Mountain View Pool No Longer Safe
for Many Women and Girls

by Jim Scarantino | Aug 10, 2022 | General

A heterosexual male is authorized by the YMCA to enter the women’s showers and dressing area at the Mountain View pool while women and girls are naked. 

Clementine Adams, who also goes by “Clem,” though he wears a woman’s bathing suit on the job at the pool, is heterosexual. His Facebook page identifies him as “interested in women.” As Julie Jaman has recounted, she saw him looking at little girls as they peeled off their swimsuits. He also looked at her as she stood naked from a shower demanding he leave and grant her privacy. He refused. Jaman was banished from the pool for being “discriminatory.” She was told by another Y employee, who was in the shower room at the time of the incident, that police were called. It was Jaman who went to the police to report the incident.

Clementine Adams Facebook profile, August 8, 2022

Some may object to posting this information. But it is all public, available for anyone to see. Photos of Adams have appeared in the New York Post and other media, such as the feminist publication Reduxx, and in widely viewed tweets from feminists angry about his gaining access to the women’s showers merely by donning a woman’s swimsuit and declaring himself to be a woman.

More importantly, the information about Adams being interested in women, despite his choice of clothing and makeup, was and is available to his employer. The Olympic Peninsula Y manages the pool under an agreement with the pool’s owner, the City of Port Townsend. The Y says it is merely following state law. But no state law authorizes an employer to send men into women’s shower areas while women and girls are naked, and then banish women for objecting. As we explained in our first installment on this controversy, the state law upon which the Y relies did not grant rights to Adams. It protected Jaman. It is the Y that violated the state law protecting Jaman’s right to use to facilities consistent with her gender identity and expression.

Another reason for publishing this information and image is that women using the Mountain View pool have a right to know.

Good Men Don’t Go Into Women’s Bathrooms and Showers

Amy E. Sousa

“These policies put women and girls in danger,” says Amy E. Sousa, a Port Townsend advocate for the protection of women’s rights against oppression, appropriation and erasure by men who identify as or claim to be women. “Good men don’t go into women’s rooms. Good men stay out so bad men stand out.” Sousa is a rape survivor and says she well understands how the presence of a man in a woman’s shower area and bathrooms strips from sex violence survivors their sense of safety and can send them into panic and a state of terror.

Sousa has gained a nationwide following for her public speaking, activism and YouTube videos, such as “What is a Woman?“. Her widely followed twitter handle, “KnownHeretic” has received over 200,000 “impressions” for her reporting of Jaman’s story. Sousa has participated in organizing protests at the NCAA national women’s swim final against allowing L. Thomas, a very mediocre University of Pennsylvania swimmer who declared himself a woman (while continuing to date women) to compete against women as a woman (though he’s a man). Sousa has also protested at the United Nations against that organization’s erasure of sex-specific language and protections for women and girls. Sousa, who holds an M.A. in Depth Psychology and works as an embodiment expert, was formerly education director at Port Townsend’s Key City Public Theater.

“Our foremothers,” says Sousa, “fought long and hard for women to have sex based rights and provisions, for us to have boundaries around our bodies.”

“Our foremothers didn’t fight for us to have ‘identity’ spaces, but to have spaces for the safety, privacy, and fairness of our BODIES. It is a safeguarding failure to teach girls they have no right to boundaries around their bodies, to teach them they do not have the right of consent, that they don’t have the right to say NO to men in their spaces, regardless of the labels those men use to describe their ‘Identities.’

All men are equally physically men. And women/girls have the right to say NO to men in our spaces, this includes ALL MEN regardless of their claimed ‘identities.’ Men need to respect the boundaries women/girls have around our bodies. This includes all men.”

Sousa points to empirical evidence of the dangers of men in women’s private areas, including a longitudinal, nation-wide study done following the Target department store’s decision to allow all sexes to share dressing room areas. The study found that sexual incidents in Target’s dressing rooms, particularly Peeping Tom and upskirting incidents, very quickly increased 200% and more. The study concluded that its findings “support the theory that sex predators may take opportunities afforded by gender-inclusion policies to perpetrate sexual violence against women in public spaces.”

We will return to the extensive evidence of violence and abuse when men are allowed into formerly sex-specific private spaces for women.

YMCA: Fear and Terror is Your Problem, Rape Survivors

The Y has doubled down and declared that it will cancel the membership of anyone who “discriminates,” as Jaman did by objecting to a man standing at her shower seeing her and little girls naked. The CEO of Olympic Peninsula YMCA Wendy Bart issued a letter to all members stating the Y’s policy. Any actions based on sex or sexual orientation—and she was addressing Jaman’s situation specifically—will result in banishment. Women and girls are being told to stuff it. The best a woman can do now is scream and keep screaming, but not explain why if they don’t want to be banished from the pool permanently.

I have spoken with two other rape survivors who told me they would have been terror-stricken being surprised by a man in their showers. The prospect of encountering a naked man while they are coming out of a shower would be a living nightmare for them. We have also received comments from victims of child sexual abuse echoing those fears.

The Y’s policy of sending its male employee into the women’s showers requires women and girls to submit, to surrender, to feel shame and maybe even blame themselves. Mattie Watkins, a mother of four and published author, once struggled with gender dysphoria.  “[T]he realization that I grew out of it is what initially brought me into the conversation,” she wrote the PT Free Press.

“Being a stay-at-home mom has put me in a position to talk about these things openly in a way many women can’t. I get messages daily from women telling me that they agree with me but that they are scared of getting doxxed, losing their jobs, losing their social support system, and generally fear a complete derailment of their lives. When women can’t talk freely and openly, the problem is undeniable.”

[The Y is now doing this to Jaman, launching a character assassination campaign against her with unspecified allegations that she has a history of bad conduct that led to her banishment. Jaman, who has been swimming at Mountain View for 35 years, says she’s never been informed of any infractions. The Y has not responded to her request for details and documentation of these alleged incidents. The Y has also not responded to our request for details to verify their claims to media that Jaman was a problem before she objected to encountering Adams in the women’s showering area.]

Watkins, like Sousa, has used social media to spread Jaman’s story, receiving about 100,000 impressions of her tweets and scores of replies. She shared with us this heart-breaking account from a survivor of sexual violence about what it is like to have to share showers with a naked man who says he is, despite an erect penis, a woman:

“Okay, please be kind here; I’m struggling to do the right thing here. I’ve been practicing yoga for two and a half years. I’m a very shy and introverted person and after going to several yoga studios, was very grateful to find one where I’m comfortable. Also their schedule and location are very convenient to me; thanks to this combination I’ve been able to really deepen my practice and I feel like it’s been a miracle in my life. 

