Letters to the Editor, May 11

Temper not limited to backstage

Re: “No excuse for browbeating by Rep. Young,” (TNT editorial, 4/28).

I attended the Gig Harbor town hall meeting with Rep. Jesse Young in March. While I’m grateful he held it, the recent reports of his past verbal aggression against staffers come as no surprise to me after that event. Even there, he showed his anger against his own voter base, one of whom was only asking whether or not he had a local office.

If he will lose his temper so easily under a small amount of pressure applied by someone he’s supposed to be representing and in a public forum, who knows what his anger could do behind closed doors. Coupled with his temper, he displayed a heightened ego and lack of respect for others.

In addition to proclaiming “I was the best boss THAT GIRL ever had” when asked about one of his (adult woman) staffer’s reports of abuse, he also responded to disapproval from the group on his positions with “at least you know where I stand”, as if blatantly ignoring his constituents’ opinions were doing us a favor.

He hardly came off as the competent and compassionate representative Gig Harbor deserves.

One-day study doesn’t show full impact

The May 1 Planning and Building Committee meeting on the One Harbor Point proposal disclosed a remarkable abuse of the scientific process. Does a one-day traffic sampling study actually disclose the full impact of the proposed development? Hardly! Decisions based on sampling error and bias degenerate into the factitious, lacking a counterpart in reality.

Is it not the responsibility of the City Council and mayor to insure these impact studies have a valid data basis? Seems they’ve chosen not to adopt any standard for study quality, but instead have cleared the way for the fox to guard the hen house. The citizens of Gig Harbor deserve a “real” impact study, not the fabrication presented on Monday night.

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Letters to the Editor, May 11."