearly all Allison Berry’s pronouncements, like this one from the June 7th, 2021 BOCC meeting wherein she performs the art of magical thinking on the survival of two patients who’d just been in ICU with severe cases of COVID-19:

“In both of those cases, we think the primary thing that has kept them alive was they were vaccinated. They were both incredibly ill prior to contracting COVID-19 and very likely would not have survived if they were not vaccinated.”

Two people with life-threatening comorbidities nearly died, officially from the virus, after their jabs.  But they were saved by the jabs.  Uh huh.

When the spectacular failure of the new mRNA therapies could no longer be bluffed, senior players got busy reworking the script. Had it not been so tragic, it would have been comical to witness pharma apologists’ gyrations to concoct a new narrative, eventually landing on the wobbly claim that the toxic brews lessened symptom severity and the chance of hospitalization and death. None of those outcomes were part of the trial endpoints, but never mind. The controllers turned up the spin machine to convince the public that the data supported those claims.

Associate Editor at the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Peter Doshi had already revealed in an October 21, 2020 editorial that this was nonsense:

Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said, “Ideally, you want an antiviral vaccine to do two things . . . first, reduce the likelihood you will get severely ill and go to the hospital, and two, prevent infection and therefore interrupt disease transmission.”7

Yet the current phase III trials are not actually set up to prove either (table 1). None of the trials currently under way are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths. Nor are the vaccines being studied to determine whether they can interrupt transmission of the virus.

Five months later, US Congressman Thomas Massie publicly took the CDC to task for lying about the efficacy of the jabs, in order “to strengthen vaccine confidence.” Our public health officer spent years at university learning this stock in trade, and she does not divaricate.

The Medical School Incubation Process

Allison Berry Unthank graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2013. According to her LinkedIn account, Allison Berry is a Medical Doctor who also earned a Masters in Public Health with an epidemiology and biostatistics focus (2010-2011). Her bachelors degree was in biochemistry and music.

In 2018, while she was working for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in the addiction medicine department, she was appointed county health officer by the Clallam County Board of Health. In July of 2021, authority over Jefferson County citizens was added to her plate by our BOH.

Just eight years out of university, she assumed outsized medical authority over 109,000 residents of the north Olympic Peninsula.

Healthcare provider statistics aggregator Vitals.Com (where she gets very mixed reviews) cites Allison Berry’s specialty as family medicine.  They then list as proficiencies, one would imagine — weight loss, contraception, family planning, checkups, influenza and — immunization. Family medicine began revolving around “immunization” after the vaccine makers were absolved of liability for harm from their products in 1986 — just one year after our young medical marvel was born.

Note the color alert in the background:  Be Afraid, Be Berry Afraid!

Dr. Berry was anointed as our new public health officer by the BOH at the July 15, 2021 meeting. Oddly, she strove to convince that nest of pharma conformists that she would somehow deliver an element of neutrality to her new position:

“I take public service incredibly seriously and I take the role as an independent scientific advisor for this region very seriously.”

“I’m hopeful that I can bring a lot of strength to the position and that commitment to scientific independence.”

Berry does not have a degree in epidemiology, thus is not an epidemiologist, as some of our commissioners have claimed. She is not a scientist, as she herself intimated in the comments above. Above all, she is not independent. Education at the Johns Hopkins University system is akin to being cultured in a petri dish. Step outside the medium and you shall perish. Berry has brought years of medical-industrial complex indoctrination to her position, not strength.

Medical universities are largely funded by research grants from pharma and pharma-captured government agencies. Medical doctors are not educated about vaccines, nutrition or natural cures. They are taught that vaccines are safe and effective, and that deviating from the CDC schedule is verboten. They are taught to “persuade, not inform” to address vaccine hesitancy.  PTFP editor Ana Wolpin provided an incisive overview of the pharmaceutical industry’s grip on medical schools in the local Vaccine Study Group’s 2017 publication, Vacci•nation, for which she was graphic designer and primary author.

Johns Hopkins is only one of those bought medical schools, but it may be the apex in terms of worldwide influence, as they have teamed up with globalist vaccine pushers like the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum to “war-game” pandemic readiness tabletop exercises since 2001, including Event 201.

Say it, say what you said, say it again

Many will recognize that maxim as a time-honored public speaking device used to hammer home a message. It’s effective. More than the mRNA jabs, by a long shot. (Sorry, that was irresistible.) Pharma mavens, including our own, have been deploying that tactic, shamelessly, throughout this charade and it’s been memorialized in various walk-it-back videos people like Fauci and Birx would prefer to forget.

Two years later, confessions reveal: “I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection.” – Dr. Deborah Birx, July 2022.

