Commissioner gets fact-checked

Is a German agency driving local economic decisions?

The Tuesday public comment period at weekly meetings is an opportunity to "listen, not respond," according to the three Clallam County Commissioners who sit silently keeping an eye on the three-minute timer. So, it was a surprise when Commissioner Ozias spoke from the dais wanting to correct one commenter's statements on March 12th.

"The North Olympic Development Council (NODC) does not have anything to do with the Dungeness Off Channel Reservoir Project.  They're not a project partner and have no involvement in that project."  Ozias continued, "It is a local stakeholder group that is wholly in charge of the work that the North Olympic Development Council undertakes, so it's not accurate to describe the work that that group does as being directed by any other organization."

The commenter, John Worthington, who had already used his allotted three minutes, quickly said, "I have evidence to the contrary and I'll tell you next week."

A week later, Worthington presented his evidence.  He began by refuting Commissioner Ozias' claims that the NODC has nothing to do with the Dungeness Reservoir Off-Channel Project. 

The massive reservoir, to be built west of the River Road/Happy Valley Road intersection, is proposed to deliver several benefits:  It will save water during dry years, mitigate stormwater to prevent flooding, provide opportunities for aquifer recharge, supply agriculture with irrigation water and, much like the problematic Towne Road Levee Setback Project, the reservoir is promised to provide climate resiliency for people, farms, and fish.  

The future reservoir site is currently a network of trails.

Contrary to Ozias’ claim that the NODC has no ties to the reservoir, Worthington's presentation showed that a partnership between the NODC and the reservoir project has existed for at least eight years.  The NODC added the reservoir project to its "Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy" in 2016 and listed Clallam County as a partner.

After three meetings held in 2021 and 2022, the NODC published a summary that shows the partnership continued.  The outcome of the meetings was an agreement "of seven priority areas for regional climate adaptation and mitigation."  Documents show that “Goal #1” of the NODC is the construction of the Dungeness River Off Channel Reservoir.

The Clallam Conservation District (CCD), the state agency that receives county funds and supports installing irrigation pipelines without landowner consent or legal authority, will be tasked with conserving water.

Water projects will be assigned to the Dungeness River Management Team, a partnership of stakeholders, co-led by the county and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, that aims to establish prioritization for water use and ensure water supply for homeless and transient populations.

The documents show that the Dungeness Off-Channel Reservoir has been a goal of the NODC and that the Dungeness River Management Team and Clallam Conservation District will be partnering in that goal. Just last week, Worthington submitted a request for public records from the NODC asking about their involvement:

The organization denies involvement and says, “NODC has no role in any of the organizations or projects.”

The NODC is not a public entity and therefore is not subject to the Public Records Act so they have the right to shield information from public view. Still, their publicly available documents show the organization has been linked to the reservoir for nearly a decade. Commissioner Ozias should know that the NODC is involved in the reservoir and that the organization is doling out water management duties to his campaign’s biggest donor, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, because Mark Ozias sits on the NODC Board of Directors and serves as President.

Commissioner Ozias’ second assertion, that the local stakeholder group is wholly in charge of the work that the NODC undertakes, is debatable as Worthington pointed out during his presentation.

The NODC supports the policy implementation of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a non-governmental organization based in Germany. The NODC, according to its website, has also recruited other area agencies to join the ICLEI and has even offered to front part of the membership fee for Port Townsend, Sequim, and both Jefferson and Clallam Counties.

When governments and municipalities join ICLEI, they are given access to a "vital combination of methodologies, tools, knowledge and skills that support local projects at all stages of planning and implementation."  Municipalities are given a playbook by which to shape their decisions.

The charter mission of ICLEI is to, "build and serve a worldwide movement of local governments."  In its charter, the general mandate states, "The Association shall build an active and committed municipal membership of local spheres of government as well as international, regional, national, and sub-national local-government associations."  

In other words, local decisions are being influenced by a German non-governmental organization to serve worldwide interests.

The ICLEI provides a roadmap for employing its methodology which suggests that “institutional reorganization,” or the establishment of a new organization, may be needed.

“Implementation and Monitoring” requires that a Stakeholder Group be created to establish the new organization to implement the Action Plan. The NODC fell in step with the requirement and set about recruiting Stakeholders:

True to the playbook, the NODC recruited 35 “regional partners and stakeholders” which include the Cities of Sequim, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, and Forks. Next, the German NGO outlines how to achieve this reorganization for ICLEI members:

The creation of the NODC certainly fits the bill for a “new institution.” Look at the list of institutions that are “seen to be legitimate by diverse community interests.”

The NODC pledges to empower “the North Olympic Peninsula to pursue and invest in its own economic and environmental destiny,” but will all those living in Clallam and Jefferson Counties have equal access to this destiny? If the NODC continues to follow directives from the ICLEI, changes may be on the horizon.

In 2022, the ICLEI supplied its members with a guide called, “Equity - First Steps” which provides a way for local governments to “identify and track inequities that occur within their community.” The ICLEI defines equity terms for its members; Climate Reparations is a redistribution of wealth to marginalized and developing countries and communities.

Colonization touches on the colonizer/colonized relationship.

Just Transition aims to redress past harms through reparations.

And there it is in the third line of the “Just Transition” definition — a call for “political power to shift.” Another local agency, the NODC presided over by Mark Ozias, has fallen to serving political interests instead of public interests. The nine-year “Era of Ozias” has seen the politicization of multiple agencies once considered to serve public interests:

• Ozias used his seat on the Board of Commissioners to funnel money intended to complete Towne Road to his campaign’s top donor, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

• Ozias tasked the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with investigating “Towne Road Supporters” who were critical of the commissioner’s behavior.

• The Sheriff’s Office has declined to enforce the signs that prohibit pedestrians and vehicles from using Towne Road because it’s “a political issue.”

• Ozias used his influence with the Department of Community Development to prevent a gravel pit from reopening near his primary residence.

• Ozias wants to “focus” the conversation on the Clallam Conservation District’s irrigation piping efforts, a project supported by his campaign’s top donor, rather than having an open discussion about the agency’s claim that they can install pipelines without landowner consent or legal authority.

• The North Olympic Development Council, led by President Ozias, supports a foreign ideology that calls for a political power shift under the guise of economic development.

Is the NODC following a playbook supplied by a German non-governmental agency, or is the NODC a “local stakeholder group that is wholly in charge” as Commissioner Ozias claims? After a decade of GDP stagnation, the agency tasked with overseeing the economic prosperity of the North Olympic Peninsula has strong ties to a German organization that aims to separate the colonizers from the colonized, shift the economy from “extractive” to “regenerative,” and suggests a political power shift.

Why are we paying our locally elected officials to hand over decision-making to an organization 5,000 miles away?

From the NODC homepage.