"Horror, shock, and disgust"

Local leader has called for politician to resign

Amidst a "wave of lies, deceit, and disinformation," a prominent County leader has rallied the public and emphasized the citizens’ role in removing a disgraced politician from office. 

A Facebook post has exposed actions that seem to be carried out solely for political gain. The accused's unbridled ambition has posed a “clear and present danger” to the integrity of our government. Those who have tolerated these actions have a "lack of interest, ability, or backbone" if they refuse to hold the offender accountable.

The Facebook post, authored by Commissioner Mark Ozias, is over three years old.  The offender — accused of lying, deceit, and disinformation — is a national political figure.

Commissioner Ozias’ orations are hardly frenzy-whipping, and no one is comparing the events in Washington, D.C., to what has transpired in the Commissioners’ boardroom over the last ten months. However, many of the characteristics that Ozias has assigned to the politician — dishonesty, deceitfulness, lacking integrity — are traits that have been witnessed, to varying degrees, in his own behavior.   

Lies:  One of these statements has to be untrue: In 2022, Commissioner Ozias said, “Once the new levee is built, the new Towne Road will be on top of the levee, and the section of Towne Road will be removed as part of the restoration of the floodplain.”   

Last month, Commissioner Ozias said, "From the very beginning, this project was always intended to feature a trail.  The road component was always considered optional… From the very beginning, the trail was a given; the road was not."

These conflicting statements not only undermine the Commissioner's credibility but also raise serious questions about the transparency of his actions.

Deceit: One example is Commissioner Ozias’ use of elected office to underhandedly defeat the reopening of a family-owned gravel pit near his primary residence. Coordinating with gravel pit opponents via county and private emails and covertly recruiting allies from the Sequim School District, the City of Sequim, and the Jamestown Tribe while circumventing due process is deceitful.

Deceit was also displayed when Commissioner Ozias encouraged a Landowner on Towne Road to communicate with him on the Commissioner’s personal device and promised him three automatic, electric gates that would effectively close Towne Road to the public and cost taxpayers $125,550.

Disinformation:  According to Commissioner Ozias, he was obligated to halt a $20 million-dollar, multi-agency, decades-long infrastructure project because “the upswell of support for an alternative resurfacing option gave the Board reason to pause the road construction” and hundreds of signatures from several petitions had been submitted calling for the closure of Towne Road. 

The truth was only 98 signatures from two petitions had been received, and those signatures came predominantly from a neighborhood that had experienced a drastic reduction in traffic due to the closure.  Commissioner Ozias omitted that 140 signatures were submitted to the County supporting the road's reopening.

Integrity of government: On December 26th, 2023, the Board of Commissioners passed a resolution promising that Towne Road would be completed by the end of this year. Since then, Commissioner Ozias has attempted to halt the completion of the project multiple times. This continuous disregard for public interest has not only led to crumbling public trust but also raised concerns about the Board of Commissioners' leadership.

Boundless power: Hours after a public Town Hall meeting with County government, Commissioner Ozias met with his campaign's top donor to privately discuss the fate of taxpayer-funded, publicly owned Towne Road. 

In another example of exercising his power to fulfill the wishes of a special and political interest, Commissioner Ozias ignored the advice of the Sheriff, two Fire Chiefs, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the Tsunami Program Manager, the Department of Community Development Director, the County Engineer, County Biologist, and three public surveys. Instead, he promoted the opinion of the Trail Advisory Committee to keep a road closed.

Commissioner clarifies statements

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Ozias was asked which statement was true: his 2022 statement that “Towne Road will be on top of the levee” or last month's statement that “From the beginning, the trail was a given; the road was not.”

Commissioner Ozias explained:

“What I was referencing is that going back to the public meeting at the early part of this project, there was a survey done of the public to understand whether there was interest in having a road on top of the levee or not. And so, when I was saying that the road was not a given, what I was referencing is that when the project was being created it was not a given that there would be a road. The road was designed and engineered into the project in response to community input that happened back in the 2015-ish timeframe. So that’s what I was referencing, and I hope that provides some clarity.”

You can watch Commissioner Ozias provide clarity here by advancing to timestamp 1:17:50.

Towne Road update

As promised, the County has updated its website dedicated to the project. The website has new diagrams and maps, and provides the following information about permitting:

“The County is currently working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finalize the Modification Request for the existing permit. The Washington Department of Ecology has already approved the design. To address concerns regarding the ongoing effectiveness of the stormwater plan, the County has developed a draft Operations and Maintenance Plan that includes stormwater monitoring and adaptive management strategies to address problems should they arise.  It is expected that construction for the majority of the project will commence towards the end of June 2024, with an estimated completion of the project by the end of September 2024.”

A CCWD subscriber sent the following photos. They were taken on June 4th near the intersection of Towne Road, East Anderson, and Sequim-Dungeness Way.