PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners expounded on their opposition to Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 reopening plan in a virtual forum this week.
Commissioner Bill Peach said Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery presents a roadblock to rural counties.
“My genuine concern is the governor’s disadvantaging rural communities, and health care is something that should not be specific to the cities,” Peach said in a Wednesday meeting hosted by Colleen McAleer, Clallam County Economic Development Council director.
The three commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to sign a letter criticizing a state reopening plan that “leaves Clallam County at a standstill without reason.”
The county correspondence was based on a Jan. 29 letter co-signed by 24th Legislative District state Reps. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, and Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, and state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
“We decided that our best chance of being impactful would be to really echo and support the language and the effort of our legislative delegation, which started talking about it last Friday,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said in McAleer’s “Coffee with Colleen” forum Wednesday.
“So yesterday, the commissioners formally approved the letter that echoes that language and requests that we are allowed to move to Phase 2 as quickly as possible.
“In the meantime,” Ozias added, “we’re going to continue doing everything we can make sure that our community stays as healthy as possible.”
Inslee announced Feb. 4 changes to the Roadmap plan; regions that meet three out of four metrics could move into Phase 2. Because the metrics are considered in percentages, the Puget Sound and West regions are allowed to move forward while others with fewer cases, such as the North Olympic Peninsula, are not.
The local frustration stems from counties like Snohomish, King and Pierce — three of the four primary drivers of COVID-19 infection in the state — moving to Phase 2 while Clallam and Jefferson counties with significantly lower transmission during the pandemic stay put, Dr. Allison Berry, Clallam County health officer, has said.
Clallam and Jefferson counties also were grouped into a four-county region with Kitsap and Mason counties for the state reopening plan, causing much consternation.
Kitsap and Mason counties each have higher rates of COVID-19 transmission than the North Olympic Peninsula.
Commissioner Randy Johnson said state officials “never talked to the county” before creating the four-county cluster.
“We were a part of a group of four counties and we had no input to that,” Johnson said.
“And right behind that, I’ve got to tell you, there’s legislation that certainly all of our representatives and senator are pushing back against, which (is) also trying to say ‘for public health, we need to have a regional plan and not a plan with the county.’ ”
“I just want to highlight both of those things,” Johnson added, “because neither one of these came about from anyone here in this county, for sure.”
Two bills for replacing county health departments with regional hubs were introduced at Inslee’s request.
Peach said a pending Senate bill would give the Legislature, not the governor, control of the reopening.
“It’s a bit of a symbolic gesture, as if approved, the document would go to the governor,” Peach said.
“But I think it carries an important message, and that is that health care is uniform and for all citizens.”
The Port Angeles City Council voted late Tuesday to co-sign the Clallam County letter or to draft a similar letter opposing the state roadmap.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
