Nine Months of Independent Journalism, Built by Our Readers

An appointment announcement does not explain how a court chose its commissioner. A school district’s statement does not tell readers everything a jury decided. And a document described at a public meeting can still take weeks of requests and objections to reach the public.

Those are some of the reasons I started The Olympic Herald nine months ago. More than 400 articles later, the work continues: examining decisions, obtaining the records behind them and returning to stories after the first announcement has passed.

In the last few months we have added school district arbitration decisions, correspondence involving elected officials, continuing court coverage and new tools that let readers examine public records themselves. More than 200 people have donated or subscribed along the way. You have helped give this newspaper the time and support to keep asking questions.

The courthouse still owes the public answers

Our courthouse reporting began with scrutiny of former Family Court Commissioner Brian Parker’s appointment and background. In January, hiring correspondence showed that the county’s standard probationary period had been removed at the judges’ direction. The records put a specific employment decision before the public, beyond the announcement of his appointment.

After his termination in February, we continued seeking the records. In June, we published documents concerning his hiring and departure. We also released records from the selection of his successor, Lorraine Rimson, including the interview schedule and questions. Readers could examine how the court filled a position carrying substantial authority over families.

Other records showed how the court handled public criticism. In February, we published internal emails requesting that comments on the court’s Facebook page be disabled. County IT explained that there was no reliable way to disable all commenting across the page. The page subsequently disappeared. The emails documented the administrative decisions behind something residents could otherwise see only from the outside.

Our reporting on former Clallam County Drug Court Coordinator Johnny Watts has continued from his arrest through the federal prosecution. Our October 7 update reported that his trial remained scheduled for February 1, 2027. He has pleaded not guilty to drug and firearm charges.

Alongside the prosecution are questions about how the court selected and supervised someone entrusted with coordinating programs for people struggling with addiction. Those questions remain regardless of the criminal case’s outcome.

That is why I requested correspondence between Watts and Judge Brent Basden. On April 29, Presiding Judge Simon Barnhart reversed the court administration’s blanket denial and returned the request for further review. 

Barnhart has also enforced a restriction requiring my requests to be processed one at a time, citing their volume. As of that October report, I had made only seven requests in 2026, as a full-time journalist focused primarily on this court. A prolonged search can now hold up unrelated reporting.

Seven requests do not, by themselves, explain the need for that restriction. The court should identify the actual burden and explain why other requests cannot proceed. The public needs access while the questions still matter.

In a separate dispute, I sought judicial review in August after the court refused to release search-warrant logs, classifying them as confidential chambers records. We published the application challenging that position so readers could examine the arguments themselves.

Our scrutiny of Basden’s overlapping church and judicial responsibilities also continued. This month, a fellow LDS ward council member confirmed that the council discussed a family while he presided over its custody case.

Defending the right to publish

Obtaining records is only part of the work. This year, we also had to defend our ability to publish them and report on the people they concern.

In April, a visiting judge denied a motion seeking removal of more than 30 Herald articles and coercive fines of up to $2,000 a day until they came down. In May, Judge William Houser rejected a second proposed restriction on our reporting as an unconstitutional prior restraint.

I also asked the Court of Appeals to publish its decision in Asbach v. Couto. The court granted the publication requests in May. That decision upheld domestic violence protection orders while requiring narrower restrictions on future speech to comply with the First Amendment.

For a small newspaper, defending the right to publish draws on the same time and resources needed for the next investigation. Reader support helps sustain both. The articles remain available for anyone to read, including people who disagree with them.

School district decisions under scrutiny

School district reporting has required the same persistence. A verdict, a censure or an arbitration award can settle one question while leaving others for the next board meeting.

In Forks, we followed Kari Larson’s lawsuit against the Quillayute Valley School District from the jury’s hostile-work-environment finding through the financial consequences. A satisfaction of judgment filed July 2 acknowledged the district’s payment of $765,834.77, including judgments, interest, court costs and attorney fees.

The payment resolved the judgment. Families and employees continued asking what the district would change.

When the board issued a statement in August emphasizing the defendants’ successes, we compared it with the verdict. Jurors had rejected retaliation claims and found in Assistant Superintendent Kyle Weakley’s favor on the claims against him. They had also found the district liable. Both belonged in the public account.

We followed the meetings as residents sought a retraction, answers about the district’s investigation and changes to its practices. At the October 13 meeting, the board again offered no substantive public response to those demands and took no vote to retract its statement. The district’s payment did not end the community’s questions, and it did not end our coverage.

In Port Angeles, we followed Director Nancy Hamilton’s censure into litigation over restrictions on elected directors’ access to information. Hamilton alleges that the district violated her rights; the district denies her claims and seeks dismissal. We also obtained correspondence documenting her questions and the responses from district leaders and fellow directors.

That reporting required its own pursuit of records. The district initially estimated 90 business days to produce documents cited in its censure resolution. After my objections and demand letter, it released Hamilton’s June 11 letter on July 8. Readers could finally compare her account with the board majority’s characterization of it. That first release became part of a larger effort to make the correspondence accessible.

I turned those released records into a searchable email collection, where readers can examine the exchanges and available attachments themselves.

A separate request produced seven arbitration decisions. One ordered reinstatement and back pay for a Stevens Middle School secretary, who was fired after more than nine years without prior discipline. The arbitrator found the district failed to prove the alleged misconduct.

Two other decisions found that the district violated labor contracts by delaying records unions needed to represent employees, with waits of roughly nine months and more than three months.

