PA United
PA United is the name of a group comprised of members of the Downtown Association, Chamber of Commerce, Business Association and the CEO Group. PA United met on Wednesday to seek a unified strategy for developing economic growth in Port Angeles.
The group will collect information about business organizations in other Washington cities of similar size, and they have four more meetings scheduled: February 5, February 19, March 5 and March 19. All meetings will be at 3 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center meeting room.
The group will collect information about business organizations in other Washington cities of similar size, and they have four more meetings scheduled: February 5, February 19, March 5 and March 19. All meetings will be at 3 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center meeting room.
posted by Tom Harper at 11:10 AM
57 Comments:
Well, they will have 4 meetings now, but as the PDN article says, they envision being around until at least 2020!
To have a budget by 2015.
Hmmm, looks like someone is creating job security for themselves!
Take all the money given to these groups and instead distribute it to residents as Downtown Dollars, which can only be spent locally. Hell, give some to tourists who stay at local motels too.
Job done. No overhead of meetings, budgets, salaries, etc. Tons of local money flowing into local business.
The PA United roster is like a who's who of the PA good ole boys network. I'd love to see someone expose the membership of the CEO group. PDN is never going to do it. Maybe Baba can make name for his new publication with a scoop like that?
I guess some people can't read English, but will still write anything. Gotta love the freedom of speech.
What the Hell are you folks complaining about?
Can't you see the potential good in an idea like Port Angeles United?
Ohyeah, might mean the end of Bull Shit like this web site.
Anon 11:22 AM has nailed it. PA United is looking to perpetually siphon money from public sources, with the primary goal of perpetuating a revenue stream for a few group "leaders".
Ugh.
That the same people get away with this rip-off time after time: Double Ugh.
Anon 5:38 says: "Can't you see the potential good in an idea like Port Angeles United?"
With the participants of "Port Angeles United" only being the same people that have been doing "economic development" in Port Angeles for years now, with absolutely NOTHING of consequence to show for the millions of tax payer dollars given to them, I guess many of us are a bit skeptical.
For good reason.
Oh, and "united"? Where is the general public in all this? Or, are we, the majority in this town, to be left out once again, so that the same small group gets their nests feathered?
The only thing I keep seeing in the comments made by these guys is "Where is our source of funding going to be coming from?"
Two words - crock of shit.
Go Horsies !
"What the Hell are you folks complaining about?
Can't you see the potential good in an idea like Port Angeles United?
Ohyeah, might mean the end of Bull Shit like this web site."
Translation: Larry Williams is drunk and posting online again. Karen Rogers knows best, you peons. Shut up and sit down!
More like teabaggers united against workers and taxpayers.
A lot of us would like to see a smaller town here, not a bigger one.
In June I'm going to load up the PISSANT EXPRESS, hook up a camp trailer and go explore other smaller towns.
Maybe I can best help improve Port Angeles by getting the fuck out of it, it's too fucking damp here anyway.
Anyone who thinks that this "United" group of crooks, fools, and known failures is going to somehow save Port Angeles must deaf and blind and painfully naïve.
It's all about sucking money from public funds, as many others have pointed out. That's it, end of. Doing something to benefit the community is not actually part of the discussion at all. Get real.
Look you guys, PA taxpayers have been footing the bill for 20+ groups to develop our economy. They have failed us all. One word can describe it WASTE.
If the public and private sector do not unite under one banner with common goals and be accountable to the taxpayers than things will continue as always. WASTE!
I applaud the private sector for trying to get this started, the real work will be getting the public sector to the table and be accountable with OUR tax dollars.
You folks don't get it. "Economic development" is for business leaders and owners. You know, those rich people who are getting richer by the hour as they complain about regulations and proposals to raise minimum wages.
PA United is not about the community in general. It is how to help the same old people stay in control of as much of what goes on in this area as possible.
And, this help comes in the form of tax payer money to create high paying jobs for themselves. Remember Jeff Lincoln, of HarborWorks? We paid him over $10,000 a month.
And, look what great economic development we got for that!
Looking back, I see it stated that one of the primary reasons for HarborWorks was so that the City could get a hold of that 5 million gallon tank on the Rayonier site for Cutler's Tank o' Crap project.
See? Use a created "need" to create a tax payer funded project, and a job for yourself.
It's nice "work" if you can get it.
This town is ran and controlled by bankers, insurance agents, real estate agents and politicians. Fuck it and fuck them, I’ve lived better places, in towns that know their limits.
We need a system where we can all pitch in money, or any liquid thing really, to improve things, you know, keep things safe, clean and interesting, and vote for people to represent us, as they utilize that capital!
Port Angeles is a failed community.
BBC - your idea has inspired me, to write a jingle for Port Angeles United!
Sung to the tune of "Looking for Love"...
...too many people in all the wrong places...
...shop downtown and ignore the frowning faces...
:)
Anon 7:55 says: "I applaud the private sector for trying to get this started, the real work will be getting the public sector to the table and be accountable with OUR tax dollars."
Hello? Did you just move to this town?