White House Covid response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx testified in a June 23, 2022 US Congressional hearing that she knew of Covid re-infections as early as December 2020.
Asked “When the government told us that the vaccine couldn’t transmit it, was that a lie or was that a guess?” Birx replied, “I think it was HOPE that the vaccine would work in that way.”

Now that the big foot has come off the “pandemic” accelerator, and federal and state funds are drying up, the county budget demands that Dr. Berry’s oversight of JeffCo be reduced to 12 hours a week. The Monday morning perpetual fear campaign euphemistically known as “updates” delivered at the weekly BOCC meetings for the last 2-1/2 years, broadcast to the most receptive audience one could hope for on local radio station KPTZ (it was their most popular “program”), will now happen monthly.

Seeing the Overton window closing, Berry laid it on thick at the October 17th BOCC meeting, pitching the ever more urgent need to be up to date on your boosters because another two elderly, chronically ill jabbed souls needlessly passed away because they weren’t jabbed enough. Loath to miss an opportunity to condemn the unjabbed, she tossed out one of her baseless warnings that we’re only seeing severe disease in the “unvaccinated,” then went on to un-say that and press on with her Birxian fantasy that the heralded new jabs (same contents as the old jabs plus a big puff of hot air from an 8-mice “study”) might prevent transmission. If enough people take it.

“We are not seeing a rise in severe disease at this point. It is still too early to tell what the effect will be of the bivalent vaccine on transmission, but we are hopeful it will reduce transmission, but we haven’t seen enough uptake yet. We definitely encourage more folks to go out and get vaccinated. It is really important to reduce transmission as we move into the fall.”

The 8-mouse study, on which pharma pinned its argument for approval of the new bivalent booster, was a complete failure in stopping transmission. When the mice in the Moderna trial were challenged with the Ba.5 variant which the Ba.5 booster is supposed to protect against, all eight of them became infected with Covid. Every last mouse.

The first five jabs that we pinned our hopes on may have let us down, but this next one, jab number SIX — same technology, for which once again there is zero evidence of ability to reduce transmission, only a study that says it does not — this one really really really just might work if we only can get enough uptake… if we repeat our mantra to “encourage more folks to go out and get vaccinated” enough times. So says our hopeful spin doctor.

Negative ‘Vaccine’ Efficacy

Dr. Berry and her ilk continue to attribute to Covid — with singular diagnostic proof coming from the dubious PCR test — deaths which were imminent in the chronically ill, elderly and immunocompromised people (and were most likely hastened by the jabs). Since this population-wide phase III clinical trial began in December of 2020, evidence has mounted that the gene therapies are actually weakening immune systems, exacerbating and reactivating existing or latent conditions like herpes and cancer, and causing new disease. Vaccine spike proteins have been found in shingles blisters!

The more jabs you take, the more likely you are to get Covid. The jury has returned the verdict on negative efficacy. You would think that having their “expert” noses regularly rubbed in the colossal failure of these clot shots to prevent “break-through infections” in just about everyone who has taken them would give one pause to fall back and regroup.

Nope. That would be unwise. Even the New York Times counseled against that crazy critical thinking business. Instead, dig the heels in deeper to hedge your bets on keeping the scared silly scared silly. There’s great benefit to that tactic, as that team will bat for you till the end. It’s certainly working in much of Jefferson County.

Enough of Allison Berry’s evidence-free pronouncements. Show us the Science!

Our young, unseasoned public health officer instituted the first dine-in vaccine mandate in the country in September 2021.  Her power was given lift by her predecessor Tom Locke, license by our county commissioners, and full support from the communities’ population they’d already managed to frighten out of their wits.

That science-free, oppressive and likely illegal diktat descended with tremendous cost. Clallam and Jefferson County restaurateurs lost tens to hundreds of thousands in unrecoverable income, their employees lost wages and endured unrelenting stress, and the unjabbed — whose first amendment rights were fully crushed — lost trust and good will that may never be regained.

As the walls come tumbling down, we can only expect a mad scramble to retain the authority they’ve wielded over the last nearly three years.  We have been warned.

————————————

Reporting from the Frontlines of the Woke Battlefield

by Annette Huenke | Aug 18, 2022 | General

How to share an evening from hell.

This is my dilemma, as I attempt to regain balance after witnessing what I’d previously considered fellow human beings descend into hate-filled and menacing nihilists who felt such righteousness of cause, any questioning of method or motive was well and truly gone.

I am rocked to my core — by the debasement of civil discussion, debasement of the female archetype, and certainly the debasement of what little is left of a democratic process.  It wasn’t just the energetic pulse of angry discord and intended chaos.  It was beholding advanced societal decay of the most disturbing sort.

