The DW's Jacob Jones informs the public. I salute him.

I did like this article as well. I don't live in Hoquiam, but if I did I would vote no again and hope they increase the ambulance tax like they said they would if it failed. For a $200,000 home it would be half the cost.

Side note, I think it's pretty bad that they try a levy, the people say no we can't afford it, and then they plan to increase a tax. Why bother putting it to the voters if you are just going to charge them no matter what?

EMS services are a money losing proposition for jurisdictions with smaller population, though residents of smaller population jurisdictions demand the same level of service provided in jurisdictions with larger populations among which to spread the costs.

Just look at FD5, which eagerly, though ill-advisedly, accepted Mark Reed Hospital's money losing EMS operations, after Mark Reed had some years earlier ill-advisedly accepted the money losing EMS operations of the cities of Elma and McCleary.

I agree it's a good story. I've known Jasmine for a long time, but don't know the other two well at all. I know Jaz feels like hell and assume the others do as well.

Now, for the bright side. Hoquiam's elected officials had a 69% turnout; much better than the 46% county average. I don't know what the overall Hoquiam turn out was.

I think more people should be called out on their decision to sit on their thumbs (I happen to know that Jasmine filled out her ballot and forgot to mail it, but it won't stop me from razzing her).

If you know their name and birthdate, you can go here to find out if their ballot was returned.

But, while each of these 3 Councilpersons should feel guilty as hell, they need not receive any more chastisement than the near 54% of registered voters who left their ballots on the kitchen table.

Not to belabor the subject, but my point wasn't as to the right or wrong of the councilpersons. My point was to commend the reporter in his curiosity in looking below the surface of the story in an effort to inform the public.

I join in the applause. I'd like to see more such checking. There are probably a few elected officials whose record would not bear close examination.

I suppose I should also commend the editors who moved t he story through. It had been my impression during the later Hughes years that the reporting of local elected officials had pretty much a lap dog.

It was actually relatively easy to do, thanks to http://www.soundpolitics.com/voterlookup.html. (Try it out!)

I did get an e-mail from someone angry that Spatz released the info. The reader didn't understand that it wasn't Spatz, it's a state law that requires the release of the info. In fact, Political Parties and candidates use the info all the time to see who voted. If you voted in the last couple of elections, it's more likely a candidate will visit you or drop off a mailer than if you didn't vote.


Here's the request I did, plus the response from the Auditor's Office. The only tricky part was making sure you had the right person. Candidates all have to file for office, which made it easier to see what a candidate's real first name is, for instance.

"Vern Spatz" <VSpatz@co.grays-harbor.wa.us>

02/24/10 12:36 PM

To
<SFriederich@thedailyworld.com>
cc
"Julie Murphy" <jmurphy@co.grays-harbor.wa.us>
Subject
RE: Records Request 2/24






Our voter records indicate ballots were issued but not returned for Dickhoff, Nelson, and Shumate for the February election. Dickhoff also did not return a ballot for November, 2009.
The rest of the people, on your list, returned ballots that were included in our totals.

Vern Spatz, Auditor
Grays Harbor County

From: SFriederich@thedailyworld.com [mailto:SFriederich@thedailyworld.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:55 AM
To: Vern Spatz
Subject: Records Request 2/24


Hi Vern:

I wanted to do a records request to see if the below Hoquiam officials did not vote in the February election. If any of the below elected officials had their ballots bounce back as an undeliverable or had some other issue where their ballot did not count, I'd be interested in that information, as well.

I used the nifty database at http://www.soundpolitics.com/voterlookup.html to look up to make sure everyone was registered to vote and to see what address they're registered at. Some, you'll see like Darrin Moir, actually have a different first name as M. Darrin Moir. The specific birthdates and registered dates should help your search, as well.

