Most Nov. 7 general election races are decided after initial counts, with more fire funding, new faces on city councils and a disappointing showing for Woodland ballot measures all highlighting this year’s municipal races.
Clark County Fire District 3 Levy Lid Lift
Last week, North County residents approved the first voter-approved funding increase in over a decade for Clark County Fire District 3.
Beginning next year, the fire levy will be bumped back to $1.42 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The levy dropped to $1.29 per $1,000 of assessed property value at the beginning of this year after the district failed to pass a levy lid lift in August 2016.
Fire District 3 contracts with the city of Battle Ground and serves 40,000 people
across 84 square miles, including Hockinson, Finn Hill, Brush Prairie, Battle Ground Lake, Heisson and Lucia Falls.
Woodland ballot measures
Woodland voters let it be known that more taxes weren’t wanted as all three of the ballot measures asking for funding failed, in some cases by an incredibly slim margin.
Woodland pool
The measure with the biggest requirement for passing did not do so, as the possibility of a pool in Woodland funded in part by taxpayers fell short of even a majority. The Woodland Swimming Pool and Recreation District’s proposition to bond out roughly half of the construction costs for a YMCA facility required a supermajority of 60 percent approval for it to pass. Instead, as of Nov. 9, the measure had only 46 percent approval.
The pool push does not look defeated, as an update from the the Woodland Community Swimming Pool Committee Nov. 8 indicated the committee was still working on finally getting a swimming facility in the city.
“While the vote to build a pool and recreation center did not go the way we hoped it would, we are excited to learn about and address the concerns some voters expressed,” the update read.
Sales tax increase
Also ending up defeated was the possibility of instituting a sales tax increase of .2 percent (a two-tenths of a percent increase) as part of the city’s Transportation Benefit District. The vote failed with only 48.3 percent of the vote, losing by a margin of about 70 votes.
This wasn’t the first time the measure had been defeated, as a similar measure was on the November 2016 ballot as well. It lost by a similar number of votes, but had a slightly closer percentage due to the number of voters in that election.
Police levy funding
Seventy votes was not the closest margin by far among the different ballot measures. A proposed levy lid lift to fund additional police officers for the Woodland Police Department was only in jeopardy by 19 votes as of the Nov. 8 night count, trailing the “no” votes at 49.2 percent. The measure would have raised the city levy 78 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.
While some candidates were leery of the pool and sales tax measures, the lid lift for police funding was nearly universally endorsed by candidates. The measure followed a citizen advisory committee that was set up to address how to adequately staff the department.
Another vote count will be released Nov. 27. The election will be certified Nov. 28.
Mosquito control district
One ballot measure did manage to pass in Woodland, as citizens voted to place the city within the Cowlitz County Mosquito Control District. That measure handedly passed with three-quarters of voters in favor of the annexation, which will allow the district to use its resources to combat mosquito issues.
Battle Ground Public Schools Board of Directors: Two newcomers
Troy McCoy beat out Mitch Taylor for the only contested seat on the Battle Ground Public Schools’ Board of Directors.
As of the Clark County auditor’s last count, McCoy had 6,494 votes (64.94 percent) while Taylor had 3,506 (35.06 percent).
“I want to foster transparency for our taxpayers, continuous improvement for our teachers and students, and implement concrete metrics for evaluating our district leaders,” McCoy told The Reflector prior to the election.
Battle Ground Public Schools Board President Monty Anderson retained the district 1 seat, running unopposed. Tina Lambert, also running unopposed, will fill the district 5 seat.
Hockinson School District Board of Directors: One incumbent in, one incumbent out
For the district 1 seat, incumbent Steve Nylund edged out Kirk Jensen.
As of the Clark County auditor’s last count, Nylund has 1,174 votes (59.78 percent) to Jensen’s 790 (40.22 percent).
“I want to continue to be an advocate for STEM and vocational programs,” Nylund told The Reflector prior to being elected.
The same could not be said for the district 5, though, as Gordon Smith won in a landslide over incumbent Scott Swindell.
