With the systematic homelessness and public safety crisis in our region, you’d think King County would be primarily focused on addressing those issues.

But apparently, the county government was taken over by the Grinch.

Recently it was revealed that King County sent out a memo to its employees instructing them not to have any holiday-related items on display anywhere outside their personal workspace.

That includes – no joke – Zoom meeting backgrounds.

According to the memo:

Some employees may not share your religion, practice any religion, or share your enthusiasm for holiday decorations. Displays of religious symbols may only be displayed in an employee’s personal workspace. Religious symbols should not be displayed in or as a background to an employee’s virtual workspace.

To quote Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation, “you serious, Clark?”

Some of us may not share the county’s enthusiasm for micromanaging its employees, when it should be spending that effort trying to get the homelessness and crime situation under control.

That law-abiding public employees are more restricted in how they celebrate the holidays than criminals are in how they rob, steal, and engage in drug activity is yet another example of the same dysfunction and twisted priorities we’ve seen with the County’s plans to put a homeless megaplex in the International District and at Western State Hospital.

Perhaps if the county found drug camps and boarded up store fronts as discomforting as holiday decorations, things might actually get better.

All we want for Christmas are clean, safe streets. But it seems easier to make a snowman come to life than making it a priority for regional officials.

The county needs a visit from the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come to show them what the yuletide season will look like in our region if things remain unchanged. Then they can adopt a New Year’s resolution to turn things around.

They can bah humbug all they want, but we at Change Washington wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!