The following is an mail shared with us anonymously that has been sent from the co-chairs of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority to the Mayor of Port Townsend. Due its anonymous origins it went into our spam box and we did not discover it until this evening. It was sent to us November 18. The email from the co-chairs to the Mayor, and also all members of City Council, was delivered November 16.
This letter discloses an ongoing criminal investigation and the escalation of other investigations into financial malfeasance that has rendered the Fort Worden PDA’s financial situation a “house of cards.”
The email appears authentic based on the level of detail, and key statements that are confirmed by matters in the public record. The information about the criminal investigation, and the disciplinary action against Dave Robison, who has now left after being CEO for nine years, has not previously been made public.
Here is the letter from the co-chairs of the Fort Worden PDA to Mayor Michelle Sandoval, with copies to the city manager and the Washington State Parks Agency Administration.
Mayor Michelle Sandoval
Port Townsend City Council via Mayor Sandoval
Port Townsend, Washington
Re: Fort Worden Public Development Authority
SENT BY EMAIL TRANSMISSION
Dear Mayor Sandoval and Members of the City Council:
As Co-Chairs of the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center Public Development Authority (PDA), we are acutely aware of the criticisms that have been expressed about the state of the PDA. Because of the financial irregularities that we have uncovered and revealed to the public, it is understandable that some in our community have lost confidence in the PDA and our leadership. We remain devoted to the Authority’s and Fort Worden’s long-term success and believe it will once again become a thriving place of arts, culture, and learning. We believe that we, along with our board members, possess the knowledge and experience required to partner with the new Interim Executive Director to complete the short-term mission critical requirements to secure the Makers Square Historic Tax Credits and mount a fundraising campaign for working capital to keep the Fort running (we received a $200K commitment on Friday). We both have the commitment to continue in our roles and believe that we have the experience and knowledge to lead the PDA out of this crisis. We are prepared to engage in dialogue about the future of the PDA and its leadership and to identify solutions to very difficult circumstances. Our goal has always been to create a win-win for the PDA, its partners, the City, our community, and State Parks.
We have heard from you and the City Manager that there has been a lack of accountability at the PDA. If by that you mean an unwillingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions, we must respectfully disagree with you. We have devoted ourselves nearly full-time to the PDA, and have acted with due deliberation in responding to net revenue shortfalls and audit findings, rethinking the future business model required for a long-term sustainable operation, confronting personnel problems, addressing financial irregularities that were uncovered, working in the face of impossible odds to find solutions to the collapse of revenue due to COVID shut-downs and restrictions, and collaborating with our Fort Worden partners to re-imagine business and governance models. When a member of our staff uncovered two very serious financial irregularities (totaling just over $10,000 combined), we immediately reached out to City Manager Mauro, Mayor Sandoval, the Port Townsend Police Department, and the State Auditor’s Office. We also engaged the services of a forensics account, who is also a certified fraud investigator, to verify the PDA’s preliminary findings, and we sought the counsel of a retired assistant district attorney who headed up a white collar crime unit. And just two weeks ago, we cooperated willingly and transparently with the State Auditor’s Office to identify potential risks as part of an upcoming 2018-2019 audit and accompanying Accountability Audit.
We also note that as part of the PDA’s 2016-17 Accountability Audit, which we did not receive until January 2020, the State Auditor’s Office stated that “Independent audits provide essential accountability and transparency for Authority operations. This information is valuable to management, the governing body and public stakeholders when assessing the government’s stewardship of public resources.” The PDA board as a whole and its co-chairs took very seriously the findings of the Financial Audit and the Accountability Audit. The State Auditor concluded in the Accountability Audit that, “This report describes the overall results and conclusions for the areas we examined. In those selected areas, Authority operations complied, in all material respects with the applicable state laws, regulations, and its own policies, and provided adequate controls over the safeguarding of public resources.” The State Auditors examined the following areas during this audit period: 1) Cash receipting-timeliness and completeness of deposits at the Café and Taps; 2) Accounts payable-credit card disbursements; 3) Payroll-gross wages and overtime; and 4) Procurement-professional services. Since that time, the Acting Associate Executive Director, who was given full responsibility for overseeing PDA finances, has discovered that the Authority has not complied in the past year in the area of Accounts Payable and Procurement of Professional Services, the latter where we have discovered alleged fraud. During the exit interview with the State auditors, both Treasurer Jackson and Co-Chair Hutton asked the auditors if there were any areas in which we should be concerned and pay particular attention, or if there were questions they should have asked that they did not. We were not directed beyond the findings of the Financial Audit and the Accountability Audit. The February 17, 2020 memorandum to the PDA and FW Foundation boards of directors, and interested parties and media outlined the PDA’s response to the audits and the actions the PDA would take to correct findings. The treasurer has worked diligently to ensure that the PDA financial staff followed through with these corrections.
