Former Battle Ground Mayor and City Councilor Philip Johnson is once again running for a seat on the Battle Ground City Council after stepping away from elected office in 2023. His decision to return is grounded in frustration over Battle Ground’s local governance, especially addressing growth, he said.
He’ll face incumbent City Councilor Jeanie Kuypers.
“It’s really simple to sit at home on the couch and complain,” Johnson said. “It really is. I mean, you read your paper, watch television, whatever you may do. It’s very simple to sit home and complain.”
“What does that get you other than just sitting at home and complaining?” he continued. “So if you’re not willing to step up and make an effort of it, then why bother?”
Johnson served on the Battle Ground City Council from 2012 to 2023, with terms as mayor from 2016-17 and 2022-23. After more than a decade of public service, he opted not to seek reelection.
Much of Johnson’s current focus stems from concerns he raised publicly in March about what he described as unchecked development and declining code enforcement.
“There should be a set of standards,” he said. “The city has standards. They’re pretty much (from) 1999. And when you go through our neighborhoods now, we are putting up really the definition of cookie cutter.”
Johnson criticized recent developments such as the Beverly subdivision, near where he lives, for not following the city’s own building codes.
“The city messed that up completely, didn’t even follow its own code,” he said. “There are houses side by side, the same houses.”
Johnson called for a short-term moratorium on new housing applications starting in 2026, allowing time to revise residential development codes.
“Let’s update the code so that everybody’s playing by the same rules,” Johnson said. “Three people from the city council, the professionals from the city, we get together — boom, boom, done. There’s the new code and we move forward.”
Another top concern is the lack of outdoor play space for children in new developments.
“If you go to any of these new developments and look at what’s there, they put up what — a McDonald’s-type play structure, one for 300 or 400 houses,” Johnson said. “That’s it. If you live on the end of town, your mom’s not gonna let you cross Main Street at 12 to go to Kiwanis to play. So you play in the street. But there’s no space, even for that.”
Johnson also cited deteriorating roads, aging infrastructure and a lack of proactive code enforcement as motivators for rejoining the council.
“There is a code enforcement portion of the city,” he said. “As you cruise around the city, you wouldn’t know it.”
He pointed to unkept properties and vehicles left in yards as signs that city officials have taken their eyes off the basics.
“The idea of living in the city is it’s orderly,” Johnson said. “Inside the city, you would hope that things are orderly. That’s what people are paying for.”
Financial oversight is another cornerstone of Johnson’s campaign. He voiced strong opposition to the city’s $130,000 payout to police officers tied to the implementation of body-worn cameras.
“We, the citizens, bought those body cameras for their protection and our protection,” he said. “And to have to bonus them ($130,000) is a bit much.”
Looking ahead, Johnson wants the council to prioritize infrastructure spending, especially roads, water and sewer systems, in the budget.
“I believe the police have met a pretty good goal,” he said. “Maybe one or two more bodies and a little more modernization to keep up with everything, but we should be concerned about the infrastructure.”
He also emphasized the need to bring more jobs into the community to reduce residents’ reliance on commuting outside the city. Johnson believes commercial zoning in East Battle Ground should be prioritized in the city’s comprehensive plan.
“In the mornings, if you stand on the corners of 502 and 503, it’s like little red ants marching into the night going to work,” Johnson said. “ It seems sad to me that You can’t just drive six or eight minutes, or even bike or walk or whatever it may be from where you may live inside our city to to work.”
Despite his concerns, Johnson remains confident in the city’s potential, and in the role he believes he can play to help shape it.
“Take me as I am,” he said. “I’m no different than I was when I ran in 2011. I’m just interested in the financial end of this business, making the city successful.”
