Below is the speech I gave the other night to the Indivisible Port Townsend group at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Please reach out to me with comments, questions, requests for signs, or to arrange a meetup.

Hi, I am Matt Ready.  I’ve served as one of your elected public hospital commissioners for eleven years. Before that, I worked at Jefferson Healthcare in Information Systems and Performance Improvement, helping our teams build systems and processes that support patient care.  I am married to Stacey Larsen, a long time farm to school advocate and leader in our community.  I have also dabbled over the years as the JV and Varsity volleyball coach at Port Townsend High School.

I care about our community, and I care deeply about freedom, equality, civil rights, and democracy. I believe truth and transparency are the foundation of a healthy society. Jefferson Healthcare is not just a hospital—it is a public institution, part of our government of, by, and for the people. 

When I first ran, it was as an activist. I wanted to push for creative ways to ensure everyone in our community has access to care and to advocate for single-payer healthcare. Once on the board, I embraced both the advocacy and the everyday work of a commissioner: monitoring high level metrics and contributing to thoughtful deliberations on major decisions of the district.

As commissioner I challenged the board to improve the quality of our deliberations, to have the integrity to do what we claim we do in our board policies, and to commit our district to the health of our community.

Along the way, I’ve been at the center of two major governance controversies—each about transparency and the public’s right to know.

The Recording Fiasco

The first major controversy began when I decided to record our board meetings so there would be a complete and accurate record of everything said in public session. After only a couple of months on the board, I could see it was needed.

At that time—before commissioners Kolff or McComas joined—the CEO and other commissioners aggressively opposed the recording of meetings. To make a long story short, It took nine years from the first confrontation to get the clear legal truth: both commissioners and citizens have the absolute right to record open meetings.  And this was resolved when the CEO produced a written legal opinion that had been in his possession for 5 full years before sharing it with the board.

The board now records all its on site public meetings- but refuses to record our off site meetings- so I personally record and share those with the public- requiring my own time, effort and expense.

The CEO and board’s fierce resistance to something so basic revealed a deep hostility to transparency and a preference for the secrecy normal for private corporations. That attitude set the stage for the next controversy: the Peninsula Health Alliance.

The Peninsula Health Alliance

On February 5, 2025, the Jefferson Healthcare board went into executive session under the “real estate” exemption of the open public meetings act.  An executive session is an unrecorded private meeting- and there are strict laws about when we can do this and what we can discuss in these meetings.  Once in this “real estate” meeting, Instead of real estate, we were shown a proposal to create a new nonprofit—the Peninsula Health Alliance—that would oversee both Jefferson Healthcare and Olympic Medical Center in significant and extensive ways.  

The plan called for a “super-board” of 12 commissioners: seven from OMC and five from Jefferson, giving Clallam County a permanent majority. When I asked the CEO if he was seeking board approval, he said “yes.”  Then, One by one, the other commissioners voiced support for proceeding with this proposal. 

Even if the proposal had been a good idea—which it was not—the way it was introduced broke the law. We convened an executive session under the “real estate” exemption, yet never discussed a any real estate. Instead, we reviewed a sweeping governance plan that would dramatically alter our hospital district. That was an illegally hidden deliberation.

Worse, the board signaled approval for the CEO to move forward—which is a textbook example an illegal straw poll. Under Washington law, any action flowing from such an unlawful session is itself invalid.

In the months that followed, I raised my concerns again and again. Each time, the CEO and other commissioners brushed me aside, relying on hospital attorney Brad Berg’s verbal unrecorded assurance that everything was fine. I urged them to get a second opinion, just as patients often do with a serious medical diagnosis. They refused. When I told them I had already consulted an independent attorney who warned the session was unlawful, they claimed not to believe me.

Meanwhile, the CEO publicly claimed the February 5 meeting was about real estate, and he and the commissioners denied any proposal existed.  One commissioner called my claims about a proposal “Aery fairy”.  

At a second executive session the CEO described a strategy of eventually releasing the proposal to the public, but only after Jefferson and OMC had agreed in principle to proceeding with it.  They called this strategy setting up a “binding non binding agreement”.  The district lawyer Brad Berg said this could be accomplished by signing a letter of intent.  

I felt this was wrong and that Remaining silent would have made me complicit in deceiving the public.  

I then faced a choice: allow this proposal to advance in secret, or break the executives session secrecy shield, and blow the whistle. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I chose truth. I filed a detailed criminal complaint with the sheriff alleging misconduct, fraud, and conspiracy, and also reported it to the State Auditor. The future of our hospital district was at stake.

At the March 26 board meeting, when I tried to inform the public, the chair muted me, accused me of slander, and cut off my public comment. That kind of silencing is a gross breach of democratic norms. Thankfully, our meetings are recorded—and The Port Townsend Leader reviewed the tape, interviewed me, and ran the story of the secret negotiations on the front page. The proposal was no longer hidden. Soon after, the sheriff’s investigation found the board had ‘likely violated the OPMA,’ though the prosecutor declined charges, citing difficulty proving intent.

I thank the PT Leader, Sheriff Pernsteiner, and the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office for their attention.  It was inspiring to see our local press and justice system do their jobs in support of telling the truth. 

Shortly after these events, OMC communicated it was no longer considering the proposal.

Once this became public, the CEO and commissioners admitted the proposal existed—but claimed secrecy was required by a nondisclosure agreement.   So let us be clear:  An NDA is a tool of private dealings and private corporationsl; it has no authority over a public hospital districts transparency obligations under the law. The law is clear: the Open Public Meetings Act and the Public Records Act—not a contract signed by unelected CEOs—determine what the public has a right to know.

The CEO claims my concerns about the NDA were ‘asked and answered’ by a private legal review and memo drafted by his hand picked lawyers—but that memo never addressed them, they wont allow the public to read it for themselves. Instead of hiring an independent attorney to advise the board, the majority let the CEO investigate himself with lawyers under his control. Even those lawyers couldn’t deny the obvious: the February 5 executive session was not about real estate—it was illegally held.

Truth and Honesty

Jefferson Healthcare is a public hospital district, and one of the most important institutions in our county. It is full of outstanding staff who deliver award-winning care, and we’ve just completed a state-of-the-art expansion that will serve our community for decades. The concerns I’ve raised are not about our doctors, nurses, or staff—they’re about governance.

Transparency and accountability make leaders perform better, and while progress has been made, more work is needed to protect the long-term integrity of our public hospital and every elected office. None of us benefit when leaders bend or ignore the law. If we don’t defend democracy and freedom at every level of government, we risk losing them.

I ran for commissioner to fight for universal healthcare. I pushed to record meetings because recordings are truth, and truth matters. I exposed the Peninsula Health Alliance because the public had a right to know.

Could an alliance such as this be a good idea?  Yes.  But as crafted, the Peninsula Health Alliance was dangerous—it was a step toward corporatocracy, where corporate secrecy replaces democratic oversight. In a private corporations, a single vote could have reduced elected voices and moved decisions out of public view, while our CEO was tasked with running two districts at once—tying our stable hospital to one in financial crisis.  Any exploration of such an idea demands public scrutiny.

If you reelect me, I will continue to fight for high-quality care, transparency, honest accountable leadership, and universal healthcare. I will continue to record meetings, tell the truth, and honor my oath of office.

But whether you reelect me or not, please don’t let these seats go unchallenged again. For ten years, too many commissioners have run without opposition. Democracy only stays healthy when leaders are questioned and tested.

That’s why I thank my opponent, Stu Kerber, for running. Without his candidacy, I wouldn’t have had this chance to share my story.  

Thank you for listening, thank you for your activism, and thank you for caring about your community.