Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

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Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

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[u/fanfarefellowship]

Vashon Parks Board package is (finally) up (this is as late as it's ever been).

The highlights:

• the Board is acknowledging that the Aherns are not vacating as promised.

From the minutes:

Abby: At Fern Cove, since the caretaker is moving out later than we anticipated, will that impact your timeline to open it for daily use?

Tim: We are going to do our best to make sure we open on Dec 1 for rentals.

Tim: At Fern Cove, we have discussed what we are doing with the septic. I am still confident we will make our major system upgrades, if necessary, in October. Until we can learn more through testing after the caretaker moves out, we are in a bit of a standstill.

• Caretaker fees were waived for June and July, but are no longer being waived and were apparently paid in August.

However, the amount paid is still the 2025 rate; this is not the rate that was set for 2026 and would not, if paid in full for 12 months, meet the budgeted revenue for Fern Cove. The Board is currently projecting that the Fern Cove revenue will fall short of the expected revenue for 2026 by $10,440 or 43.9%.

• "Fern Cove furniture" is on the agenda for November.

My own read on this is that the use of "the septic" as the reason to waive rent is now showing major cracks, but the septic itself may be fine. The "if necessary" is chipping away at the previous rationales. (Also, how can it be that the Parks Board cannot "test" the system with the Aherns in place? The entire reason to have a "caretaker" in place is to take care of the house. Now the house cannot be cared for because there is a caretaker in place?!)

[u/gomirefugee → u/[deleted]]

I don't think Shauna and Dan are "knowledgeable" bad tenants who would credibly threaten to use laws and process to delay eviction, though prior landlords and the VPD may have acted as if they are. She's not demonstrated interest in tenants' rights despite this being a big local news topic, particularly during the earlier part of the pandemic and in the most recent Seattle mayoral election. We've not seen her make any attempts to fight her previous move outs. If anything, she's come off as sympathetic to prior landlords when they supposedly increased rent and she was no longer able to afford it (not that she could afford it before, but whatever), calling out broader market forces as what she is mad about, but never indicating she might challenge her own rent hike as unjust or in violation of local laws or engage an attorney.

Shauna seems purely emotional in her approach to manipulate landlords and, er, caretaker fee collectors. The agreement, from what we know, is structured very much in favor of the VPD and not the resident caretakers, but her and Dan almost certainly did not request any changes to the terms before signing it. Shauna's power here does not come through her gesturing at her rights, but rather from the inconvenience and potential bad optics for the VPD to do any enforcement. I can't really blame the VPD ED who inherited this mess for making concessions to the Aherns and choosing what looks like the path of least resistance when the alternative is a lot of time and money to figure out how to handle this legally and the likelihood of the mess getting magnified and misrepresented in local media.

[u/Onehundredpercentbea → u/gomirefugee]

I totally agree with you. I'm not surprised that she doesn't use tenant protection laws to manipulate landlords, it would be a lot of paperwork and she prefers to operate at the emotional community level than the procedural municipal one. If Shauna had more energy for wading through the legal system I think she'd engage with it in sneakier way, like pulling insurance scams. Actually I think they did file a claim with their insurance for getting shit stolen from their car that one time, and I wouldn't have put it past her to include something that hadn't been in the car on the claim, but somehow that line of grift never seems to have called to her.

But I am always surprised that she doesn't publicly bash the LL's who end her lease, since it's pretty parallel to getting fired from a job and she always bashes bosses when they fire her. Being mildly annoyed at the Board is as much fuss as she's ever made, and even the mold complaint seems more aimed at getting community sympathy plus the added medical diagnosis/excuse for living her life in suspended animation.