Unfortunately, as our white collar crime counsel has emphasized, individuals intent on nefarious action can usually succeed. Our now Interim Executive Director, then serving as Acting Associate Executive Director with full financial and operational authority since June, discovered that the reports that the PDA Board received during the first and second quarters of 2020 were likely not tied to the general ledger. This possible misrepresentation of the PDA’s finances is now being examined by the State Auditor’s Office and our own contracted certified public accountant. The PDA’s accountability for this potential malfeasance is demonstrated by our engagement of highly respected expert in state and city finance to review our books, a forensic accountant, and two CPAs to restate our finances from GAAP to cash basis and prepare accurate financial reports.
It has also come to our attention recently that the PDA is being criticized for refusing this winter a significant gift in the $1 million range. Let us be clear that the PDA does not accept gifts, no matter their size, that are accompanied by conditions that are contrary to our long-erm viability. One of our longest serving directors strongly counseled against accepting this gift, and the co-chairs fully concurred. Despite the fact that the gift would have provided a much needed short-term benefit, it would have seriously compromised the PDA’s financial stewardship and established an untenable precedent.
As co-chairs, we have kept the PDA Board of Directors closely apprised of all issues and actions by staff, along with our own actions, and have been transparent in our decision making and financial reporting—well beyond what is required by statute. The one exception is that we had been asked by the Port Townsend Police Department and the State Auditor’s Office not to reveal publicly that we had reported information that suggested alleged fraud due to possible negative impact on an active ongoing investigation and potential future litigation. The situation in which the PDA now finds itself requires that its stakeholders understand more fully the full range of financial challenges confronting the Authority.
We are well aware that we have been criticized for not taking more decisive action regarding the now retired Executive Director’s apparent lack of oversight of key staff. Actually, we did take decisive action about which you are aware. As a result of our investigation and performance review, the former Executive Director was relieved of personnel and financial management responsibilities. We did not, however, show our Executive Director the door, which is what some in the community wanted and
expected. Neither one of us is unfamiliar with terminating executive staff. It is much more difficult sometimes not to take such action, and in this case we wanted to respect an individual’s intention to retire within a few months after a more than 30-year career serving Port Townsend in various capacities. Additionally, we made the decision that it was critical to utilize the knowledge and expertise the former Executive Director possessed to complete the Makers Square project and secure very complicated Historic Tax Credits, without which the PDA and the Makers Square project would be at serious risk. These two responsibilities are critical to giving Fort Worden a fighting chance. And it should be noted that we have discovered zero evidence that the former Executive Director had knowledge of or participated in the alleged fraud incidents. In retrospect, we would make the same humanitarian and business logic decision, even though we have experienced scorn for that decision.
The PDA has a remarkably committed and talented Board. They have demonstrated their commitment, devotion, and caring, as well as hard-nosed oversight and decision making for many years. A recent example of the extent to which they care for Fort Worden and its people was funding $80,000 out of their own pockets to cover three months of health insurance for all employees who were placed on standby status or furloughed. Individual board members have also covered expenses such as converting our existing GAAP financials to BARS accounting to facilitate the upcoming audit and paying delinquent insurance expenses. The range of experience and talent among the Board members is remarkable. The Board has experience in finance and accounting; hospitality management; business development; corporate and nonprofit leadership; construction management; education; public relations and strategic communications; publishing and reporting; and social and economic entrepreneurship. We trust that you appreciate all that the Board has done to build the Fort Worden enterprise and its commitment to sustaining a State Park’s campus that is home to a thriving lifelong learning center—one which has more room to grow, prosper, and become more coordinated and diverse in post-COVID times.