So there is a new person coming to the studio who’s also new to yoga in general. This person is a transgender woman and I warmly welcomed her to the studio. I do believe and support trans people in using whatever bathroom facilities they feel most comfortable in. Or so I thought, anyway. I was in the open shower area and she and I ended up being the last two people in there. 

She is definitely very masculine. She had an erection and took an extended look at my body. I wish I had loudly said “Why are you looking at me?” or “Stop looking at me!” but I didn’t. I have a lot of compassion for the challenges faced by the LGBTQ plus community, but I also have my challenges. I was molested as a girl and this is the strongest I’ve ever been triggered as an adult. This time and another time in college when I had a guy aggressively grind against me. But her locker room etiquette was BAD to have looked at me for so long.

Now I have anxiety. If I stop going to that yoga studio, I won’t be able to do yoga before work. I could go to the owners and what??? Be a little tattletale? Be very unpopular and say I’m not comfortable with a transgender person? That goes against everything I thought I believed in; I have fought to bring kindness and understanding to difficult situations. Trust me, I do understand that me being triggered by an erect penis is my problem; I’ve intermittently been in therapy for most of my adult life. I feel disempowered and old-fashioned and vulnerable and stupid and confused. I hope nobody guesses exactly where I’m talking about and please please be kind with any feedback.“

Biological males invading women’s safe, vulnerable spaces revictimizes women who have suffered sexual violence and abuse. The Olympic Peninsula YMCA does not seem to care. Indeed, it is literally sending a man into those spaces. The YMCA in Washington state has a history of promoting men gaining access to women’s areas and has been deaf to the concerns of women who have been raped, assaulted and abused. We asked Olympic Peninsula YMCA what it has done to make survivors of sexual violence and abuse feel safe in its showers, or whether they should just stay away from the Mountain View pool. They have not responded.

Kaeley Triller Harms

One former Y employee, Kaeley Triller Harms, survived sexual abuse that started when she was in diapers and lasted ten years. Her abuser “liked to watch me in the shower.” She worked in YMCAs for 17 years but was fired for objecting to allowing biological males into women’s bathrooms and showers. That was before Washington’s access law was passed, when the Y on its own permitted the invasion. She says the trans agenda that is claiming women’s and girl’s safe, vulnerable spaces is creating a “rape culture.”

There Is Reason For Fear: Mounting Evidence That Men in Women’s Locker Rooms, Bathrooms and Showers Hurt Women and Girls

The revictimization of women and girls who have survived sexual violence and abuse should be enough on its own. Only a sick institution run by sick, malignant people would disregard their trauma and pain. But there is also empirical evidence that unisex dressing rooms, bathrooms, and showers are the sexual predator’s candy store. The Target study cited above is just the tip of the iceberg.  We have aggregated a few of the reported, growing number of incidents where women have been assaulted, peeped, humiliated and stripped of their sense of security and dignity by men in women’s supposedly safe, private spaces.

Transgender woman convicted of sexually assaulting 10-year old girl in bathroom.

Man arrested after grabbing woman in Walmart restroom

Man dressed as Barbie in bathroom attack

Man dressed as woman arrested for spying into bathroom stall

Sex offender wearing fake breast and wig arrested for loitering in women’s restroom

Five times transgender men abused women and children

University of Toronto Dumps Transgender Bathrooms 

Sexual predator jailed about claiming to be transgender in order to assault women

Man caught undressing in front of girls at Green Lake locker room

Cross-dressing sex predator sentenced for assaults in Clackamas aquatic park

Women at risk in unisex changing rooms

Teenage trans “woman” raped girl in bathroom

Man dressed as woman recorded hours of video in women’s restrooms

Transgender woman violently sexually assaulted girl in bathroom

Cross-dressing man secretly videotaped women in Macy’s bathroom

Public high school closes gender neutral bathroom after student sexual assault

Council Watch August 1 – Road Repair vs Calming

by Stephen Schumacher | Aug 8, 2022 | General

Mayor David Faber opened the Port Townsend City Council’s August 1 meeting by moving public comments to the top of the agenda in consideration of the many members of the public present intending to comment. Nearly an hour of comments concerned YMCA management of Mountain View Pool, the subject of past and future Free Press reports, so here’s what happened during the rest of the meeting.

In non-YMCA comments, disabled musician Mark Daniel Hoskins described the city harassment he’s experienced while performing and in his own trailer.  State law allows 71 decibels in mixed residential areas like downtown, so he asks why he is harassed for playing near the ambient loudness in a town that is promoted as being artist-friendly. He is not breaking laws and just wants to be left alone to perform his music.

Jaisri Lingappa remotely attended the July 18 council workplan retreat, but found the audio was incomprehensible leaving no detailed public record of an important all-day planning meeting that covered affordable housing.  She noted that currently touted developments on Madrona Ridge and Cook Avenue are almost certain to be unaffordable. She requests a redo discussion at an upcoming council meeting with proper audio, and that councilors make their stands and plans available to the public.

Stephen Schumacher asked how many PT police officers have resigned or retired in the past two years, whether exit interviews were conducted with the departing officers, whether summaries of such interviews are available to the public, and how many city officers have left for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Kitsap County positions.

In response to public comments, City Manager John Mauro apologized for the audio at the retreat, but members of public could and did attend in person, materials and minutes have been posted, and the public is invited to participate in the city/county/port/PUD conversation about housing on August 18.  Regarding police staffing, he intends to bring a status report to council from the police chief later this summer, having made some good progress there.

Taking Care of Business

Following an executive session to discuss an employee’s performance, the council discussed and unanimously approved several items of new business:

• Contracting with GeoEngineers to perform a seismic stability study (required by the State Dam Safety Office) costing up to $134,000 (all but $47,000 paid by a FEMA grant) on Lords Lake’s poor-condition East Dam.
• Disposing of $31,638 unused COVID-19 Financial Assistance Utility Bill Relief Grant funds ($25,000 from the Utility Fund, $8,138 from community donations, only $1,455 ever used to help people). Staff proposed clearing the books by offering debt relief grants to about 15 utility accounts averaging $1,900 in arrears due to lockdown impacts (2/3 residential, 1/3 landlords or small business), with remaining funds sent to OlyCap. Normally such gifts of public funds would be prohibited, but the State Attorney General allowed public funds to be spent for “promoting public health which may have an incidental benefit on private citizens.” Councilor Libby Wennstrom would like council to learn from this experience, where it set up a large amount of money that couldn’t be optimally used. Deputy Mayor Amy Howard clarified the original program limited grant amounts so the most number of recipients could benefit, but it should have been reviewed after 1 not 2 years.
• Extending deadline from August to October 1, 2022 for proposing to levy up to $900,000 in additional 2023 property taxes out of the “banked capacity” that would have been paid annually to East Jefferson Fire Rescue prior to its 2019 annexation agreement (note $600,000 was levied in 2022).
• Contracting up to $100,000 from the Stormwater Utility Fund to repair extraordinary June 5 storm damage to Walnut Street (between T and V Streets) and to the Logan Street storm pond outfall.
• Relinquishing an unnecessary utility easement to clear title for 346 Logan Street (which should have been done 60 years ago when 4th Street was vacated).