Perhaps most heartbreaking was a palpable recognition that there is no longer a place for innocence in childhood.  The formative years are and will be managed by dark and sinister forces over which we have no agency.  The gains that women have made in the last century are being erased before our very eyes.

Trans activists attempt to obscure women speakers

On Monday evening, August 15th, I arrived at Pope Marine park about ten minutes before the press conference called by local women’s rights activist Amy Sousa was scheduled to begin. Various crowds were milling, it was difficult to discern sympathies of a number of groups — particularly younger (20 to 40-year-old) women — at that time.

Others’ lines were clearly drawn, through costume, signs or position.  I observed that a lot of younger gals were unmasked, standing back quietly. They had no visible signs of intention, not making the ruckus that others were ramping up in aural and physical displays. Eventually, though, they did join in the chanting intended to drown out the speakers’ voices.

I and others were walking the perimeter (of what were mostly our supporters) with large umbrellas facing toward the growing crowd, attempting to block the louder shouters and hold some sort of line. A brigade of bicyclists with flags and signs wove dangerously through the thick of the supporters. Some were hit by pedals and handlebars, including Julie Jaman.  Our efforts to prevent this were fruitless. The police had disappeared from the park but for one.

When Amy Sousa, the event’s organizer and first speaker, took to the microphone, the staging area at ground level was open and clear.  A modest portable sound system, a small bouquet of flowers, and two Suffragette flags adorned the brick wall of the Pope Marine Park building, the site of this city-permitted gathering.

By that time, all of the police who had been milling about left the area and serious agitation began. The open ground began filling with people closing in on the other scheduled speakers and Julie’s supporters. The rainbow-clad and black-garbed agitators honked horns, blew whistles, banged noisemakers, shouted and screamed.

By the time Julie Jaman, the second person to speak, took the microphone, the crowd was growing so menacing that her supporters circled her for protection.

A masked young man wearing a tan shirt that read Discharge sat down not far from the speakers and began heeling himself around on his backside, somersaulting and reeling in circles, constantly trying to get in amongst the women’s legs.  No effort to repel him was successful. A 4-minute video by Robert Zerfing captured his antics. A 10 to 12-year-old boy wearing orange camouflage pants, who stayed on his feet, was often his steadfast little lieutenant, providing cover and distraction as he darted in and out of the group.

It wasn’t long before the ever-growing crowd began to move in on us, becoming more threatening and assaultive as they did.  Within ten minutes, the speakers couldn’t be heard from 20 feet away. While Julie was speaking, the crowd exploded with screaming and chants.  She could not be heard outside her immediate circle at all.

As Jim Scarantino reported late Monday night, “she was assaulted when she finished speaking, with the live feed going black during the scuffle.” The Discharge shirt young man was toppling and shoving people, and Julie was left with a severely sprained ankle.  She has filed assault charges with the police with identifying photos.

The videographer who posted the 4-minute clip above covered the entire event, from before it began until police escorted Julie Jaman to her car, catching a short interview with her at the end.  Fortunately, he positioned himself close enough to the speakers that you can hear some of what they say.

Assaulting a tattooed bodybuilder’s vagina

What are we to make of a guy who obviously splits his time between the gym and tattoo parlor, and shows up at a trans rally insisting that we wanted to assault his vagina? What kind of toxin is in his mind to be thinking or saying such a thing? I told him “Apparently you’ve already done that to yourself. You genitally mutilated your own body.”  He slithered away wordlessly. Before long, he returned with a vengeance, body-slamming me from behind. Soon after, he returned and knocked Rachelle Merle to the brick pavement.

After body-slamming me from behind, the tattooed bodybuilder knocked Rachelle Merle to the ground.

He was the loudest and most persistent, with only seconds-long breaks between shouted taunts. He marched through the crowd with a huge Pride flag, often holding the flag and dragging the stick so that it was hitting people, including Julie. He banged a noisemaker on the ground.

What are we to make of his tee shirt sporting the slogan “Hang in there, BABY!” with the illustration of a Ku Klux Klansman hanging from a tree? (See photo at top.) Is the klansman image a cover for the real message — death to babies?

The assaults ramp up.  

Many of the rabble-rousers seemed to be practiced operators, setting little brush fire melees here and there.  Some involved real assault, others just threatening and intimidating.  A small male wearing a gator burst out of nowhere and slapped the phone out of the hand of a protector standing next to me.  It landed ten feet away, the assailant was gone. One of our group sprinted after him without luck.

Gabrielle Clark, a Black civil rights worker who was one of the speakers, used her body to shield the sound equipment. Others tried to create a human ring to shield the speakers.

