On December 7, 2020 the Thurston County Commissioners chose to violate the Open Public Meetings Act - Commissioner Gary Edwards left the meeting and refused to be part of an illegal meeting.

This is a good example of several problems with this type of action in Thurston County as an example, but this type of behavior is likely happening throughout the state right now during the current lockdown era. Local government is moving forward making significant decisions and the transparency and communication to the public of what is happening is very limited. Most people will be surprised by the results when these decisions start to impact their lives (and their pocketbooks).

I’ve been critical of Thurston County’s assigned counsel – Elizabeth Petrich – for years now. Mainly, this is because her “legal advice” is suspect and problematic. You can read some of the articles linked below for more details. However, rarely do we get to see the low quality of this “legal advice” on video, which made this more worthwhile to share with the public. The staff in Thurston County are generally running the show – and the elected officials are expected to be their puppets, which is part of the problem in many local governments. The elected officials in theory pretend to represent the people who elect them, but in fact they simply do whatever staff tells them to do...

The point of this video, in addition to exposing this specific example of a problem in Thurston County, is to inspire others to start watching their local government officials. Pay attention to what they are doing. Follow the videos (when they don’t have convenient “technical glitches”) and perhaps others can provide their own commentary on what is happening in local government. The future does belong to those who show up.


OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.”  IT WAS THE FOUNDERS’ INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE.  IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT.  IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.”  UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED

Background articles and documents:

Olympia’s Decay

Former Olympia City Manager Steve Hall fined $10k for illegal mailer

Queen or King of the Ashes in Olympia?

The Cult, the Witch, and the Disbarred Attorney – Olympian chronicles and the Democrat Dream Team

Democrat Trans Radical Witch becomes Democratic Party’s great hope for Olympia City Council

of Olympian proudly showcases beautiful addict/homeless camps – now this is real progress!

Dumpster values in Olympia produce dumpster results

New, improved logo proposed for Evergreen State College

Let’s turn Evergreen College into a Homeless/Addict Camp – A real solution to homelessness

Silence of the Enviros – ignoring real pollution in Olympia’s greenspaces

Olympia City Council home page

The Olympian (video):  Chair of Thurston County Democrats threatens to withdraw support

The Olympian – June 1 – Thurston County Democratic Chairwoman Resigns

Thurston County Democratic Party sued by AG for campaign finance violations

How Democrats ripped off “Ramtha” and wasted donor money

Thurston Democrats plateau at peak paranoia

June 15, 2018 – Final Stipulation and Agreed Judgment against Thurston County Democrats (Thurston Superior Court #17-2-00972-34)

WA Dept of Natural Resources – 1999 Geologic Map GM-47 – Geologic Folio of the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Urban Area, Washington: Liquefaction Susceptibility Map

What happens if the bond is approved, and a mini-recession hits? How Thurston County public services would be cut

PFM Financial Advisors – Mar 8, 2019 – report to Thurston County, WA – Potential Use of Levy Lid Lift – Update

Thurston County Commission Minutes – August 14, 2018 – see Item 5a and 5b for a $200,000 City of Olympia “Interlocal Agreement for new courthouse” and $300,000 for New Courthouse “Consultant”

Thurston County Commission Agenda – April 30, 2019 – see Item 6a for new tax proposal

SouthSoundBiz – “Thurston County to Place New Courthouse Request on April 2020 Ballot”

The Olympian – ” Vote to pay for Thurston County’s new courthouse not coming until April 2020″

The Olympian – “County commissioners vote 2-1 to move courthouse to downtown Olympia”

Thurston County demonstrates how NOT to build a jail

Thurston County spends $8 million and 18 years to make a $4 million empty building worth $2 million

Childish political leadership in Thurston County is costing taxpayers millions

Thurston County staff create fraudulent data to justify tax increase

A plague of Consequences

Jon Pettit – Plan A – proposed in July 2019 as better, more cost effective option

Document detailing Life Cycle Engineering and Budgeting for Public Facilities (Hint: Thurston County building maintenance doesn’t even come close to this)

5 COMMENTS

  1. Another thought that has left me flabbergasted:

    (4) Elizabeth Petrich — an ATTORNEY — encouraged 3 elected officials, while ON CAMERA, to break additional laws, claiming there were no consequences!

    Wow! She is either incredibly stupid, incredibly arrogant, incredibly insane, or a combination of all 3. (As a woman, it pains me to say that about another woman.)

    Forget about merely firing her. She should be disbarred.

    I seriously feel that Alice has gone through the looking glass.

  2. Thoughts:

    (1) Gary Edwards has good instincts.

    (2) Dibert would be proud. Commissioners have a meeting to DISCUSS HAVING A MEETING. There was an actual cartoon about this.

    (3) As a former Legislative committee staffer, I can share one of our Golden Rules: if you do not know an answer, say that you do not know but will research and report back ASAP. As an attorney, Elizabeth Petrich should have learned this in law school.

  3. this is our county commissioners trying really hard to earn their bloated payck …in full view . Am stunned by the recusal of the one but good on him though his “concern” appears in being caught and then finally speaks of “doing the right thing” …Meaning nothing to the others ..recall or restitution to the people they “represent” should b in order. Again, thanks to Jon Petit, Glen and even “leader” Edwards for his eventual decision to do “the right thing”.

Comments are closed.