Last Name Name M/F Number Street City Last Voted Birthdate Registered
PELLEGRINI JOHN M M 210e PANAMA AVE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1951-MAR-15 1971-AUG-18
MCMILLAN PAUL E M 240o QUEETS AVE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1955-FEB-01 1973-JAN-05
DICKHOFF JASMINE D F 60o M ST HOQUIAM 2008-NOV-04 1986-SEP-18 2006-JUN-23
WIEDL JOHN P M 51o 7TH ST HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1946-MAY-31 1977-NOV-24
DANIELS ALLEN D M 5e N ST HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1954-JAN-16 1992-JAN-31

NELSON WILLIAM H M 81o 5TH ST HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1967-OCT-15 1999-DEC-30
*Note for Bill Nelson, you have two registered and I am seeking the one registered at 815 5th St. Hoquiam WA 98550

GRUN GREGORY A M 64e ORCHARD DR HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1954-JUN-16 1972-SEP-25
WINKELMAN BENJAMIN R M 31o PROSPECT AVE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1974-NOV-13 2003-JUL-24
CARLSTROM BRENDA J F 42e MONROE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1953-AUG-14 1983-JAN-04
MOIR M DARRIN M 205 ENDRESEN RD HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1966-NOV-11 1992-OCT-01
SHUMATE AARON W M 250e ABERDEEN AVE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1980-APR-23 2009-JUN-05
HYDE BYRON E M 250o BAY AVE HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1931-APR-25 1952-APR-29
DURNEY JOHN DOUGLAS M 14o CIRCLE DR HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1948-JUN-17 1969-JUN-23
PUMPHREY RAY M M 61o 1ST HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1949-SEP-09 1980-JUN-16
CARTER ALBERT A M 51o 1ST ST HOQUIAM 2009-NOV-03 1955-FEB-13 1980-MAY-12

Well, then, I should give you a great big atta boy for doing what I think journalists should be doing, and for allowing one of the cubs to report it under their byline.

I really do appreciate such reporting. Thanks.

NO offense to Steven or Jacob, but this was not a news story and was just the sort of thing that gives journalism and journalists a bad reputation all around.

Correlation does not equal causation. The levy failed by two votes, three Hoquiam council people didn't vote--so the clear implication is that the levy failed because of these three Hoquiam councilpeople. All of the non-council Hoquiamites who voted against the levy are now off the hook, and everyone can point to three people as the culprits.

In other words, scapegoating of the worst sort, in a part of the state where idiot peasants with pitchforks and torches are all too quick to beat a path to someone's door and shriek that it is all their fault.

This is not cause for praise or congratulations.

I would add that the story does not note any attempt to get comments from the three council members in question, and does not raise the question of who among the council members that did vote might have voted against the measure.

Note also that I do not blame Jacob and Steven for this; this is clearly a failure of the editorial team.

I didn't think it was. But, I know how some Hoquiam folk can get.

I live in Hoquiam and own 3 rentals in addition to our home. And I totally disagree. I think it should be a property tax, not a separate ambulance tax. But, then again, I'm all for progressive taxation. Obviously, we disagree on that.

The people didn't say we can't afford the levy. The majority voted for the levy. Just one vote short of receiving the required 60% super-majority.

Really? Are we reading the same TDW?

I think since the new Publisher came in, the paper turned tabloidal... "slash and bash". I suppose Rush thinks it sells papers and more power to him, but how are those paper sales going? There is reporting and there is FAUX News. I think there are some good stories. But, there is a lot of crap, too; far more than there ever used to be.

I have this vision of a reporter coming into the office with a story... a good story about good government and the Editor (or Publisher) yelling, "Get out of here with this drivel! Get me some dirt. We have papers to sell, you twit!"

Must have been reading a different article than I was.

Not being a journalist, but a consumer of journalism, I found the article to be very good. Maybe it isn't real journalism, but I appreciate articles that point out things that may be of real concern to those that want a better community. Does the blame for levy failure fall on those 3 council members? No, there's a bigger picture. BUT, it is important to note that every vote counts and that it is highly likely that those 3 members would have voted yes, especially since 2 of them had voted to put the measure on the ballot.

From the report.



My point isn't the passage of the levy, it is three city councilpersons who chose to not vote. I think elected officials who can't be bothered voting aren't qualified to serve.

So Steven, what's your address and date of birth? Google wants to know.

Mea Culpa. The major point still stands.



And we don't know if they "couldn't be bothered" or if some other circumstance intervened. And it's nobody's business anyway, especially in the context of this non-story, which clearly creates the impression that the levy failed by two votes because three Hoquiam councilmembers failed to return their ballots.

Hmmm, well I do think elected officials actions directly relating to legislative activities is the people's business and the fact that elected leaders fail to vote on a critical ballot measure they themselves sent to the public is a story regardless of the outcome of that measure. The fact that the measure failed by two votes is incidental in the base determination of whether this is a valid story. I would agree that HOW people vote by secret ballot is nobody's business.

