YACOLT TOWN COUNCILOR Lewis Gerhardt recently resigned from the council, eight months shy of completing his current term.
Yacolt Town Councilor Lewis Gerhardt has resigned his position, effective March 16.
The 33-year-old Gerhardt, who has served on the council since 2012, and whose current term would have expired at the end of 2015, cited his family’s relocation to Vancouver as the reason for his early departure.
“With a heavy heart, last night, I resigned from the Yacolt Town Council,” Gerhardt wrote on his Facebook page in mid-March. “This was not a decision made lightly, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we have relocated to Vancouver.”
Gerhardt served as a Yacolt representative for the C-Tran Board and was a vocal opponent of the new county charter. In 2014, three members of the Yacolt Town Council – Josh Karl, Vince Myers and Gerhardt – came out in opposition to the charter, writing in the town’s resolution that “Clark County government has operated as a stable and uniform county government for the past 125 years as prescribed by the Washington State Constitution. Changing the structure of county government during this economic recovery could have negative consequences on our economy.”
The Yacolt Town Council will discuss what to do about Gerhardt’s open position at its regular council meeting on Mon., April 20.
The loss of Gerhardt could change the face of the Yacolt Town Council, as three other councilors – Vince Myers, Josh Karl and Rick Urias – complete their terms in 2015 and could be up for re-election in November.
Neither Gerhardt nor Mayor Jeff Carothers returned requests from The Reflector to comment on this story.