Transportation Improvement Board Grant

Public Works Director Steve King asked council for authorization and guidance applying for this year’s big state transportation grant. From staff’s summary statement:

Staff described their list of projects that might score well, including 7 to repair pavement:

1. W Street — Cherry to Walnut
2. San Juan/49th — Admirality to Fairgrounds
3. Washington Street — Van Buren to Sims
4. 12th Street — Landes to Sheridan
5. Tyler Street — Jefferson to Lawrence
6. Lawrence Street — 19th to F
7. San Juan — 19th to F

… and one to enhance crossings and calm traffic:

1. 19th/Blaine Street — Sheridan to Walker

Since staff had concerns about delivering a quality application on the first four (which are much larger Urban Arterial pavement projects), it recommends applying for either the Tyler or 19th Street projects. Grants have a 15% match requirement paid from Real Estate Excise Tax funds.

King emphasized that it’s always helpful to make TIB applications, since they garner helpful feedback even if not successful, but staff feels stressed to get this one in before the August 19 deadline. Ideally the city would receive a big grant like for Discovery Road every 3 years, and a smaller one every year between.

Councilor Owen Rowe asked about possible traffic calming measures on 19th Street, and King answered they “could be islands, raised crossings, bulb-outs, tables … could do safety islands in the middle.”

Rowe also asked about the concurrent Safety Grant for 19th Street, which King explained was for a planning study, saying “If we don’t get the Safety Grant money, then we would need to fund that study to make sure we get it right in the public process, but at least this [TIB] grant would give us implementation dollars.”

Transportation Grant – Public Comment

In public comment, Schumacher asked how patchwork pavement repairs, newfangled projects like Edge Lane Roads (ELRs) preserving not repairing pavement, and big-ticket TIB grants fit together. He’s unclear whether the city has the money to do basic bread-and-butter repairs without depending on grants. There’s general discontent about roads not being fixed; looking at ELRs and the traffic-calming islands put on Washington Street that just make you go a little slower, they look pretty, but don’t seem cost-effective compared to just fixing the roads. So he wonders about the actual realities on the street and how these big grants relate to the city’s regular repair program.

Debbie Yanke commented, “The intersection of 19th Street and Landes is the only place we’ve had a bicycle/car fatality in our city. I’ve sat at that intersection, having cars going both directions on 19th, both directions on Landes, with pedestrians involved, and bicycles, in both directions.  And yet on Landes at 14th we have 3 crosswalks within 50 yards on Kai Thai. So I’d really like to see crosswalks for safety purposes at Landes and 19th, and wherever else on 19th it can occur.”

King responded that grant applications are periodic, not part of normal maintenance, but it’s great when a grant can take a big pavement repair job off our list. Rebuilding Lawrence Street will cost an arm and a leg, but if some pavement had been preserved, it would only cost an arm. Safety improvements can be achieved by striping at no additional cost. So the city is trying to get the best outcome it can by marrying grants within its comprehensive maintenance program.

Faber clarified that traffic calming on Washington Street was paid predominantly by neighborhood donations.

Counselor Libby Wennstrom provided an educational response:

I get this question a lot, so it tells me that people don’t understand this. Prior to 2003, municipalities got a great deal of street funding from the state, and with the rollback on car tab fees, that funding disappeared.  And that’s the point at which municipalities – and it’s not just Port Townsend, but everywhere in Washington – stopped being able to repair our streets. People say, we haven’t fixed these in 20 years – that’s why.

Port Townsend has a unique challenge, most cities of our size and tax base have far fewer miles of built road.  I believe we have 88 miles of paved roads here, and a city of 10,000 people would normally have half that or less. … We don’t begin to have the budget to fix these.

Do we pay $900,000 to pave one mile, or do we use that for grant match money so we get 20 times our amount? So that’s part of our tap dance that’s happening here.

This is how we’re going to be able to fix the streets. And if you’ve got real problems with street funding, you need to take it to the state legislature, because that’s where that’s going to get fixed.

Transporation Grant – Discussion and Decision

As the meeting was running long, Faber asked each councilor which project they’d support on the grant application.

Wennstrom deferred to staff’s expertise, but when pressed went for 19th Street as “the area of greatest pain.”

Rowe said, “These are all fantastic projects, it was when I got to 19th Street – that’s the one we’ve got to do. As Ms. Yanke pointed out, we have actually had a bicycle fatality there, and it’s been recognized as a problem area for a long time. So if we can have any chance of getting funding to address that, that’s the one to go for.”

Amy Howard expressed that, “19th Steet is bizarre, it is built like a race track. I catch myself going down it and going, ‘Oh no!’ and having to brake. And I try to follow the speed limit. … That is a place where we have a known issue.”

Councilor Monica MickHager agreed with 19th Street, since “it hits the most bullet points the way I read them.”

Councilor Aislinn Diamanti also agreed with 19th Street, but would love for the next big project to be on Washington Street.

Councilor Ben Thomas explained, “I pretty much fall with everyone here on 19th. I’m concerned about developing a piecemeal approach to traffic calming. This Washington Street thing has come up a few times, I think rightly so – it’s one of those gifts we’ve given to the public to unite everybody, unfortunately, against us. [general laughter]  I don’t know how these choices were made before my time. Do we have a sense of an ongoing strategy for traffic calming? That [19th Street] seems to be the #1 street in town that’s way out of balance with the speed limit and the desired speed there.  So it seems really important, but I want to make sure we’re ready to do something that will look good 20 years from now.”

King replied that “The comprehensive street program is going to have a chapter dedicated to traffic calming. There is no one size-fits all on traffic calming, you need to really figure out the psychology of the street and why people are speeding. We want a cohesive effort on 19th Street.  And that’s why we applied for the study money to develop a cohesive plan before we implement. We’ll need to do that regardless if we get the study money or not, need to budget accordingly with the TIB grant.”

Thomas asked King “for clarification what we as a city have contributed to the Washington Street roundabouts. The question keeps coming up, and I keep telling people we didn’t really pay for them, but have of course have maintenance to deal with. Am I wrong to say we did not pay for them?”

King answered that “the traffic calming islands on Washington Street were funded by the neighborhood; the city provided staff time, part of that for testing it out. It’s basically modeled after the Seattle traffic-calming circles that they have in their neighborhoods. I try to use the term ‘traffic calming island’ because they are really not a roundabout. They’re really designed to obstruct the line of view, so you don’t have that open runway look on the street. … yes, the maintenance is ours.”