Again, the clear implication is "it's their fault," as opposed to the many other Hoquiamites who apparently voted against the levy.

That's not journalism, it's illegitimately assigning blame.

I may agree with Turnow's point, for example, that elected officials who don't vote aren't worthy of the office--but that's NOT what the story in question was about. Were those three Hoquiam councilmembers the only elected officials in the county who failed to vote in this election?

It's apparent to me that the thought process at the Daily Hurl was "measure failed by two votes--three council members didn't vote at all--AH HAH! GOTCHA!"

Don't need address.

Google and I didn't really *need* the names, addresses and DOB of the people in the post to which I replied, either.

Today is one of the days I'm glad I'm not an elected official.

Me, too. I suspect we'll see a whole bunch more of this "good reporting" in the future as print news media desperately fights going the way of the buggy whip.

Something to point out. I went to the sound politics website and checked my own name. It shows the last time I voted was in Nov 09. In reality I last voted last month for the Aberdeen School Levy. I mailed both my mine and my wife's ballot prior to the election date. This of course calls both the county and the website into question. I tried to find the link the county has for last ballot received but that must only be active during the actual election time (if someone finds it let me know).

Of course the point is that Sound Politics and the County could have been in error. So with that said how much time were the candidates given to call back TDW? Not saying they weren't given ample time nor that they did not vote. Simply wondering if they were actually given enough time to call back and give their side of the story. I now if I would have been the subject of the article and was out of the area while the calls were made and got back to find this article knowing I had voted I would be pretty pissed off. Again let me underline the fact that TDW may have done everything right. I just feel in the light of seeing the error on my own name these are valid questions for which we deserve answers.

FWIW it does not show my wife having voted either. Ballots were mailed together. Since she is a teacher an issue could have been made about her not voting if the levy we were talking about was Aberdeen's school levy which failed by one vote. And the issue would have been wrong since she did vote (btw she voted yes of course) but either the county failed to report the vote or something else went awry.

The Sound Politics website clearly indicates it was last updated Jan. 29, 2010. February ballots don't appear.

Missed that. But I guess the question would be why does it only show that three of the councilpersons did not vote unless I'm misunderstanding the previous post about the website?

Another interesting point. Maybe three people on the council did not return ballots--but who is to say that the other nine didn't return a ballot without casting a vote? Or voted against the levy?

It's true that we don't know how people voted in any given election. We're not supposed to. The point is, at least two council members felt the issue was important enough to vote to have it put on the ballot (at an expense to the city), but not important enough to drop the ballot in the mailbox. I understand, things happen, and I wouldn't make a decision on who to vote for based on this alone. Personally, my ballot made it into the mail at the last minute. But I did get it mailed.

As far as the whole issue with the information being public, that isn't new or unusual at all. Anybody can walk into the auditor's office and ask for a nice database that can imported into Excel with all sorts of information for every registered voter in the county and have it emailed to you for $6. Not bad if you're trying to reach potential voters.

I would say that it could be an issue in that any ballot could have been lost in the mail. It seems highly unlikely, but still possible.

The information is very good, though, and easily accessible. I would like to see information on law enforcement and corrections officers be redactible upon request, and that DOB not be published as part of the records. I was told that was part of the public record as a "tie-breaker" of sorts, like in those instances where there are two records with the same name, to determine if they are the same person with two registrations.

BTW, one can easily see that Steven and Jacob did both vote, as well as MWMI's wife. Good job.

When you go buy the list from Vern, (if memory serves) you have to sign a disclaimer that you're not using it for commercial purpose.

If I repost it on GHT, no such restriction is in place for the search engines who will inevitably index it.

I don't like the article very much, but I REALLY don't like the fact that the list was reposted here.

Good article.

I find it amazing that people demand and scream for transparency in government, then when something like this happens they get their tin foil hat on and cry that their info is available.

For some of us it has nothing to do with the information being available and everything to do with the correct information being available.

An elected officials home address, date of birth, voting and shopping patterns aren't what is meant by transparency.

Everything that an elected official does in their official capacity is my business.

Indeed. I have been told that at least one of the three Hoquiam councilmembers insists that he did vote. This could get interesting.

County Job apps are public record, that has all that info in it (except for vote and shopping info). All that info you listed is what transparency covers.

Actually, job applications are not public record. Only the salary that a public employee receives is public record.