Letter: Is this representative government?

Vancouver resident Shauna Walters calls the County Council’s recenter actions ‘egregious’ but ‘not surprising’

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

I wish I could say the recent decision of the Clark County Council to remove Michelle Bourret-Belkot from the C-TRAN Board of Directors was surprising. Egregious, yes, surprising, no. You see, I saw this same scenario play out time and time again while serving on the Battle Ground City Council.

Some councilors voted a certain way on issues because they were worried about the loss of support from a legislator (federal or state), another larger jurisdiction (City of Vancouver or Clark County), or a developer for another initiative. Instead of basing decisions on feedback from their constituents, they must first check with their overlords in the federal, state and local governments. Each issue is held for ransom and dependent upon whether the cash-producing spicket will freely flow or be abruptly cut off. The councilors who would not play that game are treated as lepers and shunned, removed from, or not even appointed to, board positions and committees that might challenge the status quo of the bureaucracy.

It is often argued that we elected our representatives to know what’s best so that we don’t have to worry about the day-to-day operations and that their decisions are a mirror image of what the majority of the electorate wants. If that were true, how many of you knew the position that your elected representatives would take on an issue that Clark County has collectively said they did not want for 20 years now prior to voting? I can tell you that only one Clark County Councilor campaigned on their position of no light rail out of the five. We cannot know how our representatives will vote on every issue and that is why it is important to engage with them to let them know so that they can properly represent us. This continuous communication loop seems to have broken though when you have listened to 2.5 hours of public comment telling you that you made a poor decision by removing Councilor Belkot from the C-TRAN Board of Directors and then turn around the next day and double down on your unpopular decision by formally beginning conversations about solidifying a rule change to force the vote of a member of a board to conform to the wishes of the other four on the council. The fact that there needed to be a rule change to begin with tells me that the Clark County Council were fully aware that they were operating outside the scope of their authority.

Maybe I have an unrealistic idea of what a representative democracy should be, but I don’t think so. I think that somewhere along the way, we lost what it meant for elected representatives to be accountable to their voters and that is because a good chunk of voters are not engaged enough in local government to know who the players are and how they behave on the dais and beyond. As we go into a heavy local elections cycle, I implore you to get to know the candidates before you mark your box to vote for them. Waiting for your handy pamphlet to come in the mail and make your decision is not going to be enough. Ask them what assurances they can give you that they will listen to you on issues that you find to be important. And finally, just because someone has been elected to that position over and over again it does not mean they are the best candidate to represent you.

Shauna Walters
Vancouver

Vancouver resident Shauna Walters calls the County Council’s recenter actions ‘egregious’ but ‘not surprising’

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