I shared with you last week much of the contents of my recent discussion with Sen. Ann Rivers. However, there’s one part of that conversation that wasn’t really pertinent to my editorial about her vote on the transportation package that I want to share with you now.
Rivers repeated to me something that has been said many times over the past couple of years. She said that in Olympia, Clark County’s current political scene is considered to be a “laughingstock.’’
I asked the senator what made us a “laughingstock’’ in the eyes of her counterparts in Olympia. In her reply, she didn’t name names or point fingers. Her response, one which I would describe as “measured,’’ simply stated that Clark County wasn’t on the same page. Lawmakers in Olympia were continually being given mixed signals or conflicting reports by the agencies and elected officials who represent us and therefore the lack of a unified voice was hurting us when it came time to having our business conducted in a beneficial manner.
This angered me a great deal. One of the reasons for that is I think some people in our area draw great pleasure from this current perception, or reality if you accept the premise, and they do their best to perpetuate the notion. My anger wasn’t necessarily directed toward Sen. Rivers, she was just the messenger and I accepted her insight as being accurate and appropriate. That said, I absolve very few folks down here in Clark County for this stigma that is currently attached to our political climate.
I’m going to hear from the same tired voices that I always do who will have their simplistic view as to why our current political scene is being described by some as a “laughingstock.’’ It’s all David Madore and Tom Mielke’s fault. It’s the easy, shortsighted answer. But, it’s simply not the case and you’re going to have a hard time convincing me otherwise.
That said, I will be happy to say that Madore and Mielke have certainly contributed to the mess that we currently find ourselves in. They’ve made mistakes and I have no problem pointing that out. I have to believe that if they had the last two years to do over again, they would do some things differently. I believe that because I think they have recently been conducting themselves in a different manner than they did two years ago.
Let’s face it, Madore and Mielke steamrolled their way through the first year or more of their collective works after Madore defeated Marc Boldt to swing the balance on the Clark County Board of Commissioners from the left to the right. I angered folks in the area who share my conservative ideology when I first shared former Commissioner Steve Stuart’s explanation, and then my own thoughts, after his resignation from the board early in 2014.
Stuart said he didn’t feel the three commissioners were having any meaningful conversations or discussions about issues. “There is no longer room for facts, figures, input or information, if they don’t support the ideological aims of the majority,’’ Stuart said at the time. My conservative brethren said Stuart was just whining and that he couldn’t accept being in the minority on the council. I strongly disagree and just as I respected Sen. Rivers’ insight in my recent conversation with her, I respected Stuart’s perspective immediately after his resignation. I think he was being honest and accurate.
So, I don’t think Madore and Mielke were wrong to implement the Fee Waiver Program. I don’t think they’ve been wrong to engage in battle with C-TRAN and other proponents of programs such as the Columbia River Crossing light rail project or Bus Rapid Transit. I don’t think they were wrong to remove fees for using our area parks. I think they have been transparent and I believe they have consistently represented the majority of Clark County voters.
The two have likely received the most criticism for the appointment of Sen. Don Benton as Clark County’s director of environmental services. I admit, I struggle to wrap my head around how Benton can serve as a state senator during the recently completed 176-day marathon in Olympia while also fulfilling his job down here. I don’t necessarily surrender that point, but I don’t have a substantial defense for it either. But, that’s not where Mielke and Madore blew it. If they wanted to appoint Benton, they should have done it much more tactfully than they did, even if the process would have been a ruse, it would have been better than no process at all. All that said, I challenge anybody to prove that Benton’s performance as director hasn’t been more than acceptable. I don’t have time in this column to get into all the support for this claim, but there is plenty of evidence that department is running more efficiently than before Benton took over.
So, now that I have devoted considerable space in this column to holding Madore and Mielke accountable for their roles in our current situation, I move on to others who have a considerable share of the responsibility. As I’ve said many times, there’s a minority faction of community leaders and elected officials who have their own agendas and they consistently pursue those over the will of the majority of Clark County residents. I believe that is a far greater sin than Madore and Mielke’s occasional lack of tact or due process.
The folks I am referring to are members of the business community. Others serve in elected positions around the county, as mayors and council members. They serve on the Regional Transportation Council, the C-TRAN board, the Columbia River Economic Development Council. They’re equally responsible for sending the mixed messages to Olympia that Sen. Rivers said have routinely been received from Clark County by our state lawmakers because many of them are worse at playing well with others than Madore and Mielke.
I’m going to absolutely get lambasted by some of you for having the audacity to defend Madore and Mielke while casting aspersions elsewhere. But there is a nauseatingly loud element of the minority here in Clark County who have acted like spoiled, petulant children since losing their majority representation on the county’s governing body. They’re as much responsible for the current political culture in Clark County as anyone.
I keep hearing that our soon-to-be-elected county chair needs to be someone who can bring civility to the council – a unifying, soothing, calming and respectful voice that can lead us all back to political utopia. I don’t think that candidate exists anywhere, let alone among the group of five battling in the race for county chair.
I’m not going to endorse a candidate, it’s just not something we’ve been in the practice of doing here at The Reflector. Most of the folks I talk to around the county believe Battle Ground Council Member Mike Dalesandro has a free pass through the top two primary (Aug. 4) and on to the General Election in November, solely because he’s the lone Democratic candidate. I’ve been told he has the support of his party, which seems to easily offer him up enough votes to advance.
That leaves current county councilors Madore, Mielke and Jeanne Stewart along with former commissioner Marc Boldt (who states no current political preference) battling it out to see who goes toe-to-toe with Dalesandro in the fall. I don’t know about you, but if that’s the way things shake out, I think the General Election will almost be anti-climactic to the Primary Election. I don’t see a bad choice among the four experienced candidates. Sure, I could rank them in an order one through four, but I think our county would survive just fine if any were elected as chair.
The only advice I will offer voters is this. If you want our county to remove the “laughingstock’’ label, take some time to become informed. Find out how the county is currently trending and performing. Find out something substantive about the candidates. Because, in the end, there’s nothing at all to laugh about in any of this.
Ken Vance
Editor