Faber agreed that 19th Street is essential, but wondered what is the cost difference between the Tyler and 19th Street projects. King answered that 19th Street would be a little more expensive.

Faber figured it would have been the other way around, so concluded, “If 19th Street is more expensive, then that settles it.  I was going to suggest, if it would be more cost effective to take the same money for Tyler Street, and then just ask that maybe 19th Street could be considered in some of the annexation dollar project so we could do both – but great … do the expensive one.”

However King clarified that banked capacity can’t be used on federal aid routes like 19th Street, whereas TIB grants can’t be used on anything but federal aid routes.

MickHager began moving to support a TIB grant application for 19th Street project with up to $75,000 match from Real Estate Excise Tax funds, when King interjected that the match needed to be increased to $150,000 to correct an error in the staff report. With 15% match, 19th Street could be a million dollar project.

Incorporating this amendment, MickHager moved, Wennstrom seconded, and council approved unanimously.

Request for Reconsideration

As the meeting wound down, I felt uneasy about the decision to focus this year’s big street improvement grant on slowing down 19th Street instead of repairing roads in bad condition, so I wrote council on August 4 requesting reconsideration of their choice:

Speeding problem or speed limit problem?

Years ago I attended a traffic planning meeting where expert consultants advised raising the speed limit on 19th Street to the 85th percentile of traffic speeds per transportation engineering best practices:

Research shows that the speed limit has little effect on how fast people drive. … While many drivers ignore speed limits altogether, others do try to follow them out of a sense of safety or obedience. This difference in speeds is actually more dangerous than if everyone were driving at a faster speed. We’ve all felt the frustration of being behind slow drivers and annoyance at aggressive drivers weaving through traffic. Both of these situations are dangerous and make traffic worse.

Raising the speed limit also has other benefits. It improves credibility of the speed limit sign if it consistently marks a reasonable speed for most drivers, not the speed at which politicians wish they would drive. It also improves relations with law enforcement. Rather than having to reflexively brake when seeing a police car, or worrying about selective enforcement of speed laws when everybody is traveling over the speed limit, rational speed limits mean that average drivers can simply go about their business. No one should have to worry about being pulled over for driving in a safe manner.

I wonder about the rationale now for reducing speeds on this arterial whose speed limit is arguably already too low. Does 19th Street really have a bad safety history over the decades?

Reading old Leader articles about the 2018 tragedy where a bicyclist flew over his handlebars into a car that turned in front of him, an accident that could have happened on any street in town and where car speed was not involved, it seems perverse to use this singular tragedy to prioritize up to a million dollars worth of irrelevant “safety islands”, “raised crossings”, “bulb-outs”, and “traffic calming” on a safe arterial in preference to repairing pavement or widening shoulders on roads that really need fixing.

Much of this is based on the backwards notion that if the majority of drivers have a hard time staying inside the speed limit on 19th Street, that proves there’s a dangerous safety crisis on this arterial — whereas the 85th percentile engineering approach takes this to indicate its speed limit has been set too low.

I drive or bicycle along 19th Street nearly every other day, and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it having any problems or “speeders” going more that 5 mph over the limit. It’s been probably my favorite stretch of road in town for forty years, and is practically perfect as it is, not Port Townsend’s #1 problem to solve. There is no need to mess with 19th Street and make it worse, at great taxpayer expense.

Give 19th Street some love and some paint and occasional maintenance, and it’ll be okay.

Censored: Men’s Eyes in Women’s Shower Room

by the Editors | Aug 4, 2022 | General

Editors Note: In the Free Press‘s ongoing efforts to expose censorship by local media, we are publishing a letter to the editor written to The Leader by long-time Port Townsend resident Julie Jaman. The letter, printed in full below, was submitted on July 28th following her experience at the Mountain View Pool, a City of Port Townsend facility operated in partnership with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. The Free Press reported in detail on the episode the letter describes. Other information outlets have since picked up the story, including The Post Millennial, The Distance, and the feminist REDUXX.

Not only did The Leader not publish Jaman’s letter, Jefferson County’s weekly “newspaper of record” provided no coverage of any kind about this significant incident. The violation of a biological woman’s right to privacy and her subsequent banning from the pool led to a police report, protests and counter-protests at the Mountain View Commons, as well as dozens of public comments at the August 1st Port Townsend City Council meeting. Rather than publish Jaman’s letter and/or a news story, however, this week’s Leader featured a public relations article promoting the Y on their front page. A call from Jaman to the editor was never returned, she says. Once again we see censorship by the legacy media in deference to local institutions and their biases.

Below is the letter The Leader chose not to print. The title was provided by Julie Jaman as part of her submission.

————————

Men’s Eyes in Women’s Shower Room

Editor, The Leader

Showering after my swim at Mt. View Pool, I heard a man’s voice. Peeking out I saw a man in a woman’s bathing suit watching little girls pull down their swimsuits In order to use the bathroom. “Get out of here,” I said.

This is the incident that caused a Y staff person to condemn me as discriminatory and banned me forever from using the pool – the pool with binary changing areas that my family has supported and used for 35 years. I sense I have arrived at the center of this topsy turvy world.

There is no signage on the door informing pool patrons that men will be using the women’s shower/dressing room if they identify as women. There is no place at the pool for women and girls to use who do not want men watching while they shower and dress.

I spoke with a Port Townsend police detective and with the Y’s CEO, Wendy Bart. This, so far, is not a legal incident. However, the CEO provided some information of concern. Ms. Bart told me she assumes the posted “pride” signs indicating the Y welcomes all people are adequate for women to know crossdressers and men who identify as women will be using the women’s dressing/shower room. And she told me that it is the law not to discriminate against such people and that she was standing by her staff person’s decision to exclude me from the pool.

However, there is no way around discriminating against someone in this sex classification vs. gender identity issue when it comes to modesty, dignity and safety. Someone is going to be trespassed. This time it was me: the pool manager, with no inquiry for my well being or concern for what I saw and while I was still in the shower, told me I was discriminating against this man and booted me from the pool.

“Pride” signs act as a euphemism allowing men into the spaces women have always trusted as safe from the eyes of men. The Olympic Peninsula Y is remiss in not posting clear signage on the dressing room doors and for not providing a unisex or family place for those who want to mix it up.

Julie Jaman
Quimper Peninsula

————————

Additional coverage by the Free Press is forthcoming.

Mountain View Pool Punishes Woman For Her Gender Expression and Identity
– Part One –

by Jim Scarantino | Aug 2, 2022 | General

An 80-year old woman who expressed extreme discomfort and fear about a male in the women’s shower area of the Mountain View Pool was permanently banned from using the facility.

