Councilors Temple Lentz and Julie Olson say they can not support any of the three candidates interviewed Tuesday
The decision on which of three final candidates for the District 5 seat on the Clark County Council is headed to the office of Gov. Jay Inslee.
The four current members of the County Council interviewed candidates Dick Rylander, Thomas Schenk and Peter Silliman Tuesday. The three candidates were chosen from a list of applicants for the position by County Chair Karen Dill Bowerman during a process following the March 1 resignation of Councilor Eileen Quiring O’Brien.
After asking each candidate the same seven questions during 40-minute individual interviews held in a virtual format, the current councilors met in executive session before returning to the public meeting. At that time, Councilor Gary Medvigy made a motion to nominate Dick Rylander for the vacant position, which represents areas of North Clark County. Chair Bowerman seconded the motion.
“He was very articulate and he has broad experience, diversity-oriented experience as a family man and in his family,’’ Medvigy said of Rylander. “He is certainly very well invested in this county … He’s basically embedded in many aspects of the community.
“With this newly created district, North County needs representation,’’ Medvigy said. “District 5 is now unrepresented for the foreseeable future. It is important and incumbent upon us to have a full council with diversity of opinion and thought.’’
The councilors were then given time for discussion, during which councilors Temple Lentz and Julie Olson indicated they would not support the nomination of Rylander.
“There were unfortunately things I heard in all of the respondents that created problems with me being able to vote for one of the candidates,’’ Lentz said. “At this moment, I’m not able to support this motion.’’
Olson followed with a similar statement.
“I also had some issues with a few questions, really important questions for me,’’ said Olson, who brought up comments made regarding the councilors’ roles as members of the Board of Health. “This a really important decision at a really important time.’’
The process for appointing a replacement for the District 5 seat gave the councilors 60 days for the process. If they were unable to reach a majority decision, state law then calls for the decision to be forwarded to the governor’s office.
Medvigy then made a motion to do just that, which Bowerman seconded. All four councilors then voted in agreement to send the decision to Gov. Inslee, who will have 30 days to appoint a candidate from the three finalists.
“District 5 used to be my district,’’ Medvigy said. “I feel really bad they are not represented and we are not a full council until they are.’’
Olson raised the possibility for the council to seek other applicants for the vacant position. However, Bowerman read from the applicable RCW and stated the council had fulfilled its instruction and forwarding the process to the governor was the appropriate next step.
Bowerman attempted to conduct the candidate interviews on March 2, the first day allowed by the RCW. However, both Lentz and Olson said the county chair was rushing the process. The current members of the council then attempted to set another date and the first time both Lentz and Olson indicated they were each available was Tuesday (March 29).
At the time, Medvigy expressed frustration with the lack of urgency displayed by the two councilors for filling the vacancy. On Tuesday, Medvigy expressed disappointment the county would have to wait an additional 30 days for a decision from the governor.
“It appears we have a deadlock, a deadlock we may see replicated over and over again in every action before us until we get a fifth councilor,’’ Medvigy said.
Since January 2014, Rylander has served as president of BioPharmaceutical Strategies LLC, and since September 2016 he has volunteered as executive in residence at Oregon Health and Science University to assist researchers, physicians and faculty in assessing the commercialization potential for technologies including diagnostics, devices, drugs and digital products.
Prior to serving as a contract employee to oversee Federal Agency seizure processes, Schenk was a criminal investigator and senior special agent with the United States Customs Service and a Special Agent with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, beginning his career in Los Angeles and retiring in Portland. His specialties were financial crimes and money laundering.
Silliman, of La Center, owns his own business to complete telecommunications work requests requiring the rearrangement of copper pairs or fiber, drawing from his experience as technician, construction manager, splicing manager and senior engineer. From 2014 to 2016, he served as research analyst in Clark County, representing the County Council or individual councilors in their oversight of county government. He was elected to serve on the Home Rule Charter Board where he volunteered as a freeholder for Clark County in 2014.
Clark Co. WA Communications contributed information to this report.
That’s because Councilor Olson, who has taken thousands of dollars from CC republicans over the years, and given almost nothing to advance R values, has completed her journey to the dark side with this betrayal. She decided to take away the choice from the people of North County and hand it over to her new master… Jay Inslee. I expect her to run unopposed from D’s or be handed a cushy job from Inslee as a reward.
Vote Belkot of Clark County Council D2. Go to http://www.michellebelkot.com and support her campaign
Temple Lentz and Julie Olson need to go.
Julie Olson asked interview questions #3, “What is your understanding of the role of the board of health?”
This would be a good question to ask Julie Olson. Of all the councilors, she participates the least in board of health discussion.
Julie Olson has shown her true colors. I hope she is voted out. Lentz has not changed her colors, but is apparently willing to be more open about her opinions that are leftist. She’s done a good job of bringing Olson to the dark side. Clark County is not a liberal county as both would hope. I pray they will be voted out. Belcott would be excellent in representing Olson’s district.
The “fix” is in…who thinks Inslee can provide an objective decision, lol 🙂
Here before the Council were three qualified candidates with excellent credentials. It is no surprise that Olson participated in this stunt with her favorite liberal, Lentz. Olson has been raising taxes every year, voting for policies that strip citizens of their rights, and thumbing her nose at the voters that put her in office for years now. In her last run, the Democrats didn’t even bother to field a candidate because they were wholly satisfied with Olson. Medvigy and Bowerman get credits for their effort to fill the position. Julie, time to exit stage left before you get the hook.
Would like to have heard the candidate interviews.
Are they public?
And does Governor interview the candidates.
Must he chose one of the three?
Can he reject all and send back to Board?
Not to worry, Don Benton will be elected and District 5 will get the representation it deserves!
And parenthetically, Council Members represented by District represent all County citizens, not just those in their District.
Video link for Count Council District 5 interviews, March 29, 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGUPzuX6qY
Smooth move. While you’re at it why not have Inslee come down and straighten out all the County ills. Like we really need more of the Woke-in-chief invasions.