A respected museum director with decades of service was quietly removed from Clallam County’s Heritage Advisory Board — replaced by a politically connected appointee whose name never appeared on the public agenda. When residents caught the omission and objected, commissioners didn’t pause, explain, or reconsider. Instead, they handed out a proclamation and moved on. The result: another avoidable erosion of public trust, and another reminder of whose voices matter — and whose don’t.

Something was amiss with the commissioners’ agenda, and Sequim resident Denise Lapio noticed it immediately.

During public comment, Lapio pointed out that the agenda item for the Heritage Advisory Board appointments did not list the names of the individuals being appointed.

“All it says,” she explained, “is resolution appointing members to the Heritage Advisory Board.”

To find the names, the public had to turn to page 34 of the agenda packet. There, Lapio read aloud the three individuals being reappointed — and then one name that stood out as a new appointment:

Derrick Eberle.

Lapio then pointed out something else: this omission was not standard practice.

Earlier in January, when the commissioners approved appointments to other boards, names were clearly listed on the agenda.

The same was true on the December 16 agenda, where board and committee appointments included names.

In fact, Lapio said the only other instance she could find where names were not listed was March 19, 2024, when 34 people were appointed to the Revenue Advisory Committee.

“I can understand why,” Lapio noted.

So the question became unavoidable: Why weren’t three reappointments and one new appointment — Derrick Eberle — listed on the agenda?

The most logical answer is also the simplest: because Derrick Eberle is controversial.

That Old Towne Road

Eberle has been politically aligned with Mark Ozias for years, most notably during the prolonged fight over Towne Road— where Eberle supported closing a public county road and converting it into a park, a position that aligned with Commissioner Ozias’ largest campaign donor, the Jamestown Corporation.

For nearly two years, Eberle fought for an outcome that would have directly benefited his private interests. Under the plan Commissioner Ozias supported, the closed public road would include a one-lane access route atop the levee, protected by three taxpayer-funded electronic gates — one at each end and one at the entrance to Eberle’s 300-guest wedding venue located on his property off Towne Road.

To say Eberle has prioritized private benefit over public interest would be an understatement.

That context explains why his name was absent from the agenda — and why the commissioners likely hoped no one would notice.

But someone did.

A County Position With a Commute

When Lapio raised the issue days before the appointment, Commissioner Ozias was in Washington, D.C. Commissioners Mike French and Randy Johnson proceeded anyway, approving Eberle’s appointment without discussion, despite the fact that all public comments provided that morning had opposed it.

Much of that concern centered on residency.

Eberle works in Tacoma. He owns a home in Tacoma. He receives mail in Tacoma. His social media suggests his children attend school in Tacoma. Yet his application to the Heritage Advisory Board — a public record — has his mailing address redacted by the county.

Instead, the application relies on language like, “I maintain an active farm in Dungeness.”

Maintaining property is not the same thing as living in a community.

Out With the Old

And who was removed to make room for him?

Judith Reandeau Stipe — a Sequim resident and Executive Director of Sequim Museum & Arts, widely regarded as one of the most qualified individuals to ever serve on the Heritage Advisory Board.

After hearing concerns about residency, transparency, political favoritism, and the deliberate concealment of the appointment, did the commissioners pause? Reconsider? Commit to reopening the position?

No.

Instead, they announced they would be honoring Stipe with a proclamation — before removing her.

Then came one final public comment, from Katherine Vollenweider, which deserves to be read in full:

“I think this is an outrage. How can you brutally kick off the only person, albeit a woman, to build a museum in this county for over 40 years?

Judith Stipe has assisted in hundreds of local projects throughout this community. Why would you want to oust a person with such talent? You want someone proven and tempered by time.

We hold people accountable, and I think that’s the true reason she was asked to step down. She held this board to the highest standard. Now, operating under the cloak of non-transparency, the will of a commissioner crushed experience, talent, and success in a deceptive manner unbecoming of an elected official.

One person in particular wanted her off because he wanted new blood. If you want new blood, slaughter a rooster. You know who you are. If you want a museum director.”

Vollenweider urged the Board of Commissioners to reconsider and offer Stipe a permanent emeritus position.

“You do her no service by giving her the golden handshake,” she concluded.

Then Commissioner Ozias read the proclamation.

He invited Stipe to the podium.

Stipe explained how the Heritage Advisory Board is funded — through one dollar from every $5 document recording fee, money the county had collected for 15 years without realizing it.

She described the integrity required to uncover the funds and ensure they were used properly.

“We can’t forget the past,” Stipe said. “It designates what we are today, and it is a form for where we are going tomorrow.”

Then she added:

“I think Mark made a mistake by removing me and putting a new person on — but I’m not gone yet.”

Commissioner Ozias checked his watch.

“When merit is ignored, mediocrity is rewarded.” — Walter Lippmann

How to Right a Wrong

Judith Reandeau Stipe comes from a pioneer family. She understands that integrity built this community — and that integrity will outlast any board of commissioners.

It would have cost the commissioners nothing to acknowledge public concern. Nothing to pause. Nothing to reconsider. Instead, they charged full steam ahead, trading transparency for convenience and eroding yet another pillar of public trust.

There is still a solution:

* Offer Judith Reandeau Stipe an emeritus position

* Rescind Derrick Eberle’s appointment

* Advertise the opening broadly and transparently

Only then can Clallam County credibly claim it is seeking the best steward of its heritage, rather than rewarding political alignment.

Residents who wish to weigh in can contact all three commissioners by writing to the Clerk of the Board at: [email protected]

The public noticed this time. And they’re not forgetting it.

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