For 35 years the Mountain View pool—a City of Port Townsend facility now operated in partnership with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA—and its women’s showers had been a safe place for her. But not that day. The woman had to stand naked in the presence of the male, a YMCA employee, despite her pleas and demands that he leave. She was also very concerned that this male was watching little girls as they peeled off their swimsuits. Another YMCA employee called the police on the woman. The woman was initially instructed by a Y employee to leave, but then prohibited from exiting the building by two YMCA employees. She exclaimed, “Bullshit! I need the police!” and left to report the incident immediately to the Port Townsend Police Department.

Julie Jaman has been in Port Townsend for about 40 years. She has been swimming at the Mountain View pool for most of those years. She raised children in Jefferson County. She has been a Democratic voter. She describes her gender identity and expression as rooted in her biological sex. “I am an XX woman,” she says, referring to the chromosomal characteristics that make women women and distinguish them from men. Her gender identity and expression, she says, have been shaped by eight decades of womanhood and life experiences that implanted feelings, reactions, intuition and wisdom, strengths, vulnerabilities and preferences.  Jaman is a woman whose gender expression and identity recoil at being naked against her will in the presence of strange males and whose mothering instincts (“the momma bear in me,” she says) surfaced when she saw a man in a woman’s bathing suit looking at nearly naked little girls.

Julie Jaman’s Story

Jaman says that on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, she was swimming when the Y’s aquatics manager, Rowen DeLuna, told her that a group of children were going to use her lane. Julie left the pool and went to the women’s showers. There are no private showers. They are all clustered in a common area that requires users to step into and out of the showers in the view of others. The light curtains on each shower stall do not provide much of a shield from the eyes of others.  One can see out as well as in.

Rainbow flags and “pride” stickers fill the rooms and corridors of the Mountain View Pool facility, with no signage warning users that biological men identifying as women can use formerly women-only showers and toilets.

While lathered up in the shower Jaman heard a definite, low male voice. She saw a male in a woman’s swimsuit very close to where she was showering. Julie says he was “looking at the little girls as they were taking off their suits.” She remembers about four little girls being in the room.

Jaman says she was shocked. “There were gaps in the curtain and there I was, naked, with soap and water on me, and this guy, right there very close to me. I asked, ‘Do you have a penis?’ He said, ‘That’s none of your business.’ That’s when I told him, ‘Get out of here, right now.’”

Jaman then noticed that DeLuna was also there just outside her shower stall. Julie said to her, “Get him out of here.” DeLuna responded, according to Jaman,”You’re discriminating and you can’t use the pool anymore and I’m calling the police.”

Jaman remembers standing there stunned, naked and wet. “There was no concern for what I was experiencing.” DeLuna never asked “if I was okay.” Nobody explained anything to her. The male in the woman’s swim suit did not display anything identifying him as a YMCA employee. She does not remember getting dry and dressed. She exited the showers and entered the foyer to leave the building.

DeLuna was at the door and told her, “You have not abided by our principles and values.” Jaman said, “I am respectful, but I’m not a Christian and I don’t follow Christian ideology.” She told us she was referring to the “C” in YMCA which once stood for “Christian”. Jaman said she raised concerns about her loss of dignity and being stripped of her sense of safety when she was in a vulnerable state. She raised concerns about the little girls being naked in front of the male in the swimsuit. DeLuna dismissed her concerns by sharing a past trauma of her own. Another YMCA staff member then appeared and told Jaman that she could not leave. DeLuna said the same thing, either before or after this other person. Jaman said, “Bullshit! I’m going to the police right now. I want help and I need it immediately.”

The police department in the Mountain View Commons complex is just a few yards from the door to the pool. Jaman filed a complaint about what had happened and was told she would be called. Port Townsend Police Officer Marc Titterness called her and she told him what happened.

Jaman also called Wendy Bart, the CEO of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA and left a message. They were able to talk later that day.  Bart said she had talked to her staff and stood by their actions, including banning Jaman from ever again using the pool. Bart said a staff member told her that Jaman said to the male in the woman’s swimsuit, “You’re going to stick your fucking penis in those little girls.” Jaman adamantly denies saying any such thing.

Ms. Bart told Jaman she assumes the posted “pride” signs indicating the Y welcomes all people is adequate for women to know that crossdressers and men who identify as women will be using the women’s dressing/shower room. In a written comment to the Port Townsend City Council, Jaman stated:

“The YMCA should immediately post clear signage indicating the existing dressing/shower rooms will be used by the opposite sex who gender identify differently. Also, all parents who send their children to YMCA programs should be informed that men who identify as women are allowed to accompany little girls into the dressing and bathroom areas.”

“This is unbelievable,” Jaman says. She says she did not sleep for days following the incident.

The YMCA’s Side of the Story

We have asked Bart, DeLuna and Clementine Adams to state what they say happened. Adams, a first year college student, is the male who was in the swimsuit and in the shower area while Jaman was naked. We let them know that we always publish verbatim and in full every word written to us in response to questions. None of them have responded to telephone calls or Facebook messages.

Police Call Records Support Key Parts of Jaman’s Story, are Vague on Others

Officer Titterness summarized his conversation with Jaman in a police call report obtained by the Free Press. He says that “Julie,” as he refers to her, was using the “restroom” and “heard a man’s voice and observed what appeared to be a man in a female bathing suit assisting a small female child.” Jaman became “very triggered” and “had an emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit.” Officer Titterness and Jaman “had a long discussion about the complex issue.” [Jaman states she did not claim to see any touching; see author’s note at the end of the article.]

The report we obtained also records calls made by someone from the YMCA who refused to identify themselves. The anonymous caller told the police that “Clementine was in the bathroom with a child in the day camp and Julie asked if she had a penis and started screaming at her to get out.” In another call, the anonymous caller said that “Julie” has “been asked to leave and is refusing.” Another call from the same person was recorded as Julie “was screaming at employee and calling names and refusing to leave.” Nothing appears in the contemporaneous call records about Jaman saying anything like what the YMCA’s CEO says was reported to her sometime after the incident.

A Word on Words: He, Her, Trans, Male, Female, Man, Woman

What Jaman saw is what will be described here as “a male in a woman’s swimsuit.” How Adams sees himself does not alter the physical facts in the shower room on that day. Jaman was very upset at finding herself naked in front of a male in a woman’s swimsuit, and seeing this male looking at little girls in various stages of nudity. Adams was not excluded from the facilities. It was Jaman who was told to leave when she expressed her gender identity, sensitivities and vulnerabilities. State law imposes obligations upon and prohibits actions by the Y and its employees; state law imposes no duty upon Jaman to overcome or hide her concerns, fears and humiliation about being suddenly naked, without consent, in front of a male unknown to her in a place she had considered safe for more than 30 years.