As of the Clark County auditor’s last count, Smith has 1,282 votes (62.51 percent) to Swindell’s 769 (37.49 percent).
“My goal as a member of the Hockinson School Board will be to make sure every student has the same high-quality education, no matter what grade level or educational need,” Smith told The Reflector prior to being elected.
The seat for district 2 had only one candidate. Incumbent Kathy Nordberg retained her seat.
Ridgefield School Board: Incumbent Greenwald back in
A deluge of letters to the editor seems to have heralded a solid victory for incumbent Becky Greenwald, as the board member has won another term on the Ridgefield School District Board of Directors.
In the only contested race on the board, Greenwald, first on the board in 2014, defeated challenger Damion Jiles by getting nearly 72 percent of the vote to Jiles’ 28 percent.
Woodland City Council: Three new faces
Three new faces are on the council and one will return following a fairly active election cycle in Woodland. In a cycle that featured a past city councilor in another county, a former Woodland police detective who settled with the city regarding his circumstances leaving the force and at one point a married couple running for separate seats, Woodland was the only city in The Reflector’s coverage area to have all four of its races contested at the time following the Aug. 1 primary.
Only one incumbent, Benjamin Fredricks, will make a return to the dais, and although his competition was not actively campaigning in the weeks prior, he still faced sizeable competition. Ultimately, Fredricks won with 54.5 percent of the vote, beating Jeremy Heffernan, who announced the suspension of his campaign in October.
Jeremy Heffernan had faced backlash as his wife, Jennifer, also currently sits on council in Position 1. Although he wasn’t actively campaigning, he still managed to put the race into a 10-point spread.
Though Jennifer Heffernan currently occupies a council seat, come 2018, that won’t be the case. She lost to challenger Janice Graham, who managed to take 53.7 percent of the vote.
One race could lead to the councilor starting more or less immediately as the previous city councilor, Al Swindell, had moved out of the state after announcing his resignation in August. Swindell had initially filed to run again for his Position 2 seat, though he withdrew right before the deadline to do so as his personal life had changed drastically in the last year, he said at his resignation.
Instead, Carol Rounds is the winner of Swindell’s old seat, winning by the largest margin of all the Woodland council races by taking 61.9 percent of the vote, defeating fellow challenger DeeAnna Holland.
Rounds could start as early as when the votes are certified, filling the roughly two-month vacancy on the board. Unlike the other non-incumbents who won seats, she has previously held a council position, filling out the remainder of former councilor Mike Kruse’s term.
Rounds wasn’t the only challenger with some council experience, though in the case of the position 3 seat that experience wasn’t enough to beat out the opponent with more history in Woodland.
Former Woodland police detective and current print shop owner David Plaza won that race by a 53-47 percent margin, winning over more recently-relocated Nate Cook. Previous to living in Woodland, Cook had been a councilor in the city of Toledo in Lewis County.
La Center City Council: Boff, Stimmel in
A former La Center councilor lost a bid for getting back on the board as the two contested seats up for election this year went to newcomers.
Doug Boff was able to win his bid for position 1 handedly, as by the Nov. 9 count he had 82.6 percent of the vote. He defeated Linda Tracy by that four-to-one margin, who had previously sat on La Center council from 2009 to 2012.
Also taking on a position on council next year is John Stimmel, who won by a smaller but still decisive margin. Stimmel took about 57 percent of the vote, beating fellow challenger Larry Lewton for the Position 2 seat.
Clark County Fire and Rescue
In the only race to feature two incumbents vying for one spot, Clark County Fire and Rescue constituents have chosen, beginning the process of thinning the board following annexation.
Current CCF&R commissioner Stanley Chunn was able to win out over fellow current commissioner Jerry Kolke. Chunn managed to get 54.3 percent of the vote, getting about 500 more votes than Kolke.
This would be the first of several races where the board would be thinned by attrition, gradually returning to the maximum of five commissioners allowed to a fire district by state law. The attrition needs to be taken following CCF&R’s annexation of Clark County Fire Protection District 2 last year.
