Observing Government

Council Attendees: Sue Marshall, Glen Yung, Will Fuentes, Matt Little, Michelle Belkot

Link to materials: Clark County Council Meetings | Clark County

Observer: Jackie Lane

Work Sessions

Work Session: C-Tran presentation re: Transit Subdistrict. ctran pres

• Response to concerns on the part of some of the small cities about who pays for high capacity transit (light rail)
• Will present at next C-Tran board meeting (next week).
• See slide deck for options presented.
• Councilors asked a lot of clarifying questions about the tax options, impacts to communities, etc.
• Options includes increasing sales tax, sales tax in a special district, employer tax.
• Michelle asks about the new higher project costs and how to protect our people from that. Agreement would have to be done that lays that out.
• Sue asked about timeframe. 18 to 24 months. Including Ballot measure if needed.
• Would be worked by a “Regional Policy Committee”, which is C-Tran plus someone from WSDOT.

Work Session: RailRoad Advisory Board – RRAB.

• Some background:
• The county owns the rail but leases it to Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad. It is also used by BYCX for tourist trains between Battle Ground and Yacolt.
• This Sales job is being done because so many people in the county oppose development along the railroad, and oppose the actions of PVJR (rail road operator)
• Adrian Cortes has submitted a bill to get rid of the special zoning along the rail that allows industrial development where the GMA would not allow it. FRDU – Freight Rail Dependent Uses https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=5820&Year=2025&Initiative=false
• The county has been in litigation with the operator – PVJR – for years.
• PVJR has been fined for environmental damage done with no permits in Barberton and at Chelatchie, impacting wetlands, killing salmon….
• Presentation (about 12 minutes) Chelatchie Prairie Railroad
• In 1979 the mill at the north end of the line was closed.
• A trail adjacent or on the rail line was one of the original justifications for the county buying it.
• Their cost benefit analysis does not include supporting information.
• No mention of the money already spent and needed to make it viable.
• Claims only 2 or 3 trains per day after build out.
• In one place say 1000/year, another 800.
• Mentions future passenger train.
• “there are many small companies that would benefit” this is not supported by CREDC
• Industrial land taxed higher than Ag. Some people are actually trying to save Ag land
• Repurpose unused rural properties? The people who own these might disagree. Bi-Zi farms is one of the property owners who, without their knowledge, had a Railroad overlay imposed on their farmland.
• They want to do five of these presentations around the county.
• Promoted as being informational. RRAB mission is to promote the railroad.
• Discussion
• Matt asks about businesses that would fit better into a residential community that might use the rail? Can they with the 10 mph restriction. In answer he refers to the people who make the milk cartons (who just shut down one location).
• Re: transit, would the line need to be upgraded? Yes to handle the weight. What kind of transit? Was done Vancouver to Yacolt (decades ago). Matt asks if ballpark of the cost to upgrade? One of their members claims there is a fair amount of federal money available to upgrade commuter lines to get cars off the roads (um, not from this administration), but never answers the question about cost.
• Wil – Is there even any demand for commuter Vancouver to Battle Ground? We don’t know…. Mentions federal money. At no point do they answer the question of how much would it take.
• What nobody mentions is that Eric Temple/PVJR are unlikely to want to compete with commuter rail. Also, to get to Portland they would have to use the BNSF rail bridge, competing with freight for that capacity. There are already issues with Amtrak there.
• Glen doesn’t think there is demand yet. If there is money for a study supportive. Supports desire to go to the community, some of the messaging needs to be looked at, opinion vs. fact.
• Sue wondering about timing and to what end. Would be good to hear from the community about what they’d want to see. Timing inappropriate due to continuing litigation with the operator. Weaver laughingly notes that if wait till litigation resolved, could be years.
• Yacolt and Battle Ground cities have taken position against the RR so should include them.
• Asks about trails and how that fits with the current lease agreement. Paused due to funding and challenges with the operator re the part of the trail that was constructed. Parks is interested in trail corridors, we want to look into. Weaver – cost was high, issues with operator resolved.
• Matt – re: adding to the trail, how many miles? Right of way is wide enough to accommodate a trail the whole length. Connecting to existing trails, e.g. Hantwick, also considered.
• Sue moves hold till PVJR issues resolved. Glen wants to move forward. No lease compliance issues with doing this. Wil supports. Matt wants to wait. Sue notes that this is likely to be contentious, there is value from hearing from the public. Michelle agrees with Wil and Glen, there is a lot of confusion about the railroad.
• Glen says it should be led by staff with RRAB as support, with advice from board and council. Sue advises holding off.
• Timing summer-time.
• Update to be fact based not opinion. Glen asked that staff work with them on this.
• Glen mentions that they differentiate rail from the FRDU. (Freight Rail Dependent Uses) They omitted that on purpose. Glen pulls his suggestion to mention it.
• Decision : timing : summer. Modify to be fact based, Staff to help update presentation, to do presentation, and work on pulling it together (locations, etc.)

Work Session: Clean Water Fee reduction program for Clark County Schools. Presentation Title

• Program had been discontinued due to low participation and high administrative costs. Schools got re-interested after latest rate increase.
• Reductions/incentives could cause problems with cash flow. Reduce services or increase fees.
• Options slide 14, one of which is do some more research and come back, including looking across the board at incentives not just schools. (option C)
• Discussion: about what were they doing, were incentives effective?
• Old incentives included training, stormwater message to school population, education program.
• New program could include reducing imperviousness and managing stormwater facilities above minimum are parts of other jurisdictions programs. This should be considered, and not just for schools.
• Option C selected.

Council Time

Draft FPHS (Foundational Public Health Services) resolution draft-resolution-fphs-funding.pdf for 2/27 council meeting and share to the legislative delegation.

Councilor Reports:

• Matt: mental health sales tax committee, revenue may exceed 5 million, so grants will be available.
• Glen – 3 CAB (community action board) meetings: work plan, bylaws.

Work Session Requests:

• Parks & Nature system plan & natural areas acquisition plan
• Noxious weed management program (info update requested by council), approved
• Sue – getting emails about FRVL(Fort Vancouver Regional Library) board direction, and council roll in appointing board members. Will be on agenda for next week. (referring to decision to scrap years of work for hastily crafted document lacking the word ‘equity’)

Policy updates – Legislative updates

• Today is cutoff for original committee. Next cutoff – fiscal on Monday. Budget projections on the 16^th
• Sheriff talking to delegation to get funding for new firing range (replace Bonneville, English pit). Asking for Council support, got it.

19 minutes short – I think that’s a record!