Who do you think those "20 + groups" are, that have been getting around $300,000 a year from the city (not counting county, state and federal tax dollars they also have gotten)? The "public sector"?
These 20 + groups ARE the private sector you're applauding! It was the city council who recently vainly and lamely sequestered some of that $300,000 in attempts to look like they care about the private sector being held accountable with taxpayer money.
Get up to speed, please.
2-01-2014 Port Angeles, WA BREAKING NEWS:
Trooper Beebee had a tuna on rye yesterday.
COMMENTS:
dumbass69 - NOT FAIR! HE SHOULD BE FIRED FOR THIS!
lil'o'lady98363 - Murderer!
stupidfuck-in-PA - DUR! That sounds good! I want one! Still, he's a JERK!
I support PA United!
As long as the other 20+ groups are dissolved and this new group operates at 1/27th the total budget of all the others.
Given their track record on "economic development", that's still too much. And I doubt PA United will do anymore than the other groups. And, honestly, this sounds like another way of spending taxpayer dollars on the same people who make the same bad decisions year after year. But I can dream.
anon 3:12pm
if you werent so fucking stupid you might be able to think this through.
but i guess not, crawl back into the hole you came from, please.
What happened to the idea of volunteering time to help your community?
If I remember right, nobody at PABA gets a salary. They meet every week, and volunteer time to do some things for the community. Their membership is mostly business and community leaders and owners.
So, why do Jim Haugewood, Russ and the others think they deserve to get the big bucks, when their peers volunteer to do the same things? It isn't like the community is getting anything more from Jim and crew!
@ 9:02 AM.... I was a PABA member for two years and I don't recall them volunteering all that much. A few of them did, like Cherie Kidd, but a lot of them didn't.
I did for years, but not so much anymore.
What I love is that even slightly honest coverage of Port Angeles shows it to be such a backwards, corrupt and incompetent place. This blog shows it, the PDN website shows it, the KONP website shows it, even Wikipedia shows it.
It's out there for all the world to see: PORT ANGELES SUCKS.
And does anyone really think Jim Haguewood or Karen Rogers or Russ Veenema is going to change that? Really?
" ...does anyone really think Jim Haguewood or Karen Rogers or Russ Veenema is going to change that? Really?"
Well, we have the last 10 years or so to judge by. Do we see ANYTHING worth the millions we've spent in salaries and benefits to these folks? Is the economy in Port Angeles so much better?
You'd have to be a fool to invest in, open a business in, or even buy a meal in Port Angeles. It's a town with nothing to offer except desperation and disappointment.
Hey Billy. I don't think any of the PABA people get paid, though. Right? They all do what ever it is that they do every week, as volunteers, if I remember right.
That was my point. I don't know that PABA has any more to show for their time and efforts than Russ or Barb do, but at least they're not getting paid to do nothing!
@ 5:18 PM.... No, they do not get paid, mostly they go to meetings to be part of the crowd, or something like that.
Go to them for a year and make your own judgement, they are open to the public.
Dale and I supported the Broncos.
And, yes. Port Angeles sucks.
What a SHOCK to see the phrase, "faster than anticipated" in an article about Port Angeles! Twice sort of!
What's up? On the face of it just looks like they are saying we are fucking morons and we surprised ourselves? Sometimes you just wake up, it's another year, and those calendar pages just keep getting torn off, and five, ten years has passed? Or just a lie to cover the fact that people are on to the teabagger obstructionism that is present in Port Angeles, Sequim, Clallam County, and in 110% of republican subcultures?
Heck, maybe an ACTUAL JOB was created, when this was put on the fast track?
Desperation and disappointment...Yeah, that IS Port Angeles.
Oh, and I'd add dipshits.
dipshits, there's one you don't hear very often :)
The only way Port Angeles could succeed at anything is if failure becomes an export commodity. If that happens, Port Angeles is a true leader in the field.
7:19 - You would be a fun roommate for someone with terminal cancer, in the hospital or hospice. Have you considered volunteering at the terminal cancer ward? Or a bunkmate in a concentration camp. That would be fun. Or, you would at least make it fun.
The "faster than anticipated" rhetoric about the pollution cleanup at Pen Ply is empty hype designed to distract attention from the Port's and Jeff Robb's many failings. Reading closely between the lines, one can see that the hype is coming solely from the Port, and not the regulators charged with assuring that the cleanup meets legal standards.
Happy crap press releases such as this often are issued to deflect attention from unhappy news that might be leaking out soon.
5:53 AM, February 03, 2014
So nice to see the pathetically obsessive troll is still here, raising the important issues of the day...
Good lord...Look at the dysfunction and nepotism on display at the county! Breezing past open hiring practices, ignoring legal advice, open conflict between commissioners over doing business openly or just appointing people's friends...It just goes on and on here. No wonder things are so screwed up locally. It makes one remember how Dale Holiday made making the county follow open hiring rules a big issue in her campaign. No wonder Chapman had to do the dirty to take her out - look what he's doing now!
Those two Tesla's made it across the states in 76 hours, not bad at all.