What is a woman? Adams declared himself to be a woman in March of 2022 according to his Facebook page; Jaman has been “an XX woman” for eighty years since the moment of her birth. To describe Adams as a woman would be disrespectful to “XX women” shaped by immutable biological blessings and their life’s journey, joys, struggles and wounds as a woman.  Anything less implies there is nothing all that special and profound about womanhood. Uttering the word “woman” cannot change biology nor instantly give a biological XY chromosomal male the intuition, strengths, vulnerabilities, emotions, powers, and wonderous, incomparable gifts unique to those astounding and amazing human beings who are, in fact, women.

The YMCA’s Violation of Washington State Law Against Discrimination of the Basis of Gender Expression or Identity Protects Jaman

WAC 162-32-060 states that all public accommodations “shall allow individuals the use of gender-segregated facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms and homeless or emergency shelters, that are consistent with that individual’s gender or expression or gender identity. In such facilities where undressing in the presence of others occurs, covered entities [like the YMCA] shall allow access to and use of a facility consistent with that individual’s gender expression or gender identity.”

Julie Jaman’s gender expression is that of a woman in the traditional sense, the sense understood by most of her generation and all past generations until a few people have attempted fairly recently in human history to erase that identity by asserting it can be claimed by declaring oneself to be a woman. Jaman’s gender expression and identity recoils at and rejects appearing naked in front of men in public restrooms or showers, or seeing naked men in similar places, all without her consent and against her will. In this way, it is similar to a sexual assault, though Jaman has not used that terminology explicitly. For her it is palpably wrong, humiliating and threatening. This gender expression was strongly displayed when she was “triggered” and lost her sense of safety upon finding a male in a swimsuit just a few feet from her while she was naked during her shower.

This law is not a law exclusively for those humans who identify themselves the opposite gender of their biological sex. It is not so limited by its language. It is a law that protects ALL gender expressions and identities, including those of Julie Jaman. It prohibits the YMCA from denying use of its facilities to even the most puritanical, unyielding, judgmental, heterosexual, even bigoted male or female to the same extent such discrimination would be illegal against an inconsiderate male or female expressing their sexuality as other than their biological gender. Jaman’s discomfort and concerns are entitled to the same unquestioning deference and response as it would have to grant anyone asserting their gender expression or identity.

She had never before in her experience been subjected to, against her will, being in the presence of a male while naked in the Y’s showers. The first time it happened, and the first time she vocally expressed her gender identity, the Y called the police and has forever now denied her use of this public accommodation. Julie Jaman was under no legal obligation to surrender the sensitivities and preferences that spring from her gender identity. The state law applies to the YMCA and its employees, not to her.

Instead of ignoring and condemning Jaman’s gender expression, Y employees DeLuna and Adams were legally obligated to accommodate her gender expression and related preferences. They should have acknowledged and honored Jaman’s preference that Adams grant her privacy by removing himself, at least until she was dressed. DeLuna and Adams have not responded to our questions as to why they acted as they did instead of allowing Jaman to use the facility she had for decades been using in a manner consistent with traditional gender expression and identity.

State Law Recognizes the Legitimacy of Expressions of Concern and Discomfort

WAC 162-32-060(2)(a) states “If another person expresses concern or discomfort about a person who uses a facility that is consistent with that person’s expression or gender identity, the person expressing discomfort should be directed to a separate or gender-neutral facility, if available.”

This is what Julie Jaman is asking for now. The Legislature legitimized such concerns by providing a procedure for addressing them. Jaman believes that if biological males will be in the women’s shower room—where there is no privacy—then the YMCA should provide a separate or gender-neutral facility for women (or men) with gender expressions and gender identities that experience discomfort, insecurity and humiliation from as the result of being naked in front of unknown persons of the opposite sex, or being exposed to their nakedness.

I asked Erin Hawkins, who is identified as the YMCA’s person for marketing and communications, what the Y is doing now to protect the dignity and gender-based sensibilities of someone like Julie Jaman. Hawkins said such a person should do their best to wrap themselves in a towel and deploy the shower curtain while washing. She acknowledged that the shower area is not private and had no answer for how someone like Julie Jaman would be shielded from a male exposing his genitals. As for employees like Adams, she said, the Y provides separate dressing and shower facilities.

Protest and Obfuscation

Jaman and supporters held a protest outside the Mountain View pool on Monday, August 1, 2022. They argue that in 2021 the YMCA promised, quoting Y literature, “the addition of family changing rooms/all-gender bathrooms…” but instead “took over the traditional binary areas” to accommodate individuals with gender identities different than their biological gender. Jaman and her supporters want the Y to provide three separate dressing areas: men, women and gender-free.

After the protest, a large number of concerned citizens also addressed City Council that evening. Though they don’t address the state law in their list of demands, the Y could not require a man in a women’s swimsuit to use a gender-neutral room, but it would be available to resolve conflicts between gender expressions and identities. A male in a woman’s swimsuit could show respect and compassion by using the alternative area voluntarily instead of forcing himself and his preferences on non-consenting women, and vice versa. At least there would be an option to resolve conflicts.

Trans activists who organized a counter protest have been trying to tear down Jaman as a bigot, though she is only asking what the trans people they advocate for have been asking: a place that fits her gender expression and identity where she can be herself and feel safe and dignified. The activists are trying to make the question one of an attack on trans people instead of a plea by Jaman and other women with similar gender expressions and identities to have their rights equally recognized and served by the YMCA. As the sign of one of Jaman’s supporters said, “Women’s rights are human rights.”

What is becoming clear in the attacks on her, as Jaman wrote to us in an email, “It seems everything is about them. No one else’s needs matter.” The Y and the trans activists are demanding that women like Jaman surrender their gender expressions and identities, change who they are and their gender-based emotions, values and sensibilities, in order to accommodate people such as Adams.

Jaman says she is considering her options, including pursuing legal remedies for violation of her rights. As things now stand, despite the Y’s pledge of inclusivity and respect, its facilities are not a place where everyone can feel safe and assured that their dignity is being respected.

A facility like the Y must take at face value a person’s assertion of their gender expression or gender identity. Washington’s law on nondiscrimination in use of public facilities does not permit questioning the basis for a person’s preference for facilities consistent with the asserted gender expression or identity.  A man dressed as a lumberjack, or in a cut off shirt to revealing massive biceps, who comes across as very macho and stereotypically masculine, may use the women’s facilities. If questioned, he need only say they are at that moment consistent with how he identifies—even if this is but a ruse so he can gratify himself by seeing naked women and children or gratify himself by exposing himself to them.

If a women who identifies as a man objects to biological males sharing the same showers with her (asserting to be comfortable only around people with their same gender expression and identity or women in general), the YMCA must allow them use of a space consistent with that preference. Just as a man who identifies as a woman need not substantiate feelings and objections to using a shower or bathroom inconsistent with who they say they are, Jaman need not undergo cross-examination in the assertion of her feelings of invasion of privacy, humiliation, vulnerability and fear. In the next installment, we will, though, examine the justification for concerns about biological males in women’s facilities. These are not frivolous concerns. We will also report on an extraordinary, impassioned session of Port Townsend’s City Council where both sides of this controversy shared their views.

