Listen to the recording of the special March 16 Sequim City Council meeting, where well informed city employees discussed a proposed emergency proclamation intended to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
What I heard, in content and tone, was not fear but good sense and a clear-eyed understanding of the economic and health effects of the city’s response to this virus.
Then council member Troy Tenneson spoke.
“Fear,” he said,” is thrilling,” yet while the flu takes tens of thousands of lives each year, it doesn’t result in a state of emergency.
True, but the more contagious corona virus is some twenty times more fatal than the seasonal flu, especially when it hits seniors over age 62 (about 45 percent of Sequim’s population) and folks weakened by underlying health conditions.
What this reality requires of decision makers is prudence, constant evaluation of changing data, and maybe some helpful federal resources.
Mr. Tenneson cast the sole vote against the emergency declaration, thereby risking increased spread of the infection and the loss of federal funding.
After informing council members that he was leaving to take “a month and a half” of unearned vacation, time he would spend in a state where the governor “hasn’t lost his marbles,” Mr. Tenneson walked out.
Keep on walking, Mr. Tenneson.
Find a place where ideology trumps health and basic economics.
Where abrogating your oath of office is shrugged off, and science is ignored.
We’ll try to survive without your arrogant and irresponsible presence on the city council.
Marsha Maguire
Sequim