9:40 - YOU are the troll, assuming you are a teabagger and would feed your kids a benzene plume for breakfast. That is IF any of them are still in your custody. Your point of view is so consistently negative, and without a point, it's hard to tell if you are a teabagger, or just stupid! If you are stupid, and full of hate, that makes you a teabagger by default anyway. Your contribution is pretty much "PA is pathetic, the troll is pathetic, the discussion is pathetic". You are just jealous, because you can't feel the LOVE for the area, and you don't see any good things happening anywhere, especially in Port Angeles. Must suck.
Zac Garripoli continues his unbroken string of idiotic comments on the PDN website with "insights" like: "What I meant was, Mike Chapman wouldn't do anything underhanded even for a friend."
Uh, DUH, Zac. Chapman will do ANYTHING he has to, and do it to ANYONE he has to in order to hold onto his job. Where else could he get (over)paid so much for knowing and doing so little? He's unqualified for anything else anywhere near this lucrative.
Chapman is a rat, and an unstable hothead who only cares about holding on to his job. He has no ethics, knows no boundaries. It's nice that he's finally showing the public his anger, which has been directed towards staff PLENTY OF TIMES in the past. On or off his meds, he's a lazy, incurious seat-warmer - at best. And fools like Zac who cheer him on aren't paying attention at all.
It's been a good ten years since I've been around Mike Chapman so I don't know how he is these days.
But back then I thought he was a decent chap and I enjoyed working with him when we was building the trail through this area.
But politics do change people, that is why I don't get into them, I like being a fucking bum too much.
Anon 7:55 - Where was the outrage when the county appointed a Democrat (Mr. Melly) to the exact same 1/2 time Hearings Examiner position in 2005, and also Mr. Basden to the Court Commissioner position in 2009, using the same, RCW, County Charter and Policy approved lack of process for only a few, specific positions??
1:15 PM -
The appointments of Melly and Basden were handled differently. There was a job posting, a competitive process, and a selection made among a pool of qualified candidates.
Clever try, 1:15 PM; but your post is misleading, and obviously intentionally so.
Chapman is a self-serving fake. He plays the "aw, shucks" card all the time because he knows it works.
But the truth is quite different. As said here before, on or OFF his meds, Mike Chapman is not necessarily a nice guy. He takes care of number one. Everything else is a distant second.
@2:44... What meds is Chapman on? Exactly?
Anonymous 5:07 PM, February 04, 2014:
I have heard from several sources that Chapman is bipolar. That gives you the types of meds he'd be on, anyway...I can't say exactly, sorry. All I know is what I hear, and what I see. And what I've seen is someone who is abusive to staff in private, and a good ol' boy in public.
Oh, yeah...And I've also heard that Chapman is one of two (you do the "guesswork") commissioners who carry handguns with them. Supposedly Jim Jones does, too. This is the county's unofficial emergency policy: Armed elected officials in case of trouble.
What a BUNCH of morons.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
More tourists, less suicide...
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301612
Anon 6:02 - "Armed elected officials in case of trouble." And this is a problem for you? If it is true, they must have the proper license, like millions of responsible, patriotic Americans also do. Thanks, now I'll feel safer the next time I'm in the courthouse!
Anon 2:19 - You are so wrong. It is pretty easy to check county records (July 2005)to see the truth, but why bother with the facts... Those unadvertized appointments were not illegal then, and are not illegal now. The more honest debate would have been whether it should have been done that way, not whether it could have been done.
Let's all remember that Mike Chapman is the guy who, when the HR director for Clallam County was leaving, came up with a closed-system (non-open hire) way to fill the position - then took the job himself. He had started "training" for it, and the County spent thousands of dollars on that training, before he backed out due to objections being raised to the way it was handed to him.
Once he stepped aside, another (totally unqualified) guy, Rich Sill, was chosen by Jim Jones to take the job. In choosing Sill, Jones (and Chapman) ignored an employee who had expressed interest in the position, and who had a DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT. Sill has nothing - no degree, no experience, nothing.
So, then as now, you've got a few old white guys handpicking their friends - other old white guys - for plum jobs at the County. All in violation of open hiring laws, and open meeting laws.
And all under the personal guidance of Mike Chapman. This is why Clallam County is so stuck in time. This is why Clallam County is so out of step with the world. And this is why Clallam County keeps getting in legal trouble - because you've got commissioners like Chapman with no respect for the law.
I'm sure all those smart Democrats - like Ron Richards - who supported Mike Chapman over their own party's candidate are feeling really, really good about Chapman now. Especially since he's bashing their party.
Good job, Democrats!
10:39 - I know! Tell me about it! In New Jersey's last gubernatorial election, Chris Christie got a sizable chunk of the African American vote, just because he had a reputation of working across the party aisle, and getting things done! Turns out, he's not only a lying teabagger, but a criminal!
So, as a guide, I'll continue to vote with African Americans, and other progressive groups, but will be more careful now, as they can be a bit too open-minded and forgiving sometimes.
It's hard in small towns, when these people are your neighbors. You want to assume the best!
Why do an open hire when so many of our slimy electeds have cousins and pals that need jobs?
@10:55 on Feb 4:
can you name just five of those 'good things' in P.A. ?
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