A Vote of No Confidence in Willapa Valley
Frustrated taxpayers in Pacific County take a stand against their own local government, demanding the resignation of the county commissioners.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At a meeting of taxpayers of the Willapa Valley held on January 9, the meeting closed with the following remarks by J. Drissier, one of the leading citizens of Willapa: 'As it is getting late, allow me to move that this meeting vote a censure on our board of county commissioners, believing them to be the most incompetent set of men on the face of God's earth, and wholly unfit to fill the offices to which we elected them.' The motion was made to include the assessor and deputy, and a petition signed by 70 citizens, asking them to resign, closed the meeting.
“Believing them to be the most incompetent set of men on the face of God's earth, and wholly unfit to fill the offices to which we elected them.”
This 1892 local political brawl over administrative incompetence feels remarkably familiar. From territorial disputes to modern county government frustration, the tension between taxpayers and local officials remains a persistent feature of Washington civic life.
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