Finally, we would like to express a deep disappointment and a regret. It is public knowledge that the Fort Worden did not qualify for any federal, state, or county relief dollars. While other organizations—for profit and nonprofit—received Paycheck Protection Program and Personal Protection Equipment funding, the Fort Worden PDA received nothing. We know of nonprofit organizations in our area with much smaller budgets and much smaller staff that received $250,000 to $400,000 in relief aid. Fort Worden qualified for and received zero aid by virtue of being a quasi-public entity. This in the face of losing upwards of 90 percent of our revenue, leaving insufficient funds to cover even fixed costs like utilities, internet service, and insurance. The City knew this to be the case, yet has not offer any assistance to the PDA. The City leadership has always professed to the importance of Fort Worden—the PDA and all of its partner organizations—as a cultural and economic driver for the City. The original effort to create the PDA nearly a decade ago came out of this belief. We know full well that the City has its own enormous financial challenges. We hold out hope that the City would offer some tangible assistance to an organization that has grown from a $1 million to a $7 million enterprise in six years, and from just over 14 full-time employees to 85 full-time year-round employees, and 175 employees during the summer season (pre-COVID). We feel it is important to stress, contrary to some people’s beliefs, the reason the PDA is in this financial situation is due to COVID and our adherence to the necessary State restrictions that are still ongoing. As a result of the closure of Fort Worden State Parks in March and the ongoing restrictions, the PDA has lost upwards of 90% of its 2020 revenue. The financial irregularities that we uncovered have exacerbated the situation, to be sure. As co-chairs, our regret—our mea culpa—is that we have not advocated with the City more forcefully for the PDA during this crisis.
Undoubtedly, there are decisions and actions that we could have made differently or better. Yet, we have been absolutely devoted to “doing the right things, and doing things right” on behalf of Fort Worden. We remain committed to the future success of Fort Worden and have appreciated the opportunity to serve Fort Worden and Port Townsend in our capacity as PDA Board members and, recently, as co-chairs. We stand ready to engage in dialogue with the hopes of finding solutions to the crisis that has impacted the PDA, and every organization, every family, and every individual in our community and the nation.
Sincerely,
Norm Tonina Todd Hutton
Co-Chair Co-Chair
Cc: John Mauro, City Manager
Fort Worden PDA Board of Directors
David Timmons, Interim PDA Executive Director
Peter Herzog, Assistant Director, Parks Development, WA States Parks Agency Administration
A group of Democrat legislators has urged Governor Inslee to reverse his recent order again closing restaurants and bars to indoor service. In a November 16, 2020 letter to the Governor they criticized his order for lacking a scientific justification and imposing needless hardship on 100,000 hospitality workers, who will join the 93,000 workers in that industry already without jobs.
The legislators point out that less than 1% of COVID cases have been traced to dining in restaurants. They also dispute the Governor’s other claims that he used to justify his order closing restaurants and bars until December 14.
The figure cited by the legislators may be far less than 1% over the last months as it likely includes cases from early in the pandemic before mitigation measures were widely adopted.
The Democrat legislators who signed the letter range from Senator Mark Mullett, who owns several restaurants and whose reelection Inslee opposd, to very liberal Senators Joe Nyuyen and Rebecca Saldana who are reliable Inslee allies.
The legislators representing the Olympic Peninsula, Senator Kevin Van De Wege, and Representatives Steve Tharinger and Michael Chapman, did not sign onto the letter. The latest unemployment figures from the Washington Employment Security Division for Jefferson, Clallam and Gray’s Harbor Counties are 7.8%, 8.4% and 10.0% respectively. Port Townsend’s economy is heavily dependent on the hospitality industry.