In Sequim, we published former board director Jim Stoffer’s sworn deposition from a federal civil rights lawsuit. Like the Port Angeles arbitration decisions and email collection, it gives readers access to the material behind our reporting. They can examine the testimony and findings themselves, alongside the institutions’ accounts.

Reporting beyond the investigations

Investigations take time to develop. In the meantime, readers need to know what their school board is deciding, whether a criminal case has moved forward and where they can take their family on a summer evening. That reporting belongs in the Herald every bit as much as the stories that require months of records work.

In Sequim, we reported a parent’s appeal to preserve choir and the district’s account of school nursing needs. We covered budget hearings and construction decisions, including how residents could attend and comment. Those stories connect the figures in a budget to the programs, staff and facilities that children depend on.

The practical information matters, too. At Peninsula College, we reported a Canvas outage affecting the campus amid the learning platform provider’s cybersecurity incident. On the shoreline, we covered a gray whale’s death near Sequim, the work of stranding responders and how the public could report marine mammals in distress.

Olympic Medical Center’s latest audit renewed warnings about its ability to meet obligations or maintain services. We reported the financial losses, the district’s efforts to reduce expenses and auditors’ call for a comprehensive written plan. For people who depend on OMC, its finances are a question about access to care.

When testing found elevated lead levels at water outlets in three Port Angeles schools, we covered the replacements and restrictions on fixtures that remained above the state’s action level. We included the district’s statement that designated drinking outlets and bottle-filling stations tested below that level.

Public spending has been a continuing concern, from hospital finances to travel reimbursements. Our coverage of Steve Burke continued after his resignation from the Port of Port Angeles commission. In September, we reported an audit questioning thousands of dollars in travel spending at the port and William Shore Memorial Pool District. Auditors classified at least $165 within those amounts as misappropriated. Burke denied seeking duplicate reimbursement. Both agencies described plans to address the findings.

We covered the 15-year federal sentence in the drug-smuggling case that left duffel bags of methamphetamine on Clallam County beaches. After Johnny Talbert’s arrest in Port Angeles and extradition on North Carolina double-homicide charges, we followed the case through an order for a competency evaluation, which did not resolve the charges or determine his competency.

We reported the federal charge against former Wenatchee health care executive and LDS stake president Patrick Alan Bucknum, followed his guilty plea, and reported his four-year prison sentence. The judge ordered more than $24 million in restitution to Community Clinic Network.

Court coverage carries a responsibility to follow the outcome wherever it leads. When a federal judge ruled for the LDS Church in a negligence lawsuit, we reported that outcome along with his criticism of its abuse policies.

The same standard applies to individual officials. In July, we reported an appellate opinion praising Judge Basden’s efforts to prevent prejudicial information from reaching a jury. Readers deserve that finding alongside our scrutiny of his other decisions. The record has to guide the story each time.

Professional discipline has been another continuing beat. We covered permanent educator-certificate revocations following criminal convictions and a psychologist’s suspension over patient-boundary and drug misconduct. These records concern people entrusted with students, patients and vulnerable clients.

Our appellate coverage has explained decisions affecting housing, wages and institutional responsibility, including the ruling that WSU owed a duty of care to freshman Sam Martinez, who died during fraternity hazing. Whether WSU breached that duty remained a question for further proceedings.

Alongside that work were missing-person alerts, updated when someone was found safe, search-and-rescue operations and Sequim’s summer concerts. We also reported the identification of Joseph Louis Serrao Jr., whose remains were found in Olympic National Park in 2000.

Giving readers more ways to examine the records

Publishing the source documents lets readers check our reporting. Building tools around public records goes a step further: it lets you pursue your own questions, including ones the Herald has not yet covered.

I have expanded our tools and public-records collection to ten tools. The Campaign Finance and Lobbying tools introduced earlier this year are now joined by additional ways to examine Washington’s government and elections.

If you want to understand an organization’s involvement in state politics, Washington Influence helps you find its appearances across campaign-finance, lobbying and other public records. Washington Financial Disclosures lets you examine officials’ and candidates’ reported financial interests. PDC Enforcement helps you follow complaints through available outcomes, documents and penalty records.

For readers examining their representation, Washington Votes brings together bills and recorded floor votes so you can compare legislators’ decisions. Who Represents Me? helps identify districts and find available local-office and voting records. What Moved This Week offers a way to keep up with changes in campaign-finance, lobbying and enforcement filings.

Our Washington Supreme Court tool brings together candidates, campaign finances, election returns and selected judicial decisions. The school-district records tool puts the Port Angeles correspondence we obtained into a format readers can search and follow.

What sustains this work

To the more than 200 people who have donated or subscribed so far: thank you. You have helped a new newspaper become part of this community’s daily reading. To everyone who has shared a story, sent a document or pointed out something that needed closer attention, thank you as well. That participation helps determine what gets examined next.

I intend to keep the reporting free to read. A parent looking into a school district, a resident following a court case or a voter examining campaign contributions should be able to use this work regardless of whether they can afford to support it.

Financial contributions pay for records and help support the time needed to review them, follow proceedings and maintain the tools. Much of that work happens between articles. A case can remain quiet for weeks before a consequential order arrives. A records release can require hours of reading before its significance becomes clear. Recurring support makes it easier to sustain that attention through the quiet stretches as well as the busy ones.

If this work has been useful to you and you are able to help, please consider becoming a supporting member or making a one-time contribution. Sharing our reporting and sending useful records also help the Herald serve more readers.

Nine months in, there are still records to obtain, cases to follow and public questions awaiting answers. I plan to keep returning to them. Thank you for helping build a newspaper that can.