A number of us, myself included, ran across the street to beg the police, who had gathered at the stairs of City Hall, to come help protect us.

Serve and Protect?

Repeatedly asked for help, law enforcement hung back, refusing to cross the street and stop assaults.

The police refused to move from their positions, saying that if we didn’t feel safe, we should leave.

Here is a full report from one of Julie’s supporters:

“I observed the city police officers withdrawing from the edge of the press release/rally area until they were all clustered around the front of city hall.

As the trans support crowd became increasingly violent, I ran over to the police and pleaded for help explaining that the crowd was pushing and assaulting a number of people. The police chief responded ‘we’ve been given our directives and if you feel unsafe you should leave.’

I turned to one of the other policemen standing there that I recognized as having been at the perimeter of the rally area and asked ‘you were over there before, why are you not there now?’ And he said ‘we’ve been given our directives and I stayed as long as I could.’ (reading between the lines I believe he was implying that he had been ordered to leave).

Also, in my recollection, the City Police didn’t engage until the State Police showed up and went directly into the area where trans protesters were being violent towards the rally participants.”

She wrapped up with the following, which she was firm in clarifying is only her opinion and not (yet) proven fact:

“It’s clear to me that the rally/press release participants were the object of a city endorsed ambush.

My heart is broken in the face of humanity’s erosion to — once again — condoning violence against women from men — particularly that the strategy of assault was set in play by city officials.

…I’m speechless and shell shocked.”

Police Chief Tom Olson

Hmmm.  “We’ve been given our directives.”  By whom?  Asking for a friend…

Another videographer caught police response on camera. The Chief stood back cooly, choosing to leave it to his minions to speak, as the side he’d already taken a stand for was right there behind him.

About a minute in, you’ll hear concerns from a couple of men regarding the lack of police presence near the speakers.  After a stunning period of Who, me? moments, officer Kamal Sharif responds, “Please let the folks there know that if you don’t feel safe being there, you’re free to leave.”

Officer Kamal Sharif, at right, explains their current directive.

That’s nice of the PTPD, to return one of our own messengers with the message that we’re “free” to leave. Defending the cops, a woman with a Pride flag opined “It’s okay, they have to look out for themselves, too. It’s not safe for them…” as the audio trails off, becoming difficult to decipher.

This is from Chief Olson’s official PTPD webpage:

“Communication is essential towards building public trust.  The Port Townsend Police Department will always strive to be open, transparent, and work together with the community to ensure our citizens are heard and valued.  I passionately believe in the sanctity of life, meaning every person, no matter what their circumstances, is valued and their life is sacred.”

As Ana Wolpin observed in her last article, “All people are entitled to basic respect, but some people are more entitled than others.”  

The speakers tried to carry on as the fury of the crowd intensified, along with the physical and verbal abuse.  Jim Scarantino reported going back across the street to the police.  “I asked them if it was their policy to do nothing. They said they wanted both sides to be able to “protest.” I told them things were getting violent. They did not move.”

He returned to the speakers and saw the assaults continuing.  He recalls, “At that point I called 911 and described the escalating violence. The dispatcher said words to the effect, ‘Law enforcement is on the scene.’ I replied, ‘No they’re not. They left.’”

Within minutes, State Patrol officers filed in with some PTPD officers in tow. They went to the pier side of the speakers and hung back for a very long time, after announcing that they were going to clear the area in ten minutes. They watched along with the crowd around them as the Dispatch teenager, squatting to the ground, planted his head against the crotch of one of our defenders.

The 10-year old lieutenant courageously covered him.

An ever-present black-masked man who appeared to be in his 50’s wearing a ball cap—the only identifying aspect was a little pigtail poking out from shaved sides of his head—leaned into the inner circle behind those kids. He sported a black tee shirt with a gruesome graphic that said Capitalism is a death cult.

Why and what was he doing there? What is that man’s investment in this project? Is he a paid provocateur? Antifa?

Finally the Troopers took action, and began waving back the trans horde in a time to get going manner. I could not hear what they were saying. I was on the north side of the speakers’ circle, so didn’t see what transpired after that, but video documentation reveals some details.

Police attempted to grab the Dispatch young man, but he ran off without pursuit.

The child with the camo pants continued moving through the crowd. They handcuffed the man wearing the Capitalism is a death cult tee shirt and took him away. Did he spend the night in jail? The JeffCo Sheriff’s roster doesn’t indicate that to be the case. Did they take him down to the ferry dock and let him out of the car with a firm finger wagging? That would not surprise at this point.

Were any of these troublemakers local residents?