The Washington Hospitality Association and former Governor Christine Gregoire, now CEO of Challenge Seattle, sent their own letter to Inslee, raising similar points. This may the first time that Democrat leaders have disputed the Governor’s claims about COVID and pointed to conflicting medical evidence that undermines the way he is exercising his otherwise unchallenged and essentially dictatorial emergency powers.
Promises to the State Auditor that an audit committee would provide enhanced financial oversight were broken. The Fort Worden Public Development Authority’s audit committee was not formally created until earlier this year, and it has rarely met. Even after revelations of irregularities and malfeasance that threaten the organization’s future, the audit committee has canceled its next scheduled meeting.
The Fort Worden PDA has never received a clean state audit. Every review by the State Auditor has found significant problems, ranging from misstating millions of dollars of debt as income to addition and subtraction errors. The response from the PDA has been that it would provide more training and resources to its financial team and that the PDA Board would form an audit committee to ensure that the problems were not repeated.
The State Auditor in February 2017 released adverse findings in its audit of the PDA’s first two years of full operation, 2014 and 2015. There was no audit for 2016 yet because the PDA was over a year and a half behind in getting that year’s information information to the State Auditor.
In response to the adverse findings, the PDA pledged that it was “implementing procedures to ensure internal controls are put in place and adhere[d] to in order to address this finding….” The PDA stated that this action was “our priority.” Further, the PDA said that it “has also established an Audit Committee to oversee future annual reporting as an extra measure to make sure accurate reporting takes place.” The State Auditor recommended strongly that staff receive the training and resources needed to do their job of preparing accurate accounts. The PDA pledged this would be done.
Yet, in the Executive Committee meeting discussing the findings by the State Auditor there was no discussion of these pledges and no motion by any Board member nor suggestion by staff to act upon those pledges. Instead, the Board and staff quibbled with and reframed the Auditor’s negative audit to minimize its significance. The minutes of that February 23. 2017 Executive Committee meeting may be read at this link. Indeed, David Robison, the executive director at the time–who held the position for nine years until November 2020–saw the negative audit as a positive reflection on the job his staff was doing.
Dave Robison said that to put things into perspective it should be noted that for a startup organization with complicated finances and operations, to have received only one finding in our first state audit is highly encouraging.
By the time of this discussion, the PDA had been in existence for seven years.
A review of the Board’s meeting minutes for all of 2017 shows no other discussion of the adverse State Audit, nor any action to create the promised audit committee and provide the enhanced staff training and resources strongly recommended by the State Auditor.
The next two years passed without discussion or action by the PDA Board to prevent a repeat of the negative audits for 2014 and 2015. No audit committee was formed. There was no action on upgrading the skills and resources of PDA’s accounting staff.
In February 2020, the State Auditor released negative audits for PDA’s 2016 and 2017 financial statements. In addition to submitting its 2016 data late, the PDA also was six months late in getting its 2017 financials completed and delivered to the State Auditor. Again, the State Auditor could not give the PDA a clean audit. It found $3.5 million in debt that was not reported, mathematical errors, and operating expenses and liabilities misstated for both years, among other problems. “Internal controls over financial statement preparation,” the Auditor stated, “were inadequate to ensure accurate and complete reporting.” Again the Auditor recommended that the PDA’s staff receive the training needed to do their job right. Again, the PDA told the State Auditor that it was forming an audit committee. “The Committee,” the PDA wrote in its response to the Auditor’s findings, “will perform regular review of internal financial controls, process and policies.”
Finally, at its February 26, 2020 meeting the Board took up a motion to create the audit committee. In discussion of the motion, Treasurer Jeffery Jackson claimed that the Executive Committee “has historically served as an audit committee.” {A review of all the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee, however, does not show that body undertaking any of the actions normally undertaken by corporate audit committees. They reflect no oversight of financial reporting or internal controls nor participation in the preparations for the state audits.) The motion passed unanimously. An “Ad Hoc Audit and Finance Committee” was born.
