Vacant Battle Ground council seat up to county council to decide

Mayor asks to postpone appointment until after election, though county council wants to act quickly on replacement

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The interim appointee for Battle Ground City Council will be decided by county leadership after a majority of city councilors were not able to pick an applicant to fill the seat.

During a Sept. 15 work session, three of the five members of Clark County Council discussed a letter Battle Ground Mayor Adrian Cortes submitted to council notifying them of the situation. Former Battle Ground City Council Position 5 seatholder Mike Dalesandro resigned from his position on June 8 since he was set to move out of the state. City council had 90 days from Dalesandro’s resignation to appoint an applicant to the seat to fulfil the term.

Council voted at three separate meetings on choices for an appointment, though at all three meetings — each of which featured two votes — council voted the same with no majority. Former councilor Chris Regan took the most votes with three, from Cortes, deputy mayor Philip Johnson and councilor Shane Bowman; applicant Dominic Vitale received votes from councilors Shauna Walters and Brian Munson; and applicant Corrina Gibson received votes from councilor Cherish DesRochers.

The vacant seat is up for election, though neither of the filed candidates — Neil Butler and Tricia Davis — are under consideration for appointment. In his letter to county council, Cortes recommended leaving the position vacant until certification of this year’s general election for the seat, given the short amount of time an appointee would serve.

County councilors, however, decided to move forward with selection.



“I just want to move as quickly and expeditiously as we can,” county councilor Gary Medvigy said. 

He and Council Chair Eileen Quiring O’Brien expressed a desire to make the selection quickly. Quiring O’Brien said whoever is elected to the seat will not be sworn in until January, increasing the amount of time it would be vacant from the election.

Clark County Manager Kathleen Otto suggested a special meeting for interviewing the applicants next week. Quiring O’Brien asked if the procedure would allow county council to use the same applicant pool as what the city council already considered. Clark County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Taylor Halvik said he was unaware of any requirement for a particular process to identify a qualified appointee that would preclude the use of that pool.

“If we can use those same names, I’m all for just doing it as soon as possible so that seat is filled,” Quiring O’Brien said.