The tattooed bully claimed to be a local, screaming at the woman in front of him “You came to my town to protest, and you’re telling me I’m harassing you?”  I’ve never seen him, nor any of the other belligerents, before.

Where did all those bicyclists come from?  Do they live here?  Was this protest coordinated by some Seattle or Portland trans lobby organizer? Did the mayor help facilitate it?  A Public Records Request has been filed to find the answers to those questions.  Do we have reason to trust the city to return truthful records requests?  I wonder.

Isn’t it interesting how beneficial the last two years of mask theater have been to this particular angle of the ‘new world order’ agenda?  Faceless perpetrators of criminal mischief and violence that the police refuse to be even bothered by.

As the event wound down, the ironic chant coming from the cacophonous mob reverberated throughout the entire waterfront —

NO HATE HERE!!!   NO HATE HERE!!!   NO HATE HERE!!!

Top photo: Jim Scarantino.
Additional images captured from videos taken by Crystal Cox and Robert Zerfing.

** I wish to acknowledge and thank Ana Wolpin, my co-editor and dear friend, for making this article possible.  It was her idea for me to put my witnessing of this event into words at a time that I was so raw, so rattled by what I experienced that night, it was the last thing on earth I wanted to consider.  That is what good editors do.  She spent the better part of two days exploring various footage and taking most of the screen shots that appear in this article, as I wrote my recollections.  Without Ana, you would not be reading this today.  Now is also a good time for me to express my gratitude to Ana, Stephen and Jim, without whom the Port Townsend Free Press would not exist.  While I’m at it, thank you all, readers.  You are why we continue to volunteer to do this work.  ~ Annette

Jefferson Healthcare’s Pie in the Sky?

by Annette Huenke | Jul 14, 2022 | General

This article is the first in a series that will shine light on the inner workings at our local hospital system. Administrators at Jefferson Healthcare would have us believe that all is well within their institution, particularly as they return to the taxpayers, hat in hand, to fund their next dream of upgrades to the Sheridan Street facility. With the backdrop of a looming global financial crisis, materials shortages and supply chain ruptures, how viable is this $100 million-plus gamble? What will it actually cost when all is said and done?

Jefferson Healthcare is struggling mightily to retain and recruit nurses and other patient-facing staff, and as this exposé will reveal, significant roots of that problem are internal. Through personal accounts from insiders, public records requests and investigation of current federal funding mechanisms, we will take a deep dive into the contemporary condition of Jefferson County’s hospital system.

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“We concluded years ago that we are in the trust business… Hospitals are nothing but fancy buildings with expensive technology if we don’t have a great employee base.  So we are very focused on — one, recruiting and bringing in the right people for our team, and then once they are here, working really hard to provide a work environment that is satisfying both personally and professionally and allow for providers to grow and develop.”

Jefferson Healthcare CEO, Mike Glenn at the May 12, 2022 Community Presentation

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We have come to expect glowing reports of good deeds and great intentions when public agencies are selling a property tax increase. But how much truth is contained within Mike Glenn’s flowery assessment above? Is the view from the ivory tower the same as it is on the patient floors? What degree of “trust” exists within “the team” in the medical institution so many in this community count on?

Anyone who has lived here for long has personally, or has family and friends who have received stellar care at Jefferson Healthcare facilities.  I have, my partner has.  The nursing and support staff get rave reviews again and again, as do most providers.

However, the Free Press has been contacted on multiple occasions by hospital workers who feel an urgency to sound the alarm on what they see as chronic mismanagement that puts nursing staff and patients alike in potentially dangerous situations. The aim of this article is to give voice to those who have not been heard, despite their years-long efforts to improve the work environment through dialogue and negotiation. Management responds with platitudes like “let’s continue to work on solutions together…” as they neglect the reforms most requested by staff — regular schedules and part-time employment.

I sat down with one of those whistleblowers recently, and listened to her story. She’s asked that I use a pseudonym to protect her identity, understandably concerned about retaliation.

Suzanne is a Registered Nurse (RN) who came to work at Jefferson General Hospital over twenty years ago. She loves her work — that is to say, she loves taking care of people.

The era of healthcare facility mergers and acquisitions ushered in new and improved bean counters and fancy new nomenclature to distinguish upper management from the rest of the pack. Jefferson Healthcare birthed its own Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) approximately fifteen years ago.  The current SLG is pictured below.

