18th District State legislators answered questions and concerns during a Feb. 17 Battle Ground City Hall as Washington’s legislative session continues until March. Sen. Ann Rivers and Republican state Reps. Greg Cheney and Stephanie McClintock shared their thoughts on ongoing legislation including gun regulation, justice reform and voting laws.
Water and infrastructure
During the town hall, one Battle Ground resident proposed an idea that would require cities to improve their pipelines on a schedule to avoid damaged water.
“...I’d like to see a water and sewer pipeline bill in this state that every city in this state replace five miles a year of the worst pipes,” she said.
Rivers said that while she would like to see more pipeline improvements, the decision to rebuild pipelines should be city by city.
“That’s a really good idea, but I will tell you [that] the cost of doing that would be so burdensome for those who are at least on fixed incomes, retired [citizens] who are just scrambling to make their property tax payment, the cost of adding that burden… it’s a laudable thing that you’re suggesting, right? I would not disagree with that. It is cost prohibitive to do that, and I think we have to be very realistic about the financial impact that our laws are having on the people in this state,” Rivers said.
The same attendant asked the legislators to remove fluoride from the district’s water.
“Of course, you know everybody still thinks it’s good for the teeth. It’s not. It causes cancer. It causes Alzheimer’s. It lowers our children’s IQ.” she said.
Criminal justice
Some residents expressed concerns over the state’s criminal law reform. Cheney expressed his frustrations with the state’s current criminal justice reform, saying that legislators have “the attitude that the criminal is the victim.”
“There was a bill we heard in the state government committee, that while you’re serving a prison sentence, they wanted to give the right of prisoners to be on juries and to vote,” Cheney said. “So think about this. Someone who is serving a sentence for murder gets to sit on a jury panel of someone accused of murder. That’s crazy, that is wrong, it is, in my view, immoral and unethical.”
Rivers expressed her own frustration with state Democrats wanting to reduce the alcohol level for DUIs. Rivers said that while she wants the prison system to rehabilitate criminals, easing the punishment for criminal acts is dangerous for the state.
Housing and rent control
Senate Bill 5961, which would have limited rent increases by 15 percent or less per year for landlords, was killed in the Senate in January with Sen. Cleveland being a deciding vote. Rivers said that Sen. Cleveland has received a lot of unfair treatment from Democratic voters.
“She did the math on it, and she said, ‘This doesn’t work,’” Rivers said regarding the senator’s vote. “All we have to do is look at San Francisco to realize what an epic fail rent control is.”
Rivers criticized the bill, saying that the law’s language would have allowed landlords to increase their rent by 15 percent year after year. Rivers said the bill would have made businesses sell their rentals back into private homeownership, declining the amount of available housing for renters. She commended Cleveland for voting against party lines, saying that she did her research and made an informed decision.
“There were some groups who just wanted rent control at any cost, and they have been beating the living daylights out of [Cleveland],” Rivers said. “I have to give her props because they brought in buses [full] of people from Vancouver to picket around her car so she couldn’t even get in her car. It was the most disgusting display I’ve ever seen.”
Gun laws
The state house recently passed a bill to the Senate with the purpose of protecting the public from gun violence by adding more requirements for licensed firearms dealers to conduct businesses. HB 2118 would require arms dealers to undergo additional background checks, adopt more security features including alarms and cameras and provide an annual report to the state’s Attorney General.
Rivers said that restrictions on gun stores would lead to more businesses closing, making way for more illegal gun dealers.
“We have these sort of perennial battles, and I think it’s making it harder for gun shop owners to be in business. [It] just makes illegal gun dealers flourish, where there’s no recording, nobody knows who has what… Why shut down the gun shops when they’re the mechanism by which you are able to have an understanding of all the legal firearms sales?” Rivers asked.
Education of genocide in classrooms
District resident Reema Khasawinah asked the legislators to re-examine a bill passing through the Senate that would require public schools to provide instruction on the Holocaust and genocide. Khasawinah said that the bill should be amended as it moves through the Senate.
“The way it’s written, it’s not very inclusive,” Khasawinah said regarding the bill. “... [I’m] requesting that it include diverse ethnicities that have gone through genocides, we have a large group [including] Bosnian people, the Armenian, Guatemalan, Kurdish…”
Rivers said that the Holocaust would be the basis of the curriculum, and each teacher would have the opportunity to highlight other groups victim to genocide. Rivers expressed that planning more modules would delay the new curriculum for schools.
“But teacher by teacher, the ability exists to highlight other ethnic groups that have been the victims of genocide…” Rivers said. “... I think it’s just that they’ve been working on the Holocaust curriculum for four years, so it’s almost ready to go.”
Change in voting laws
Cheney expressed his frustrations with House Bill 1932, a bill that was passed from the House to the Senate that would allow cities to switch their general elections to even-numbered years. Cheney said that moving general elections to another ballot creates a problem for voters.
“Every study out there says that the longer the ballot is, people just get fatigued when they’re voting, and the further down the ballot you go, people just quit voting,” Cheney said.
After a long speech opposing the bill, Cheney accidentally voted yes on the bill despite being opposed to it.
“Quite frankly, I was too physically tired and I missed it,” Cheney said regarding his yes vote. “I hated that bill, and I gave a long speech on why I hated that bill, and I accidentally hit the wrong button.”
Cheney was not a deciding vote during the session, as the bill passed 52-45 with one excused in the House.
Health care oversight
Senate Bill 5241 was recently passed from the Senate to the House. The bill would place the state’s attorney general in charge of overseeing mergers of hospitals and provider organizations, with the purpose of protecting affordable health care. Rivers said that the bill is the most insidious bill she has seen during the town hall.
“If your doctor wants to merge with [their] practice, they have to get approval by the Attorney General, not the Department of Health,” Rivers said. “It turns our Attorney General in our state into a health czar and that is very problematic.”
Cheney will be leading the fight against the bill on the house side. Rivers said that the bill would likely prevent Legacy Salmon Creek from merging with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). The senator will be discussing amendments for Cheney to propose in upcoming legislative sessions.
“There’s a saying in Olympia,” Rivers said. “The majority determines what will happen, the minority determines how long it will take.”
Following the Battle Ground meeting, Rivers, Cheney and McClintock hosted another town hall at Washington State University-Vancouver.
