Democrat gathering disrupted 
in Brinnon over land use issues

By Shelly Testerman
Leader Staff Writer

from Port Townsend Leader
http://www.ptleader.com/news/010606democratgathering455.htm

June 6, 2001 - Jefferson County, WA - "Come one, come all," an anonymous flier urged Brinnonites, and come they did, with their land use agendas in hand.

Last week's monthly meeting of the Jefferson County Democratic Party was effectively disrupted by an influx of Brinnonites who have not been active in the local Democratic party.

The May 29 gathering in Brinnon was intended as forum for discussing south county Democratic party issues, but it instead degenerated into partisan bickering. It was a disheartening experience for those Democrats who carpooled to Brinnon from elsewhere in the county to hear voices other than those who regularly claim to speak for Brinnon.

The Democratic party mailed out 300 invitations to area Democrats, but the crowd of 70 - about half from Brinnon - consisted of one-third non-party members. The prevailing rumor was that the Democrats had planned the meeting to blackball the Black Point residential/resort project and collect anti-growth sentiment. Nothing could be further from the truth, says the Democratic leadership, but that didn't stop Brinnon defenses from forming.

"I don't think that anybody honestly thought about this as a party-line issue," Brinnonite Linda Tudor said of the land use topic. "It was an across-the-board issue that everybody wanted to see aired."

Word of a possible unfriendly presence leaked before the meeting.

"Some [Democrats] came and a lot of them didn't, apparently because they were intimidated and thought there was going to be a big brouhaha. Which I guess there was," Nancy Biery said wryly. The Port Townsend resident who was elected county Democratic party chairwoman three weeks ago chaired the meeting .

Chuck Finnila, known as a strong area Democrat, said he received a formal invitation to the event and came to share his views. "The current party - or at least a contingent within the current party - is out of touch with what are considered the standard Democratic values," Finnila said afterward.

Tudor said her impression was that the Democrats wanted concerns aired, "so we did." Brinnonites are "sick of having somebody from Port Townsend tell us what to do" in regard to land-use issues, she said.

Flier touted 'scam'

Many Brinnonites were alerted to the meeting by unattributed fliers that circulated around the community. Printed plainly on an 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheet titled "The Chance of a Lifetime," the fliers were posted at several locations, including the Brinnon post office.

"Brinnon residents will be asked what the community problems are," the flier states by way of introduction. "The closed businesses should have given them a clue, but it apparently hasn't. The whole thing is a scam. The Democrats plan on filling all the seats at the Booster Club with ecologists. We need loggers, unemployed people, business owners, housewives and other local people to come at 6:30 p.m. and fill the seats. COME ONE!! COME ALL!! It will be a lot of fun."

The last sentence, following a reminder of the meeting time and place, is: "We appreciate your help." Nowhere does the flier identify "we."

The fliers also term the meeting "an open forum," which is not how the meeting was advertised. The Democrats' press release, published in the Leader May 23, merely says that it will be "an opportunity for Brinnon Democrats to share opinions and identify pressing issues."

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for creating or posting the fliers, which clearly achieved their intent.

"People had clearly come with an agenda to disrupt it, as the flier said," noted Kirie Pedersen, a Brinnon Democrat who was serving the coffee. "As soon as they took over the meeting, I could see Democrats withdraw their hands. I could watch from the back of the room as people visibly shrunk into themselves."

Some people didn't come to the meeting out of fear for how vicious the opposition was going to be, once they saw the flier, she added.

Meeting agenda

The meeting in Brinnon was the first in a series of meetings local Democrats hope to stage in different venues around the county. Subsequent locales may include Port Ludlow or Quilcene.

Biery said the goal was at the end of meeting to have a few items that the local party might be able to lobby for, for example, childcare or social services. It was not intended as a question-and-answer session, said Biery. "We fully expected to walk into a room of friendly faces."

Instead, about a dozen of the non-Democrats dominated the two-hour session.

"There was this small contingent that wanted to turn it into this issue about land use," said Biery. The pervading sentiment was, "You've ruined our economy and you've ruined our lives." Not only were local elected Democrats blasted but also Gov. Locke.

As Pedersen put it, "Chuck Finnila really wants his resort to go through and Linda Tudor really wants her community development to go through, and they are really angry that anyone's opposing it."

One attendee, Richard Wojt, who represents Brinnon on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, was personally attacked for his choice to abstain from a recent vote that was passed by the board's Republican majority and gave Finnila the residential density he had hoped for on the Black Point property.

Wojt later said he considered the name-calling to be a diversionary tactic.

"What you try to do when anybody attacks you is talk about the issues, not the emotions," he said. "Sometimes it's hard."

Biery refuted the accusation that the Democrats had traveled to Brinnon because the draft sub-area plan was about to be completed.

At least six members of the Brinnon sub-area planning group attended, including Tudor, Finnila, Joy Baisch, John and Dalila Dowd and George Sickel.

Julie McClanahan and Rolland "Ray" Rogers, both of Quilcene, were two easily identified Republicans. Tudor calls herself an Independent; Finnila supported Democrat Mark Beaufait in last fall's county commission primary and Republican Dan Titterness in the general election. Finnila is one of the many registered Democrats in Brinnon who received the party's meeting notice.

No media representatives were present at the May 29 event.

No official GOP

No individuals who are currently active in the local Republican party were in attendance, according to Jefferson County Republican Party chairwoman Barbara Bradford. She did not attend and had only heard a secondhand account.

"The party did absolutely nothing to disrupt the meeting," Bradford emphasized. Tudor concurred. "It was the community that showed up," she said. And that's typical anytime there is a meeting called by those "from outside the community."

Regardless of who organized it, will the tactics used last week to disrupt the Democratic meeting be used again? Biery thinks they will be. "My understanding that there is a group of - unfortunately - Republican-leaning people who think that land use and property rights are more important than anything else in the county, who are intent in bypassing public process and blaming others for what they don't have." She went on, "The truth of the matter is, they're a minority and they're not representative of what most voters and residents of this county think."

Bradford says the local Republican party plans to hold its next regular meeting in Quilcene, also for the purpose of attracting more people to be part of the Republican dialogue. Bradford says all are welcome to the event, which will be advertised at the end of June.

Democratic caution

Meanwhile, local Democratic efforts may turn inward for a while, and Democratic meetings may be managed more stringently. For example, the next meeting will likely be held in a private residence, with invitations by telephone only to dues-paying Democrats, Biery said.

At a future gathering, the Democrats will consider the list of all the issues discussed in Brinnon and select a handful they feel they can influence locally. "We aren't trying to change the world in Brinnon," said Biery. "We're just trying to be supportive." She added, "And there is more to the Democratic party than land use." In working within the state Growth Management Act, "We all need to move forward, regardless of party affiliation," she said.

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