[Author’s note: The police records say that Jaman reported seeing the male in the woman’s swimsuit “helping a young girl take off her bathing suit.” That would have required some physical contact. In comments to the article Jaman says, however, she did not see any physical contact, but saw the male in the woman’s bathing suit looking at 4-5 young girls pulling down their swimsuits. The use of the word “touching” in the original posting of this article was based on the police report of the interview with Jaman. That word has been deleted at Jaman’s insistence. To her credit, she wants the story reported as accurately as she can recall events.]

Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
BRIAN PRUIETT
for State House

by the Editors | Jul 29, 2022 | General

Readers Roundtable with Candidates:

For this year’s primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here’s your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you’ll even get the chance for a couple rounds of follow-up questions!

Participating candidates have agreed to engage with commenters for at least three days following publication. Candidates can expand upon and clarify their views; voters can get a deeper look into what they have to offer. The candidate will reply daily to each posted comment during the 3-day period. Candidates can reply as expansively or as briefly as they want, optionally writing collective replies to multiple similar comments or commenters who post multiple times during the same day. Comments that violate PTFP commenting policy will be blocked or removed by moderators so won’t qualify for candidate replies.

All contenders in local primary races with at least three candidates were invited to participate in these roundtables —

Jefferson County Commissioner: 
Jon Cooke, Greg Brotherton, Marcia Kelbon

WA State Representative, District 24, Position 1: 
Sue Forde, Mike Chapman, Matthew Rainwater

WA State Representative, District 24, Position 2: 
Steve Tharinger, Darren Corcoran, Brian Pruiett

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B R I A N    P R U I E T T

I’m Brian Pruiett. I grew up here in beautiful Washington state where the blue-green sea meets our forested hills and white-capped mountains. My wife Kathleen and I have four children and six grandchildren, and a dog named Maggie. We live on a small farm in Clallam County where I propagate heirloom varietal fruit trees and produce a natural hay crop. After retirement I started rehabbing single homes and duplexes for low-income housing. I’m a member of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), Carlsborg VFW, and Jefferson County Sportsmans Club.

I am currently in my third year of campaigning to be your State Representative for Position 2, in our 24th Legislative District, which spans from Brinnon to Port Townsend to Cape Flattery to Ocean Shores to Elma. In my first attempt at running, in 2020, I won 47 percent of the district vote. My prospects are very good.

The questionable behavior of our current ruling party in Washington State during the recent Covid crisis and never-ending Gubernatorial emergency powers indicates it is time for a change. Solid, successful leadership is what I bring to change troubled times into better living. My national and international level experience provide the way ahead, TO DO what needs to be done.

I’ve had three career paths, which I believe will add value to my service to you, in Olympia:

In the military, I learned how to work hard and smart. I was recognized with over 30 awards including the Bronze Star Medal for service in Afghanistan. I was selected for promotion ten times and retired as Lieutenant Colonel, Battalion Commander. I also served a three-year appointment as Inspector General, implementing organizational excellence, inspections, investigations, also dealing with corruption, crime, and malfeasance.

I have real-life experience in Natural Resource Management through my work at the U.S. Department of Interior. I have lived and worked in the Powderhorn Wilderness Area, in Colorado. I served as reclamation and soil scientist for three mining companies in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. I’ve facilitated endangered species surveys, fought fires in Wyoming and South Dakota. I facilitated rangeland management for the northeast quarter of Wyoming, including oil and gas development of roads, pipelines, powerlines, compressor stations, well locations, and rehabilitation of them all.

I served as a Supervisory Human Resource Officer, Department of the Army Civilian (DAC), which is the chief personnel officer supervising the directors of Personnel Management, Drug Demand Reduction, Family Programs, Equal Opportunity, Educational Services, and the contractors for both the Child and Youth Services and Gold Star Family programs.

Collectively, my life experiences have prepared me for the call of duty to serve in the Washington State Legislature. I am compassionate about the value of every human being. Hence, I am a populist: I have faith in God and the intrinsic ability of ordinary people to attain extraordinary things. I am a decorated combat veteran, experienced worker and leader who wants to ensure freedom of choice in lifestyle, career, education, vocation, housing, healthcare, and life in general.

As we have learned from our experiences over the past couple of years, we cannot take our freedoms for granted. Partisan politics have put our freedoms at risk. We need leaders who are driven by the courage of their convictions who use their positions of power to empower others. Elections matter.

Every aspect of our lives is subject to the policies enacted by those we elect, such as commerce, transportation, religious freedom, taxation, parental rights and responsibilities, educational choices, and so on. It’s imperative that we elect those who will genuinely advocate for our safety, wellbeing, and common interests, operating under the laws, rather than instituting lawlessness.

Here’s what I propose we do to get things on track:

We need to make sure taxes support critical needs and are the best priorities for funding. We need a healthy budget rather than a bloated one. Overall inflation is running about twenty percent per year and your financial wellbeing must be the highest priority.

I will support these two bills to increase housing affordability: HB1232 for affordability and HB2049 for permit reform. Do you support reduction in permit fees, “smart-sizing” building and septic codes?

We need drastic reductions in state spending. Our state population went up just 15 percent in ten years but the state spending went up over 75 percent. This is an avoidable, unreasonable, and unaffordable burden which must change. In addition, our local protests over ‘unfunded mandates’ are focused on real, increasing burdens (including the Growth Management Act), which we approved with I-62, and again, in 1993, with the passage of I-601.

Together, these two initiatives in the RCW state, “… the legislature shall not impose responsibility for new programs or increased levels of service under existing programs on any political subdivision of the state unless the subdivision is fully reimbursed by the state for the costs of the new programs or increases in service levels.”

Our majority Democrat-run government isn’t listening to us.

For example, the incumbent, Steve Tharinger, has aggressively pushed every gimmick and means he can take more of your money and spend it. He boasts about being Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, and being on the Appropriations Committee, which cast aside our votes for $30 Car Tabs. He instead boosted many other fees, some as high as five hundred percent, just this year.

The Legislature has ignored these and many other directives of the people, including the overwhelming vote by Jefferson County against higher property taxes. Do you support a freeze on property taxes at the time of purchase, to be reset upon the next transfer of the property? I do.

We need to restore our Public Works funds for small cities and towns like Port Townsend. Tharinger voted to take them away for the next two years.

Reducing inflation is critical. With our state median home sale price, according to Redfin, jumping from $400,000 to over $600,000 from 2020 to 2022, the net impact to all of us is increased homelessness and reduced availability to working class families.