Strategic Leadership Group (from top left):
MIKE GLENN, MHA, Chief Executive Officer; JOSEPH MATTERN III, MD, FAAFP & HMDC, Chief Medical Officer; TINA TONER, RN, MSN, MBA, CENP, Chief Nursing Officer; BRANDIE MANUEL, MBA, CPHQ, Chief Patient Safety and Quality Officer; JENN WHARTON, PT, MHL, Chief Ambulatory and Medical Group Officer; JACOB DAVIDSON, MHA, FACHE, Chief Ancillary and Support Services Officer; TYLER FREEMAN, MSA, CPA, CHFP, Chief Financial Officer. (Not pictured, ALLISON CRISPEN, Chief Human Resources Officer)

Suzanne describes a gradual and insidious decline in staff morale that’s emerged since 2014-2015, most notably when the SLG Chief Ambulatory and Medical Group Officer began restructuring the clinics and family practice offices. Then the hospital stopped hiring part-time nurses.

Using ever sharper pencils, the SLG further streamlined by cross-training, deleting existing part-time positions (firing those who couldn’t work full time), cutting overall positions in each department and not hiring new staff — even when there were qualified applicants, Suzanne reports. Set schedules, the likes of which make life predictable for days off and family time, were eliminated. Plans to attend important rites of passage like graduations, weddings and funerals became a luxury of the past.

Scheduling and the loss of part-time positions created wide-spread disgruntlement throughout the facility. Complaints from staff were met with “you just need to figure out why you want to work here, or you can leave.”

Senior nurses pleaded with management for more staff and part-time positions, citing their own recognition that if their concerns were ignored, there would be an escalation of safety issues that could harm patients and the hospital’s bottom line and reputation.

There was also the phenomenon of what has come to be known as “compassion fatigue” in overworked and under-supported staff. Suzanne says “We’re caregivers. We don’t want to make the hospital look bad.” So the nursing staff shouldered more and more responsibility, working long days without breaks, sacrificing their own welfare for the sake of patient care and hospital optics.

She reports that managers began to look for excuses to ship patients out for care. Surgeons were being pressured to hurry it up. Staff witnessed nurse managers asking, mid-surgery, “how much longer do you think this will take” and providers being told “you’re taking too long to do surgeries.” Adding to the pressure, in recent years the number of surgeons has increased as the number of support staff has been eliminated.

The lack of respect and increasing demands have resulted in “running off 20 nursing assistants” in the last few years, according to Suzanne. They were being asked to care for too many patients. Changes that could be implemented to maintain staff and improve morale — set schedules, retention bonuses, compensation for extra shifts — have not been forthcoming.

“Human resources,” a risible term for working people, is at a crisis point in healthcare. Efforts by institutions to run lean has led to many nurses abandoning the security of steady work in a familiar place close to home in favor of hitting the road and hitting it big with travel nursing.

According to this 2016 article on the trade website TravelNursing.org, nursing shortages began with the 2008 financial crash. The CEO/president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) was quoted back then, saying:

“At AACN, we are most troubled by the shortage of nurses prepared at the baccalaureate and graduate levels since research shows that having enough of these nurses is important to lower patient mortality rates, reducing medication errors and realizing other positive care outcomes.”

At the time, nursing schools were turning away qualified applicants because the schools lacked “faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, preceptors and [had] budget constraints.”

Fast forward six years and the unnatural disaster surrounding Covid, and those highly trained, veteran nurses — the shortage of which so troubled the AACN — now often find themselves working alongside novices with decades less experience who are being paid three to four times as much.

Raises for Me, But Not for Thee

The battle for pay increases at Jefferson Healthcare has been epic, with mediators arguing on behalf of nursing staff for the most niggling little bump. Management maintained that “it’s not sustainable to pay more.” Retention became a major issue, with experienced staff leaving to work elsewhere for single digit increases and the perennial issue of scheduling. During labor negotiations in November 2021, the contract was delayed because the SLG was

“philosophically opposed to raises
for nurses in the top five steps.”

Philosophically opposed. Well, at least they had a philosophy.

There is a seniority tier system in nursing, with the tiers varying from hospital to hospital.  Each year of experience is called a “step.” There are 32 steps to reach the apex of the nursing world at Jefferson Healthcare. Random steps are called “ghost steps,” a pause year that precludes pay increases.

After another grueling round of mediated negotiations, the latest contract was finally ratified three weeks ago, on June 22nd, 2022. Despite management’s philosophical opposition, all of the nurses got at least a 4% raise. Ghost step years now pay modest increases instead of none.

Suzanne reports, “The time spent to get there was very disappointing and disheartening. The nurses were made to feel unworthy and expendable.”

In stark contrast, CEO Mike Glenn’s 6% raise three months earlier sailed through the board with only one commissioner, Matt Ready, opposing.  [Ready maintains a creative blog of his experience as a Jefferson Healthcare Commissioner.]

Glenn’s pay package is now around $380,000. The rest of the SLG incomes range from a quarter to a third of a million dollars, most of them paid as much or more than Washington’s Governor.

