Camas resident Anna Miller addresses the recent actions of members of the Clark County Council
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
It seems that the County Council is doubling down on bad judgement if not potentially a legal misstep.
You probably know this by now. The Clark County Councilors choose by their votes who among them will serve on the various outside committees and boards. They chose Michelle Belkot to serve on the C-TRAN Board of Directors.
This is what the governing document (The Charter) says about those “appointments.”
Article 3 The Executive Branch
Section 3.3 Appointments by the county manager
B. The county manager shall appoint members of boards, commissions and task forces except as provided by state law, intergovernmental agreement or this charter. Appointments by the county manager shall be presented to the council during a regular council meeting. Within thirty (30) calendar days, the council shall accept or reject the appointment by a majority vote. Failure to act within thirty (30) days constitutes acceptance of the appointment. A rejection applies to that board, commission or task force position only.
There is no provision in the County Home Rule Charter that allows for a vote of the Councilors or by the will of the County Manager to remove a duly appointed Councilor from a committee or board if said Councilor does not vote in “lock step” with the opinions of the other CC Councilors or the County Manager.
There is no provision in the County Charter for any such action. And yet, that is exactly what this rogue Council did. Bend to our will to put light rail into Clark County or we will remove you via backdoor shenanigans.
So, that brings me to think about the Ethics Commission.
Section 8.13 Ethics Review Commission and Oversight Office
On or before July 31, 2022, the County Manager, in conjunction with the County Council and as per Section 3.3B of this charter, shall appoint an autonomous ethics review commission comprised of qualified individuals in the area of ethical conduct in government which will be charged with hearing and ruling on complaints of violations of the code of ethics. An ethics oversight office shall be established by the County Manager to operate an ethics complaint hotline, accept and investigate potential ethics complaints and provide staff support to the ethics review commission. The ethics review commission and oversight office will be administered through the office of the County Manager.
So, some action choices I’ve been mulling over:
1) Start now to remove these rogue councilors by seeking out and vetting winnable candidates who will respect the law and the people.
2) Start now to assemble a candidate team for election to the Charter Review Committee to ensure this does not happen again.
3) File a formal complaint with the Ethics Review Commission.
To submit an Ethics Complaint: Email CCEthicsVM@clark.wa.gov with your complaint and contact information. Call (564) 397-2525 and leave a voicemail detailing your complaint, and your contact information.
4) Should the harmed & offended party (Michelle Belkot) decide to file a lawsuit, help her with the financial burden.
5) The stress of this type of treatment and the decision to fight it is palpable. Keep her in your prayers daily. However, remember, prayers to action.
6) Contact your CITY Councilors. Ask them to form an “all team” for the will of the people to do an intervention with the County Councilors.
https://www.cityofcamas.us/citycouncil/page/city-council-members
https://www.cityofwashougal.us/382/Mayor-City-Council
https://cityofbg.org/522/Meet-your-City-Council
https://www.townofyacolt.com/general/page/town-government
https://ridgefieldwa.us/163/City-Council?form=MG0AV3
Anna Miller
Clark County resident
Voter in opposition to light rail and tolls on a new bridge
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On Tax Day, Washington Senate Democrats introduced new tax proposals totaling $12 billion, contrasting sharply with Senate Republicans’ no-new-taxes ‘$ave Washington’ budget proposal. - Belkot speaks before C-TRAN board; directors pause vote on light rail funding language until JulyMichelle Belkot spoke at Tuesday’s C-TRAN board meeting, calling her removal from the board unlawful; directors postponed a vote on light rail funding language until July amid legal challenges.
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With respect to Ms. Miller, she cites a section of the County Charter that has absolutely nothing to do with the appointment of Council Members to representative positions on external boards.
The literal title of the section she quotes here is, “Appointments by the county manager” and is found under “The Executive Branch.” Ms. Belkot was not appointed by the county manager and is, in fact, not part of the Executive at all. This section of the charter has nothing to do with Council appointments and is entirely irrelevant to the question at hand.
I understand that feelings are running high on both sides of this particular issue, but this sort of re-interpretation of the Charter is both factually inaccurate and fundamentally unhelpful.
Respectfully,
What Ms. Miller has represented is correct, not only in the procedural realm but also in the substantive form as well.
The question begs asking, when you claimed “…that a section of the County Charter has nothing to do with the appointment of council members…” or words to that effect, what do you base your claim on?
You managed to hit the target when you stated Councilor Belkot was not appointed by the county manager.
Bravo, she, in fact was elected to the position by a majority of voters.
But after that is where your argument beings to falter.
Respectfully, it would appear that you are picking and choosing what elements of the Charter that you will render in advancing your claim.
And as Ms. Miller stated A more careful reading by you of Clark County Charter section 3.3 item (b) clearly defines how the county manager has a role in appointing members to a board. This in conjunction with county charter section 2.4 item (h) are the marching orders from which a council member can find themselves sitting on a board.
And then for you to blithely state that an “..re-interpretation of the Charter is both factually inaccurate and fundamentally unhelpful..” is so condescending and now it politely begs the question are you a paid shill? Does Raconteur.net ring a bell?
Go back and read Section 2.1, then read Section 3.1 – you may notice that these are two different branches of our government. The County Manager does not appoint members of the Council to Boards – that is covered under Section 2.2D.
Section 3.3 allows that the County Manager may appoint board members subject to the approval of the Council. Which makes a certain amount of sense, because it would be more than a little silly if the Manager appointed members of the Council and went to ask the Council if it was ok after the fact.
Your reading of Section 2.4H is also incorrect – this clause gives the Council concurrent power to appoint with the Manager only for the three specific bodies named in that clause.
Since you appear to have difficulty understanding how the Charter works, I might suggest that you go down and discuss it with the actual Councilors or City Manager’s office.
Geez Forthright RANCOR teur, you seem a little less then your perceived politeness. I didn’t state anything out of line did I? For the record I did review the county charter sections and I must admit that I did not have any difficulty understanding the language. By the way, and I don’t mean to belabor the point, but the city manager does not have any place in the operation of the county managers position. They might on occasion collaborate but their is a difference…just saying! Perhaps you made a scrivener’s error…
I also noticed that you have failed to respond to my query regarding if you are a lobbyist or written advocate for the IBR.
I’m not sure why you think that was any less polite – you genuinely seem to have difficulty understanding the language in the Charter. And yes, I did intend “County Manager” there – see how easy it is to admit to a simple mistake?
The same principle can be applied to larger mistakes. You should think about how you might put it into practice, especially if you’re going to keep doubling down on a fundamentally incorrect reading of the charter.
No, I’m not any sort of lobbyist for anything, how about you?