It did not meet until April 16. Its first agenda item was a review of financial reports presented by staff. There was no discussion of improving the inadequate financial controls which had led to four previous adverse audits by the State Auditor. There was no discussion of staffing needs or training the PDA’s accounting team. The balance of the meeting was about operations, cash flow requirements and projections, and recovering from the Governor’s lock down order. There was a discussion towards the end about the Auditor’s position that the Fort Worden Foundation, a related charitable fundraising group, should be included in the PDA’s financial reports. That was it as far as it went in responding to any of the State Auditor’s concerns.
Two months went by without another meeting of the audit committee. At its June 18 meeting there was no discussion of anything related to the problems identified by the State Auditor. All discussion was focused on budget scenarios, cash flow and the impact of the Governor’s COVID lock down orders.
The July meeting of the audit committee was canceled.
The August meeting of the audit committee was canceled.
No meeting was scheduled for September.
The October meeting was canceled.
On October 28, 2020 Acting Executive Director David Timmons reported alarming discoveries in the PDA’s financial picture. He found irregularities, malfeasance and other problems so severe they rendered the PDA’s finances “a house of cards.” Board members responded with surprise and concern. One Board member said she was “stunned.” See Port Townsend Free Press’s 11/5/20 report.
Despite the PDA’s precarious situation, the Ad Hoc Audit and Financial Committee has canceled its November meeting. No meeting for December is currently scheduled.
We have a housing crisis. Our Board of County Commissioners declared an Affordable Housing Emergency three years ago. But we have seen no movement on addressing one of the primary causes of our affordable housing shortage: minimum lot size regulations.
Jefferson County’s latest Comprehensive Plan was adopted in December 2018. Under the current development code the minimum lot size for any subdivision is 5 acres. This can and should be changed in the yearly amendment process. Nothing really stands in the way except politics and a conflicting desire by some powerful interests to make Jefferson County an ever more exclusive reserve for wealthy retirees and second-home owners.
The Growth Management Act does not require a 5 acre minimum lot size.
In Thurston County v. W. Wash. Growth Mgmt. Hearings Bd., No. 80115-1, the State Supreme Court ruled that there is no 5 acre “bright line” standard under the GMA. As a result of that decision, the Western Washington Growth Management Board has stated:
“The GMA does not define what constitutes “rural densities”; rather, rural densities are “not characterized by urban growth” and are “consistent with rural character.” “Whether a particular density is rural in nature is a question of fact based on the specific circumstances of each case.” Nor does the GMA dictate a specific manner of achieving a variety of rural densities. “Local conditions may be considered and innovative zoning techniques employed to achieve a variety of rural densities.””
So what is the minimum lot size in rural lands? To answer this question you need to look at the Growth Management Act. The answer waiting there provides hope for affordable housing in Jefferson County.
Under RCW 36.70A.070(5)(b) the GMA states that: “The rural element shall provide for a variety of rural densities….”
RCW 36.70A.030(17) states that: “Rural development can consist of a variety of uses and residential densities….”
And RCW 36.70A.030(18) states that: “Rural services do not include storm or sanitary sewers….”
Lastly, RCW 36.70A.030(20) states that: “Urban governmental services” or “urban services” include those public services and public facilities at an intensity historically and typically provided in cities, specifically including storm and sanitary sewer systems…”
In other words, the difference between “rural” and “urban” is whether there is an available sewer or not.
Under WAC 246-272A-0320 Table X the minimum lot size depends on the type of soils and whether there is public water available. The minimum lot size ranges from 12,500 square feet to 2.5 acres. Requiring a 5 acre minimum lot size is not consistent with the GMA. The minimum lot size could be 12,500 square feet (0.2869 acres). Another section of the GMA states that the determining factor for minimum lot is the type of soils (suitability for septic) and the availability of public water.
It is clearly up to the county itself to decide whether it wants a range of rural residential densities.
I would propose that based on the requirements of septic design under WAC 246-272A-0320 Jefferson could have two more zoning densities, 2.5 acres and a performance based zoning determined by septic capability.
The category of Performance Based Zoning would allow subdivision of property, which is something that was done in the past in Jefferson County, back when we built a good deal of affordable housing.
Affordable housing requires density. It is simply not affordable to build on a 5 acre lot. It is entirely feasible to build affordable housing on a 12,500 to 20,000 square foot lot.
We have a solid, legal opportunity to challenge the Jefferson County Comprehensive Plan. By opening up our land use regulations we can make it possible to again build on small lots around the county. And with that positive change, there will hope for truly affordable housing in sufficient quantity to make a difference.
Fort Worden’s $2 million glamping project is a soggy mess. I walked the hillside where the glamping project was supposed to have 19 luxury tents completed by June. The clouds were spitting rain and the wind cut like a knife. I counted only 16 sites under construction. Only one luxo-tent is completed. That is the model home for the development, so to speak. The rest are in various states of being somewhat done to just started.
I saw no evidence of the “event center” that was going to anchor the development. From what I can tell from public documents, the fancifully labelled “event center” was to be just a large mess tent.
16 tents for $2 million.
The platforms were sited to utilize extant sewer and water lines from the days when the military housed personnel on this hillside. The lines were fixed and upgraded. Electricity was run to each tent platform The rest is canvas and rope, lumber, plywood, nails, screws and PVC.
Those are indeed luxury tents: $125,000 each. That kind of money could have rehabbed quite a few rooms in Fort Worden’s existing inventory of buildings. It could have bought super-attractive tiny homes from GreenPods on Sims Way that could be rented as cabins year-round. These tents on that blustery, chilly hillside would be unheated and available for rent only during our summer months.
The project is deteriorating without bringing in any income. The tents last only ten years. For those few bundles of canvas that have been spread over frames, they will have one winter less in their life-span before they see their first glamper sipping Chablis and snacking on Brie and crackers.
It is doubtful this project will ever see completion. Acting PDA Manager David Timmons has discovered that $600,000 of the $2 million loaned by Kitsap Bank specifically for the project was diverted to other uses without Board approval.
I wrote that Fort Worden has been hit by the Cherry Street Project Disease. Examine the photos below. Similar causes, I wrote. Similar symptoms, too.
Delayed From the Start
A review of the minutes of the Fort Worden PDA Board of Directors shows that the glamping project fell behind even in the conceptual stage, which began in 2015. Three years later it got a Power Point presentation in February 2018. It was originally supposed to have a “soft open” in March 2020. That was critical to its financial viability. Then it was to be June, and there was talk of August. Now it’s opening date is no longer even under consideration.
By way of comparison, during the 4-5 years the Fort Worden PDA has been talking about and stumbling forward building some tent platforms, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe started and finished its multi-story hotel at its Blyn casino.
Governor Inslee’s lock down order stopped construction temporarily in mid-March, although government projects that provided housing were permitted to move forward. The PDA, curiously, did not try to shoehorn its project into this exemption. (A swimming pool in Port Angeles used the fact that it had a room for day care to continue construction as a government housing project.) Then, when a couple months later the Governor allowed construction across the board to resume, the PDA didn’t have the money it had borrowed for the project. In violation of the terms of its bond from Kitsap Bank, the PDA had diverted those funds elsewhere.
So the project sits empty, stalled out in cold, winter rains with water pooling on plywood platforms. It’s sharing that exposed, weathered plywood look with the Cherry Street Project.
The PDA’s loan to Kitsap Bank is due the first quarter of 2021. The PDA doesn’t have the money to pay what it owes. Kitsap Bank reportedly financed the $2 million glamping loan internally, which means our local bank will also a take hit due to the PDA’s malfeasance. Like a bank that lends to broke nations, there does not seem to be any collateral that can pay off some of the bad debt loss. And its not just that the PDA has fallen short; it violated the terms of its loan by spending the funds on things besides the project for which the loan was extended.
A Pipedream
Why did the PDA ever think that its costly glamping project made financial sense?
In a March interview with The Leader David Robison, PDA’s Executive Director for the past 9 years (but now retiring), said that Fort Worden’s glamping facility would be just like the one where he had stayed in Friday Harbor up in the San Juan Islands. The glamping facility there is the Lakedale Resort at Three Lakes.
Robison said that the PDA’s glamping tents would be almost exactly the same as these. I was able to peek inside the model tent (The vent was open. I zipped and snapped it shut after my look-see.) The single finished model does appear roughly similar to the Lakedale resort tents, but not as elaborately decorated.
The major difference is the surroundings. The Fort Worden setting is not comparable to Lakedale’s lakeside isolation. The PDA’s glamping sites, for which they had hoped to charge from about $170 to over $220 a night, are squeezed behind old Army buildings along black top roadways.
None of the tents pictured are finished. Their platforms are incomplete. In some, utilities are not connected and all are unfinished inside–just bare plywood for flooring, wires hanging from rafters, etc. (You can see some of this through windows that have been left open. I did not step inside any tents.) You could say that the few with canvas are just hiding all the work that’s been left undone.
As for the $125,000 luxo-tents in the trees (“incredibly luxurious,” Robison claimed), this is what they look like now.
But the Guard Shack is done–Or what’s with the Peninsula Daily News?
The Leader ran with a large front-page story about the financial crisis at Fort Worden. The widely read Jefferson County Facebook page, the on-line news outlet of Patrick Sullivan, former Leader editor, and Joe D’Amico of Security Services Northwest, provided expanded coverage on the crisis. The Port Townsend Free Press has run two stories about the impending collapse of the PDA’s house of cards and its years of dodgy finances (here and here). Not a word from the Peninsula Daily News. This is kind of, like, you know, a pretty big deal. The Fort Worden PDA is a pillar of Port Townsend’s creative community, it houses Centrum’s festivals, and it is one of the county’s largest employers with 170 on its payroll.
Two weeks after the alarming news broke, the PDN finally had news on Fort Worden. This was a front-page story!
(Photo, Zach Jablonski, Peninsula Daily News)
The old guard shack has been restored.
[It was pointed out to us since publication of this article that the PDN did have a story on the financial malfeasance at Fort Worden. But the information about the improper shifting of funds, credit card abuses and defalcations was buried deep into the article, and it took the PDN a full two weeks to acknowledge the crisis. And, to be clear, the guard house restoration was a project of the Friends of Fort Worden, which has been untainted by the financial scandals of the PDA.]
In closing, for your listening pleasure and reflection, here’s Richard Harris’s iconic ballad about how it feels when reality sets in and can no longer be avoided.
I’m not conceding this election AT ALL. Unless you can show me evidence of President Dewey and President Gore, you will understand that the media does not choose our president for us. They called those elections, too. They both flipped.
But that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to say is that No, we will not be holding hands and singing kumbaya. There will be no “healing and restoration.” I will not be playing hashtag “unity” and hashtag “community goodwill.”
I have just spent the last four years being demonized and disrespected by immature bullies who did not get what they wanted and used that as permission to call me uneducated, deplorable, brainwashed, hateful, a racist, a bigot, and other assorted names.
I’ve just spent 7 months practically locked down in my home over a complete lie. I’ve now barely got an income and I’ve watched far too many small businesses die. I’ve seen people lose their homes. I’ve watched people overdose on drugs and struggle with mental health and suicide issues and I’ve suffered tone deaf public officials and local leadership that just doesn’t care.
I’m not interested in forgiveness, instead I’m ready to see some people go to prison. What has been done to us is a human rights violation.
Don’t even get me started about “the church” at large. Some of the most vicious attacks have come from that direction, from the tolerance teams and the woke ones. I sure sucked some sour grapes today (November 7) reading those very same people trying to claim, NOW we need to pray for our leaders, we all just need to be more Christ-like!
No. Your authority is completely revoked. If I need to be more Christ-like, He’ll tell me.
I’ve grown up, I’ve learned a few things and I’ve gained some self respect. I will never again compromise my beliefs or my values just to help other people feel better. Relationships with people are no longer important to me and I won’t waste one moment investing in them. I’d rather be alone.
It’s a good place to be.
[Originally published November 7, 2020 at insanitybytes blog]