In addition to public record request responses from Jefferson Healthcare, the Free Press has received news tips from stressed nursing staff, current and former, all of them requesting anonymity for obvious reasons. The following are excerpts from a variety of these sources:

“The ACU Staffing Crisis is management created. The Restructure and the stress of Covid-19 are not the root causes of the mass exodus…”

“I understand staffing ICU, especially at night, has been a challenge, however untrained and unqualified staff are being used to staff ICU in unsafe ways that risks liability and patient safety especially when taking into account ICU patient census and telemetry monitoring obligations.  It seems the expected standards for ICU care have become adulterated recently with untrained staff for the amount and the acuity of patients we have been having.  As I mentioned above, I am all for cross training willing and able nurses to ICU, it just needs to be done correctly with consideration to ICU census, patient acuity, telemetry patients, and number of qualified staff.  I’m more than happy to discuss this further and assist in any way.  My apologies for the long winded email, I’ve been stewing on this for a couple days now.  I can only imagine the amount of similar emails you have been receiving.  I’m just rather concerned for the reasons listed above; and my co-nurses, I am sure, share the same sentiments as well.”

— ICU RN,  Feb. 2022

“I came onto shift this morning as Charge RN and am receiving no report on the patients.  I have never come on and gotten no report in 7 years.  Last night one set of patients had 3 nurses covering in succession.  When I came on shift Monday the same thing happened and the set of patients I received had 3 different nurses in a 12 hour period.  I had to round to the patient and family members who were upset because the care plan was not followed and a comfort care patient inadvertently had oxygen placed on her, which they did not want.  I had to explain it was because of the staffing that information did not get across as it should have.  This patchwork planning is having impacts on our patients and our staff.  It is unsafe.  We also have a new nurse for ICU who was put on the floor with no orientation.  He spent hours running back and forth to ICU getting supplies because he did not know where they were on ACU [Acute Care Unit].  The standard of nursing care here is actively deteriorating and it makes me uncomfortable.”

— Charge Nurse, Feb. 2022

“The staffing on night shift is unsafe.  From the time of the restructure, travelers not fully oriented to our hospital have had to work independently monitoring tele [telemetry] , managing FBC [Family Birth Center] or ACU RNs in the ICU.  During many of those times, Telemetry was not documented per policy…

The restructure and the administrations refusal to set templates, or allow self-scheduling, forcing part time employees to take full time positions have left us relying on per diem RNs and travelers.  In the ICU, we now only have 3 full time RNs and 1 part time.  The rest are employees who have switched to per diem in order to control work-life balance.  We are woefully understaffed because of their hubris and arrogance.”

— ICU RN, Feb 2022

“I am not sure if you are aware of this, but the current ACU and ICU staffing situation is very bad.  Dayshifts and nightshifts.

It is difficult to see that there is any management involvement in providing real solutions.  We just hear about increasing ratios.  That will NOT be safe.  Over night we had a very busy floor with lots of cognitively impaired impulsive fall risk patients, and only one CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant] available as the other one is stuck as a sitter with our 1:1 resident.  The ICU was slammed all night last night and needed assistance that I could not always provide while also assisting the floor.  There was an FBC nurse sitter there silencing Teles because the ICU Nurses were so busy.

This feels very dangerous.  What is going to happen next week when surgery goes up to full speed and you lose another full-time nurse?  We’re drowning here.”

— RN, Feb. 2022

“From 2017 onward, as management initiatives evolved and pressures increased, morale began to decline and the scheduling method changed.  As time went on, I watched as we hemorrhaged CNAs (30 in less than a year at one point) and the nurses continuously expressed their discontent and began to leave too…

The lowest hanging fruit to improve morale and to retain staff is to give the nurses a REGULAR SCHEDULE…  Please know that the [employment] contracts are attached to PEOPLE.  People with lives and families.  Well-educated and hard-working people who care about taking care of patients. People who actually WANT to work at Jefferson Healthcare (and would come back) except they just can’t take the mismanagement anymore.  They are exhausted by the irregular schedules… and the disregard shown for their work-life balance… nurses that are left are disheartened and do not believe that there is any hope for change.  Some of them biding their time prior to retiring, others are actively looking around at other hospitals.  I am watching as warm bodies are leaving, first year nurses be pushed into the Charge Nurse Role, being robbed of developing their clinical foundation.  Doesn’t this seem dangerous to you?

The ACU Staffing Crisis is management created.  The Restructure and the stress of Covid-19 are not the root causes of the mass exodus…

I understand that this is just part of a very complicated issue with this hospital system and there are many pressures from all sides, but it is tough to run and grow and maintain a basic safety level if your staff is gone.”

