The legal battle between Michelle Belkot and Clark County will continue after Belkot filed an appeal against a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling to dismiss her case against Clark County

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

Michelle Belkot and her legal team are appealing a judge’s ruling that led to the dismissal of Belkot’s case against Clark County.

“I don’t feel the ruling made any sense,” Belkot told Clark County Today this week. “It seemed unjust to me.”

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Tiffany Cartwright denied Belkot’s motion for summary judgement against Clark County.

Belkot had claimed that her colleagues on the Clark County Council — Sue Marshall, Wil Fuentes, Glen Yung, and Matt Little — had violated the Open Public Meetings Act when they removed her from the C-TRAN Board of Directors without allowing for public comment. Belkot claimed her colleagues withheld information to the public before voting her off the C-TRAN board last year.

In all, there were five claims in Belkot’s suit. One had to do with the OPMA.

Sue Marshall, the chair of council, acknowledged that “maybe (she) should have mentioned it as an agenda item.”

The judge also had information from a Skamania County Sheriff’s Office report that came to the conclusion that the four other councilors could be fined and the Clark County Manager reprimanded for violating the county charter, rules of procedure, and the OPMA.

Cartwright, however, ruled that using terms such as Policy Updates and Council Reports “encompass what the Council discussed.”

Cartwright ruled against Belkot on all five claims, noting the plaintiff’s “claims are dismissed with prejudice.”

A month later, Belkot still is frustrated with that ruling.

“What she determined is that OPMA doesn’t matter,” Belkot said. “Why is OPMA even a rule?”

Belkot is also disappointed that nothing came about from the Skamania County report. Skamania County was asked to investigate due to a potential conflict of interest for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

The Skamania report was forwarded to Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik in November of 2025. He has reported that his office asked three different jurisdictions to look into the report, but all three opted not to take the case.

“I didn’t get a fair shake, at all,” Belkot said.

Richard Stephens, Belkot’s lawyer, said it would likely be several months before the appeal would be heard by three judges in the federal court of appeals.

“I feel the judge in our case made several mistakes,” Stephens said. “Michelle’s rights were not protected. It’s important to get a federal court of appeals to decide some of these issues.”

Interestingly, now more than a year after Belkot was dismissed from the C-TRAN board by her colleagues, the Clark County Council is going to be adding another member to that board. Clark County used to have two seats but will get an additional seat.

Earlier this month, Belkot accepted a nomination to take that seat. Yung objected, though, because Belkot would not assure her colleagues that she would vote the board’s direction on certain topics. Belkot did not receive enough votes from the council to return to the C-TRAN board.

Belkot pointed out that it has never been policy of the council to direct members to vote a certain way while on boards or commissions.

Belkot was removed from the C-TRAN board last year after she vowed to protect C-TRAN taxpayers from being on the hook for operations and maintenance costs associated with light rail should light rail be part of the new Interstate Bridge.

Since then, C-TRAN board members accepted a change in the composition of its board in return for protecting the smaller cities in the C-TRAN boundary from having to pay for light rail O&M. That deal is the one giving the Clark County Council an extra representative on the C-TRAN board.

Belkot said this week she would still be interested in taking that seat. Marshall and Fuentes serve on the C-TRAN board now, with one more seat to be filled.

“They’re not going to let me on it, but no one else wants it,” she said.

Yung was nominated, but he said he was too busy to take on another assignment.

“None of them want to do it, but they don’t want me,” Belkot said. “You can’t make this stuff up.”