I support repeal of the two new fuel taxes. The incumbent I will replace and his Democrat Majority have further exacerbated this high cost by voting in two new state laws, HB 1091 and SB 5126, Low Carbon Fuel tax, which started this July and will completely kick in on January 1, 2023. They will really amplify the pain you feel at the gas pump and the grocery store.

I advocate for term limits for our Governors. The incumbent stated he supports unlimited terms but, then, he is a career politician and I am not. Do you think terms should be limited?

I support a limit to emergency declarations. The incumbent says the legislature acts too slowly so we need the emergency powers along with its spending and overregulation, and he thinks this should be endless and remain untouched. We are now over nine hundred days into the C19 Emergency. You be the judge.

I advocate for our entire criminal justice system including family, mental health and drug courts. Prison is usually not the best place to house violent mentally ill people, many who can be helped by medication and therapy. I have friends who work with these people in need. Do you support a new state mental health hospital?

I advocate for street drugs to be made illegal again. People need to be offered a hand up, but no more handouts without a verified commitment to change. What do you think should be done?

I advocate for a new fully funded and fully capable state crime lab. The right to speedy trial is a basic civil right for all..

Our peninsula road network needs prioritization. Highway 112 the 35 miles of Highway 101 south of Forks, and Highways 101 and 104 are critical. Which do you think needs repair?

I support school choice and parental rights. I am against corrupted “Critical Race Theory” and am against teaching young children sex education infused with gender confusion. The state public system is collecting almost $19,000 per student, for failing grades. It’s time to get back to basics and answer parental concerns. Did you know some private schools cost as low as seven to eight thousand dollars per year, and many have cost share or scholarships available?

I advocate for high school-trade school certification-level training by age 18.

As you can see, we have a lot of work to do to get our state back on track. First and foremost, we need to set things straight right here on our peninsula. That’s where you come in. I live here and so do you. We have nothing to gain from either of us failing. As your State Representative, I will not only value your input, I will solicit it, I WILL LISTEN and I WILL ACT based on what citizens of the district want and need.

Let’s start right here, right now! I’m looking forward to engaging with you through your questions and comments to this post. I humbly ask for your vote for Brian Pruiett for State House in the August 2 Primary and again in the November General Election. Learn more about my campaign at vote4pruiett.com.

Brian and his dog Maggie.
All photos provided by Brian Pruiett
Top photo: Brian and his wife Kathleen

First Responders Show “Unprecedented” Support for Sheriff Nole’s Re-election;
Frank Responds

by Jim Scarantino | Jul 25, 2022 | General

Jefferson County’s Sheriff deputies, its captain and all its sergeants, all of the correctional staff and the firefighters have endorsed the re-election of Sheriff Joe Nole.

“I’ve never seen this much support over an election before,” says JCSO Sergeant Brandon Przygocki, who has worked in law enforcement in Jefferson County for the past 16 years. “[T]he entire department is in support of Sheriff Nole’s re-election. Every union within the JCSO unanimously voted to endorse him.” Art Frank, Nole’s opponent, a JCSO detective, did not vote on the endorsement.

We quote at length these endorsements because (1) this level of widespread, unanimous support from first responders is, as Sergeant Przygocki says, truly unprecedented in a sheriff election; (2) the letters of endorsement provide inside information not well known to the general public; and (3) Mr. Frank has provided a quite lengthy response (it is our policy to print in full and verbatim all statements sent to us in writing). The complete letters of endorsement may be read at Nole’s campaign website. 

Firefighters for Nole

Local 2032, East Jefferson Professional Firefighters, has joined law enforcement in calling for Nole’s re-election. In an open letter the firefighters stated:

For the entirety of Joe Nole’s time as Sheriff, we have experienced a professional and collaborative relationship with his officers, which is indicative of his strong relationship. He has established a culture built around serving the community he is charged to protect, and operating as an equal partner with Fire and EMS. This level of cooperation between public entities is not always common and should not be taken for granted

The Firefighters endorsed Nole in his campaign to unseat then-incumbent Sheriff Dave Stanko in 2018. “Your local firefighters feel safer with Joe Nole as Sheriff, and for the second time we are honored to strongly endorse” his re-election. This endorsement is noteworthy as Frank, while working in the Sheriff’s Department as a Detective, is a firefighter and Board Chair of the Quilcene Fire Department (Marcia Kelbon, who is running for the District 3 County Commission seat is also on the Board of the Quilcene Fire Department). Brinnon’s Fire Chief, Tim Manly, has also endorsed Nole’s re-election.

Correctional and Animal Control Staff for Nole

In their endorsement of Nole’s re-election, The Corrections, Civil and Animal Control Guild, wrote about Nole’s work on a side of law enforcement only those incarcerated or working in the jail may ever see:

[Sheriff Nole] has professionally guided the Sheriff’s Office through protests, defunding the police debates, police reform laws and unprecedented times with the Covid-19 pandemic. By its very nature, the jail was one of the most at-risk within in the County in dealing with Covid. With Sheriff Nole’s hands on leadership, we were able to not only weather the pandemic but thrive, by improving operations and equipment to better ensure safety for the staff and inmates we are charged with caring for. Sheriff Nole worked to revitalize the nearly defunct Animal Control Program by hiring a full time Animal Control Deputy. This has allowed for more time…responding to citizen animal complaints and investigating potential crimes against animals….  It has led to a successful prosecution of, and rescue of several animals from a prolific animal abuser…. Sheriff Nole understands the challenges law enforcement and the community face with substance abuse addiction and behavioral health and has been highly supportive of the Residential Treatment Program now provided to inmates. He also regularly attends Behavioral Health Court, engaging directly with and encouraging participants, and providing guidance to help make the program continuously successful.”

Deputies for Nole

The letter of endorsement from the Deputies Union stated:

Sheriff Nole has grown and repaired relationships within the community allowing for more collaborative criminal investigations….[He] has restored morale through support, communications and training. Washington State recently experienced one of the most widespread and cumbersome law enforcement reform seen in decades. Sheriff Nole was able to navigate the Department through these changes through a collaborative approach, reducing stress among our staff.  Sheriff Nole has been a quality manager and leader, always leading by example and entrusting his Command Staff to supervise, teach and train deputies to be quality law enforcement officers of this community.

Command Staff for Nole

The letter of unanimous endorsement from the JCSO Command Staff (captain and four sergeants) lauded Nole for “adding body cameras to invest in community trust” and bringing aboard a mental health navigator. The five men signing the letter relate that they have, combined, more than 100 years of law enforcement experience. They have worked under a number of sheriffs, emphasizing:

Sheriff Nole’s ability to communicate with humility and respect, regardless of rank or status, is the cornerstone of his success.

They added, as have deputies, that these qualities set Nole apart from his opponent.

Art Frank’s Response

Mr. Frank provided the following statement in response to the Free Press asking for comment on the first responder endorsements of Sheriff Nole’s re-election: