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| August 6, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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LEITEBS TO THE EDITDBV
Revisiting claim
on home rule
Editor, the Journal,
Well, I wasn’t sure anyone
was reading anymore. In
response to the Donna Davis
rebuttal to my (case for home
rule) article let me explain.
The remarks about the V
problematic department list
were based on information
passed on to me some years
back by a former retired po- /
lice officer with a contact in
the state Attorney General’s
Office. Since this cannot now ’
be verified as implied by Ms.
Davis, I stand in error and
this writing should be con-
sidered my retraction of that
statement. ’
Now for Ms. Davis’s re-
marks about the Board of
County Commissioners, she
should really attend their
public meetings regularly as
I once did. It should not take
long for her to. understand my
concerns. As to the comment
about graft I have yet to find
proof of that and was using
this term to show the read-
ers that our current form of
government could be subject
to this abuse just by its three
member structure.
As for malfeasance, this
is an entirely different mat-
ter. This I have actually wit-
nessed at chamber meetings.
Webster Dictionary defines
malfeasance as wrongdoing or
misconduct by a public official
to cause harm.
A recent example of this
was the purchase of the 01-
sen Furniture building. Ms.
Davis should get online with
masonwebtv.com and watch
the public testimony on this
matter. The commission’s
disregard for common sense
was shocking as well as sus-
picious.
Until such time we can
change our form of govern-
ment (home rule) and start
collecting fees from natural-
resource concerns includ-
ing a personal property tax
on marketable trees, we as
homeowners and small busi-
ness owners will be expected
to stop gap tax deficits only
to our detriment or in other
' words, death by a'thousand
cuts. ‘
As for the sheriffs depart—
ment, there is always room
for improvement. As someone
whose rights were once vio-
lated by a now former county
sheriff officer (who was show-
ing off at the time for a young
attractive female trainee), I
found myself arrested, hauled
out of my business in hand-
cuffs, spent four months in
legal limbo, two thousand
dollars in unrecoverable legal
fees, only to see the county
dismiss all charges against
me one business day before
my scheduled jury trial.
The officer who commit-
ted this blunder had a poor
job performance record, to
include a fatal shooting that
was initially deemed ques-
tionable. But as it seems to
happen in these cases, the
thin blue line got their stories
straight and the whole thing
got swept under the rug. My
attorney told me witnesses to
that incident claimed it was
murder. ~
The good news is that this
'officer is no longer in the
sheriffs department. Now
the bad news is he is a Shel-
ton city cop. This is a switch
that is known to happen with
defective officers. This proce-
dure will hopefully end with
a national register that re
quires the mandatory report-
ing of officer infractions.
Let’s hope with Sheriff
Salisbqu last “Whopper” of
a pay raise, he will be sure to
run an extra squeaky clean
department now and in the
twilight of his career leave
our sheriffs department in
better shape than he found
it. A personal note to Ms.
Davis if she is reading this,
we should sit down for coffee
somewhere and let me catch
you up on 29 years of my mu-
nicipal memories.
Patrick Burke
Shelton
Fight for better
government
Editor, the Journal,
One of the problems with
the commission form of county
government is that too many
decisions are driven by parti-
san politics, special interests
or the quest for free (grant)
money.
Part of the reason is ev-
ery few years we elect new
commissioner(s) who come to
the table with strong opinions
but little knowledge of how
government actually works.
And that’s a problem because
good government depends on
the stability that comes from
long-term planning, .consis-
tent strategy and stationary
goals, and you can’t get there
by constantly changing op-
erations to adapt to different
management styles.
With home rule, we tell
local government what to do,
not the other way around.
With home rule, voters can
override or rescind decisions
, they don’t approve of, like per-
mitting marijuana processing
operations in rural residential
zones. Home rule is the only
form of self—government au-
thorized by the Washington
state Constitution, and it is
« available to any county in
Washington with the vision to
see its advantages.
Journal Letter Policy
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A—5
The Journal encourages original letters to theeditor of local interest.
Diverse and varied opinions
are welcomed. We will not publish letters that are deemed libelous or
scurrilous in nature. All
letters must be signed and include the writer’s name, address and daytime
phone number,
which will be Used for verification purposes only. All letters are subject
to editing for length,
grammar and clarity. To submit a letter, email news@masoncounty.com, drop
it off at 227 W.
Cota St., or mail it to R0. Box‘430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Better representation,
more accountability, a binding
code of ethics and a process
by which voters can exercise
powers of initiative and ref-
erendum are just some of the
options available with home
rule.
Whatever path Mason
County chooses, the fight for
better local government is just
beginning.
Tom Davis
Shelton
Killing
themselves
Editor, the Journal
I cannot believe that Re-
publican leaders are trying
, to kill Republican voters,
even here in Shelton. I could
not believe the picture of the
Republican-sponsored can-
didates fair that was held in
Kneeland Park. Those who
did not wear masks, are you
trying to kill yourself? The
event could have been done
with masksand social dis-
tancing but looking at the
picture it was not. I think
the Republican sponsors
should be fined. Shelton has
reached community transmis-
sion stage. The virus is not
gone. Will it take someone
you know getting the virus
to make you a believer in
masks? This virus is not a
hoax or a conspiracy. If you
think So, go visit an over-
‘ whelmed hospital.
Ann Dagle
Shelton
Some thoughts
on mail-in ballots
Editor, the Journal,
I’m writing to correct the
record. *
In my letter published July
16, I wrote that Republican
officials across the country
have blocked access to voting
and used multiple methods to
reduce voter participation.
One of your readers wrote,
“Donna Branch-Gilby accused
the Republicans of hating
mail-in ballots. Below are ex-
amples of corruption in voting
caused by the use of mail-in
ballots
For the record, what I
actually wrote is: “ please
consider that in the past three
years a theme of Republican
leaders has been closing poll-
ing locations, bad-mouthing
mail-in ballot voting. Looks
like the Republicans do not
trust voters to vote!”
I have no idea how Repub-
licans feel about mail—in bal-
lots, I just know what they do.
As to the reliability of mail-
in balloting, I noted a state-
ment by Republican Secretary
of State Kim Wyman in The
Seattle Times on Aug. 2 (page
A14 column 1).
The statement reads, “in
the 2016 and 2018 elections
Wyman’s office identified 216
cases of potential fraud —
about 0.003 percent of the 6.5
million votes cast in those two
general elections.” Wyman
also stated that each poten-
tial case was pursued. None
caused a change in election
outcome.
I want to thank the letter
writer for giving me the extra
motivation to research the
details on the safety and reli—
ability of vote-by-mail. The
article titled “As big election
nears, states eye our vote
by-mail model” (Aug. 2, page
1) is full of reassuring facts
and gave me appreciation for
Wyman’s professionalism.
Donna Branch-Gilby
Port Orchard
Judicial Watch r
a shady source
Editor, the Journal,
Regarding your letter,
Mail-in ballots lead to trouble
(July 30, 2020; page A-5),
I was entranced by the let-
ter from Ardean A. Anvik. I
had never heard of his major
source of information for
his screed, Judicial Watch,
so before passing judgment
on his opinion I went to the
JW website. There I found
a statement by the organiza-
tion’s president describing
its purpose: “Judicial Watch,
inc., is a conservative, nonpar-
tisan education foundation,
which promotes accountability
and integrity in government,
politics and the law.” High '
sounding words when taken
at face value but upon closer
examination of the number
of and content of its articles,
I realized it is really an ad-
versarial publication, (i.e.,
adversarial to the Democratic
Party) and by extension any-
one who could even remotely
be described as a liberal.
With that in mind, I que-
ried their search engine for
studies sponsored by JW
about the subject of corrupt
voting. There were none that
. I could find, just references
to voting fraud. However,
on a wider internet search I
found numerous studies that
contradicted JW assertions of
widespread voter fraud. Pity
that JW couldn’t publish any
of their own, perhaps then I
would have been more amena-
ble to considering the veracity '
of Mr. Anvik’s opinions.
The term “eligible. voters”
is an amorphous phrase. The
number is only an guessti-
mate because the number is
constantly in flux as 18-year
olds become eligible while
eligible voters die. Perhaps
, a vote by an eligible voter
should be discounted if they
die between when they vote
and the election?
The specter of states or
counties having registration
rates of more than 100 percent
of age-eligible voters is con-
cerning but according to nu-
merous studies (none by JW)
the number of eligible voters
who don’t vote in elections
fluctuates from 50% to 75%
percent. When one considers
what percentage of registered
voters actually vote, this
specter becomes anon issue.
Also, when so many registered
voters don’t vote, what real
incentive is there for states
to “purge” their voter roles?
And if one examines the law-
suits brought by JW against
various states for not purging
their roles, one finds that the
states were following the law
but had encountered various
vexing problems, including,
how not to remove a legiti-
mate voter’s name and some-
one who freely chooses not to
exerCise his/her constitutional
right. '
, And lastly, I don’t under- >
stand the entire focus of Mr.
Anvik’s rant as he lives in
a state that does have have
mail-in ballots and has had
them for some time without
widescale fraud. Why can’t the
other 49 states do the same?
Perhaps, as Queen Ger-
trude in Shakespeare’s “Ham-
let” says, “The lady doth pro-
test too much, methinks?”
Bill Pfender
Shelton
see LETTERS, page A—6
These Times: ‘The 1.7% fatality rate is going to fall’
continued from page A—4
Feb. 29: “We have in the United
States 24 million cases 'of flu—like
illness, 180,000 hospitalizations,
16,000 dead from influenza. We
have zero deaths from coronavirus.
We have almost no cases. There
are people walking around out
there with the virus that don’t even
know they have it, it’s so mild. So
it’s going to be much more wide-
spread than we knew. It’s going to
be much milder than we knew. The
1.7% fatality rate is going to fall.
Where was the press during the
Mediterranean Corona outbreak,
where the fatality rate was 41%?
Why didn’t they get crazed about
MERS or SARS? This is an over-
blown press~created hysteria. This
thing is well in hand. President
Trump is absolutely correct.” —-
Doctor and media personality Drew
Pinsky
I Conflict Kirk Ericson at kirk@'
masoncountycom