Heroes of averted Health Department takeover? Pierce County residents who spoke out
Representative democracy is a messy, awkward business. A wise political observer, identity unknown, once described it as “a slow process of stumbling to the right decision instead of going straight forward to the wrong one.”
We can’t think of a more apt summary of what took place Tuesday night, when the Pierce County Council voted 3-3 on a proposal to dissolve the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department as currently organized.
The surprise split vote, taken at the end of nearly five hours of public testimony and council deliberation, killed a wrongheaded Republican plan that nearly everyone assumed was a lock to pass.
How surprising was the outcome? Democrat Connie Ladenburg excused herself at the start of the meeting, saying she couldn’t be a party to dismantling TPCHD’s management structure against the governor’s orders. Jim McCune audibly gasped when fellow Republican Pam Roach cast the deciding “no” vote.
Some may laud Roach as the unexpected hero of this prime-time drama; indeed, she ultimately arrived at the right decision after appearing to change her mind more than once in recent days.
One-person, one-vote is a driving principle for her, the Sumner councilwoman explained, adding that Tacoma has outsized influence on the Health Board compared to the smaller communities and unincorporated areas she represents.
This is a time-honored, constitutionally sound principle. But in the end, Roach realized nothing matters more than listening to the people — and the people spoke loud and clear Tuesday. They don’t want irrevocable decisions about the health department’s future made in the middle of a pandemic.
The true heroes in this lumbering, stumbling affair were the nearly 100 people who gave testimony Tuesday. They showed up, hung on the line for up to four hours, endured remote technology glitches and shared their views under chaotic pandemic conditions.
A mom holding her crying baby and apologizing to the council for the noise. A student taking a break from studying for finals. An emergency room doctor getting ready to go back to his seven-day-straight ER duty.
These, and many dozens more, exemplified democracy at its messy best.
They couldn’t even see the elected leaders they were addressing; a few citizens were brave enough to request a roll call of council members or a screen shot that would show whether elected leaders were present and paying attention.
Open meetings and transparent government have definitely been one of the quiet casualties of the COVID-19 shutdown. Elected officials need to return to meeting in person, with the public welcome to physically attend, as soon as safely possible.
All but three of those who testified Tuesday were against the proposed ordinance. It would have terminated the 48-year-old agreement undergirding our joint city-county health department and placed it under the County Council and County Executive.
The handful of citizens who supported the ordinance deserve kudos, too, no matter how misguided or poorly timed the plan. It takes courage to speak one’s mind despite the collective, often angry opposition of everyone else on the line.
This isn’t to say that every person who spoke Tuesday deserves a gold star. Some of the more caustic comments and personal attacks crossed the line, such as accusations that council Republicans would have “blood on their hands” and that Roach wants to “burn down Northeast Tacoma” on her way out of office this month.
“There’s certainly not a lot of love in this room, I’ll tell you that,” Roach said. “No respect for certain.”
The biggest gaffe of the day belongs to Ladenburg. She’s a paid public official. People waited hours to speak; the least she could have done was stick around to hear them out.
But the vast majority of those who did participate were part of a special phenomenon, a mass uprising of engaged residents who didn’t back down even when their effort seemed destined to fail.
Councilman Marty Campbell said he hadn’t seen a local rebellion near this scale since Tacoma planned to install parking pay stations downtown 10 years ago.
The difference is that Tacoma went through with that plan. A reorganized health department, on the other hand, has been thwarted or at least postponed to an appropriate time.
Thank Pam Roach for that, if you’d like. But we give credit to Pierce County residents who spoke truth to power, including the 95 hardy souls who testified Tuesday.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 1:00 PM.