Franklin Commissioner Clint Didier’s anti-mask stunt was an embarrassing misuse of power

Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier mockingly calls Gov. Jay Inslee a dictator, but on Tuesday Didier was the one abusing power.

He hijacked a regularly scheduled commission meeting to make a political point against the governor’s latest mask mandate, and in doing so put himself above WA state health rules and county responsibilities.

Thanks to the disgraceful stunt, the agenda was ignored. Discussion of a land use permit and other topics had to be delayed so that the people he encouraged to attend the meeting could take turns going to the microphone to blast the governor, quote the U.S. Constitution and dismiss the seriousness of COVID.

It was an embarrassing display.

Along with Didier, most in the crowd were not wearing facial coverings — purposely violating the state mandate requiring masks be worn inside public buildings.

Inslee reinstated the rule on Monday because COVID cases are out of control and hospitals are barely keeping up —facts that many in the gathering appeared to doubt.

Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant told Didier that if he refused to wear a facial covering, the commission meeting would not be legal and any action taken could be found invalid.

Didier said he has a medical reason that should exempt him from the mask mandate, so he wouldn’t comply. Members of the crowd also refused to mask up and they refused to leave, so the meeting fell apart.

Commissioner Brad Peck said he wouldn’t participate in an illegal meeting that could be challenged and left the room to applause, jeers and outbursts. From the crowd, Peck was called “a coward” and “a joke.”

Peck was right to leave.

If citizens want to gather and rail against the governor’s mask and vaccine mandates, there are plenty of suitable places to hold a protest.

In fact, even more people could have attended if the rally had been taken outside on the steps of the Franklin County Courthouse. The turnout could have been massive and the “stand” against Inslee’s mask mandate more impressive.

But instead, Didier took advantage of his position as commission chairman to dispense with the original meeting agenda and replace it with his own, and he rallied others to support him.

Days before the meeting, he posted a video on the Franklin County Republican Central Committee Facebook site saying he planned to disobey the governor’s mask mandate and asked others to join him in his defiance.

His reasoning is that the founding fathers “recognized that our unalienable rights were given to us by our creator, God. That which God has granted us, no man, no government, no governor and no president can take away … We want civil disobedience in this room to make a point.”

But our country is a nation of rules and laws and citizens have a duty to not only focus on their own rights, but also the rights of their neighbor. As Sant eloquently explained at the meeting, if everyone exercised their own interpretation of the Constitution, we wouldn’t have liberty — we would have anarchy.

People can work to change laws they don’t like, but in the meantime they have a civic duty to follow them — especially if those laws protect our most vulnerable citizens.

Only weeks ago, Franklin County had the highest number of COVID cases in four Western states. You’d think that would be more concerning to county officials than challenging state efforts to slow the spread of this deadly disease.

And in the case of Inslee’s authority, we elected people to represent us in the Legislature who legally transferred unlimited emergency powers to the governor.

Now, listening to the advice of health experts, Inslee is legally issuing mandates to tackle an emergency that the Legislature declared.

How much more democratic could that be?

Legislators, admittedly, are now regretting their decision to give the governor that much power. At the time, they assumed an emergency would be a catastrophic event — not a deadly virus that lingers indefinitely.

We published two editorials during this year’s legislative session encouraging lawmakers to rein in the governor when they had the chance. Several bills were introduced, but they went nowhere.

At Tuesday’s Franklin County meeting, citizens were encouraged to let their legislators know they oppose the governor’s COVID mandates, and they certainly can continue to hold peaceful protests in outdoor spaces.

Didier can be a big part of those efforts if he chooses. But his recent anti-mask stunt should not be repeated. Being a Franklin commissioner means making sure county business comes first.

Using his position to rally his base and overtake a scheduled meeting was a misuse of his position — and an ironic example of a one-person power grab.

This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 3:15 PM.