Pam Roach — yes, that Pam Roach — narrowly averts public health coup. Now what?
Perhaps it’s only fitting that the year 2020 threw us one more curveball.
Just when most people expected Republicans on the Pierce County Council to move forward with one of the most brazen public exertions of power in recent memory — against the orders of Gov. Jay Inslee — the shocking plot twist didn’t come until the end.
No, the lame-duck conservative majority on the council would not defiantly plod ahead with its attempted takeover of the Tacoma-Pierce County Public Health Department, as had seemed all but certain over the last two weeks.
Common sense and prudence would prevail, at the last minute.
And the unexpected hero?
Republican Pam Roach.
You read that correctly.
While Roach had originally been a proponent of the ordinance — and, to her credit, was always open and transparent about her reasoning, unlike many of her Republican colleagues — it seems a funny thing happened to Roach on her way to casting a vote.
In what likely represented the outgoing council member’s final chance to wield the political influence she has spent decades cultivating, Roach did so with great effect and aplomb.
Surprising even Republican Jim McCune — who fittingly had his Zoom microphone unmuted, revealing his audible disbelief — as a final act Roach sided with Democrats Marty Campbell and Derek Young, creating a 3-3 tie that effectively killed the ordinance.
The move culminated an ordeal marked by attempted power plays, from the insistence by outgoing council Republicans that the dissolution of the Board of Health had to be voted on immediately, to the state-of-emergency intervention from Inslee.
On this night, Roach had the final say.
Shortly after her vote, she told The News Tribune’s Josephine Peterson that it “was the right thing to do.”
While Roach had long based her support of the ordinance on the idea of “One-man, one-vote” — arguing that a health department overseen by the County Council and County Executive would better represent the people of Pierce County, particularly outside of Tacoma — in the end, after hours of testimony, Roach concluded, “Public input is a higher order.”
On this night, Roach was correct.
She was swayed by the outcry.
Of course, for those who follow the travails of county government, there was always something about Roach’s support of an ordinance that would exponentially expand County Executive Bruce Dammeier’s power that didn’t compute.
Though Dammeier managed to stay strategically quiet for much of the hasty debate — finally breaking his incriminating silence to chime in on Inslee’s emergency proclamation with a skeptical “chin-scratch” emoji on Twitter Tuesday afternoon — there was little question about how much he stood to gain from a county takeover of the health board.
Throughout her time on the County Council, meanwhile, Roach has often been intensely critical of Dammeier’s leadership, most pointedly regarding what she has described as a lack of respect for the branches of county government and elected members of the council.
Love her or hate her, it’s another area where Roach has a point.
So to see her swan song be a move granting Dammeier even more influence?
It never quite added up.
Maybe we should have seen this coming.
Either way, what’s important now is where the county goes from here. While the last two weeks have provided yet another painful lesson in Pierce County dysfunction, Roach’s unexpected legacy is now a chance to do this right while health department employees focus on what’s most important: delivering vaccines overcoming the pandemic.
Throughout this saga, a number of grievances and potential areas for improvement have come to light.
Would the Pierce County cities and unincorporated areas benefit from more representation on the health board?
It’s possible, even likely. Why not start a conversation that includes local communities and health department partners? Compared to the coup that was just barely averted, that has always made more sense.
Are there efficiencies to be found? Could the permitting process for developers be streamlined in a way that better serves a growing county while also ensuring the crucial standards and environmental protections are maintained?
It’s worth considering.
Should we evaluate our public health systems once vaccines are delivered and the COVID-19 pandemic finally subsides, with the hindsight we’ll then be provided? Can we find ways to be better when the next crisis hits?
Of course.
The cold truth of that matter is that none of this was going to happen — at least in any meaningful way — under the Council Republicans’ original scheme.
Two weeks ago, they hatched a plan to subvert the will of the people and blatantly ignore the need for a public process.
It’s sweet comeuppance that it took one of their own to put a stop to it.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