— RN, Nov. 2021

“I left as I didn’t want the Jab, nor did I want to put a religious exemption in as I fully believe that my right to choose not to have the Jab was exemption enough…  employee health is struggling as they don’t have enough staff…  I wish more nurses would come forward.”

— former Care Team Specialist, JH Home Health & Hospice, Oct. 2021

Management Response

SLG Chief Nursing Officer Tina Toner offered this response to emails she’d received from nursing staff, including some of the above:

“I want to acknowledge the real challenges we continue to be faced with in terms of staffing.  Please know, it is ever apparent that you and everyone of our team is doing all they can to help support their department and care for our patients. I hope that you know that as nursing leaders we are also doing all we can to support staffing, recruitment and retention. When we do have days with less-than-optimal staff our staffing coordinator, the House Supervisor Team and department leaders are all aware.  Each morning at 0815 our team comes together to discuss staffing for the next 24 hours so we can collectively work on solutions.  This is in addition to time spent looking ahead over the several days and weeks into the future and evaluating the need for additional staff.  I know that this is hard, everyone is working hard, and we are all tired.  Please, let’s continue to work on solutions, together, I know we will find them. Thank you for all you are doing!”

In the past, nursing and other staff could reach out to board members to share issues and concerns that weren’t being dealt with by their supervisors. Apparently, as the complaints increased, management’s tolerance for that approach trended in the opposite direction. Late last year the board passed a new bylaw that requires all staff complaints and concerns to be copied to the board chair and/or the CEO, thus making the complainant a potential target for retaliation from the very people who aren’t fixing the problems being complained about. No wonder staff dummies up, or leaves to work elsewhere.

A public records request I submitted recently disclosed that Jefferson Healthcare conducted a survey entitled “Employee Engagement 2020,” covering the time period of October 20, 2019 to October 20, 2020. The resulting 46-page document revealed gratitude for co-workers, a modicum of satisfaction and appreciation for the facility, and a substantial amount of frustration and mistrust towards management.

Granted, that was a singularly difficult year for everyone, particularly those in healthcare fields. However, the vast majority of complaints were not Covid-time specific, rather referenced embedded institutional norms of disparity and upper echelon cliques that have resulted in a disabling rift between the worker bees and the bosses.

I’ll share that document with our readers and highlight key aspects in the next installment of this series shortly, along with an overview of the Jefferson Healthcare’s proposed “Campus Modernization & Expansion Project.” On July 20th, the SLG gives one more update to the board before they vote on Wednesday, July 27th, whether or not to take this project to the voters in the form of a bond measure in November.

One can only imagine how beleaguered staff choked on the CEO’s words at the top of this article.  A demand for transparency is in order.  Should the administration be required to get their house in order before they build another house?

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Updated July 16, 2022

Top photo by Sebastian Eggert

Poplars Stakeholder Committee:
Hand-picked, with a Documented Bias

by Annette Huenke | May 12, 2022 | General

The following is an update from the Poplars Alliance, sent May 7th to the City’s Engage PT, Port and PUD electeds, The Leader, and the Port Townsend Free Press

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Dear Engage PT and Elected officials,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

It appears that the 9 member Stakeholder Committee that is supposed to have an open mind about our Gateway Poplars already has a predetermined bias against the Poplars. A majority are already on record to cut our community trees down.

The City’s website still says that one of the project goals is to cut the trees down.

• Replacement of Lombardy poplars, an emerging and eventual need for the City

The Port informed us that the selection process for the Stakeholder Committee was an open one, available to the general public. We were also told that all options were on the table. We subsequently requested copies and/or documentation of that notificiation to the general public for this committee formation…and the City was unable to provide us with any announcement for openings that was made available to the general public. The Stakeholder Committee members appear to have been hand-picked and with an existing bias against our poplars.

The Parks Board was able to choose 4 of the 9 members, and the City indicated from the outset that the Admiralty Audubon would be invited. The Port was guaranteed a spot as well. The general public was not allowed to serve on this hand-picked committee, which has been stacked with anti-poplar votes.

We expect our elected officials to engage in truly democratic processes backed by democratic principles. Clearly that is not what has occured.

Below are the slides from the Gateway Poplar Alliance workshop held on April 23, illustrating just this issue, one of many about this ill-conceived project. The entire presentation is available for download here.

By contrast, in a comment submitted ahead of the April 12 Stakeholder Committee meeting, committee member Joni Blanchard pushed back against the narrative that any future PUD trenching would need to kill the poplars.  (Consulting arborist Katy Bigelow was contracted by the Port to provide assessment reports in 2013 and again in 2022.)