Election 2026: League of Women Voters Primary Candidate Forum

0:00 (upbeat music) - Welcome to the League of Women Voters Primary Election Candidate Forum. My name is Theresa Torres. I'm the moderator for this event and a member of the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan group focused on voter education. Thank you to our candidates for their participation in this event and a special thanks to CVTV for hosting it. The forum will be aired on CVTV and online at cvtv.org. Our first forum tonight features candidates for the Clark County Council District One. Joining us are Dusty Arab, Lucas Bardu, Glenn Young, and Brian Scholl. Welcome to you all. Candidates, please watch the league timer and stay within the timelines for each question. You will have 60 seconds to answer each question

1:00 unless instructed otherwise. You'll first answer in the order that you appear on the ballot and we will rotate after that. All questions are prepared by the League of Women Voters of Clark County and we're providing the timers. So, candidate Arab, how long have you lived in District One and what skills, abilities, and experience with community organizations would you bring to this position? - I moved here in October of 2020 and I grew up coming here summers when I was a kid. And for skills and abilities, I'm a small business owner. I have been a marketing professional with my own consultancy for the past 15 years. And in 2025, I started a second business. I am now an urban farmer here in town. If you recognize me, it's probably from the Vancouver Farmers Market. I help people start Victory Gardens. So, all of that contributes in that I'm really good at juggling competing priorities

1:56 and figuring out how to relay different kinds of messages to folks in the way where it's going to land the easiest for them. A lot of my work was in copywriting in particular. So, a lot of my work is around writing, speaking, all sorts of things like that. - Candidate Burdu, you want me to read that again? - No, that's fine, thank you. I've lived in District One for seven years but I have grown up here. I spent the better part of 43 years here in Clark County. I remember when Wally, who owned the Evergreen Airfield, would take his plane out and fly it, the open cockpit yellow plane. So, my roots here are pretty deep. What I bring is the ability to bring people together from all political spectrums and give them the space to experience new perspectives and to be heard. My business experience of being able to look at things from a macro and a micro position as a small business owner,

2:56 my experience working with government entities like the Department of Defense and the USDA and navigating the requirements that they hold in order to do that work. And I have over 15 years of experience in transportation industry working with logistics services which requires me to do a lot of problem solving. - Thank you. Candidate Young. - Yes, is that on? - Doesn't sound like it. - Doesn't sound like mine's on.

3:24 - Yeah, they can hear you. - Can you? - Yes. - Okay, I sound much different than everyone else, okay. Or I could just speak loud, I'm capable of doing that. - Yeah, they dialed it in at the upstairs. - Okay, all right. So, I'm Glenn Young. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I thank the League of Women Voters for organizing this forum. I think it's the most important tool that folks can use to be able to understand the issues that are important to the candidates and the skills that they bring to that job. I have lived in District One since 2003 and built my family here, built my business. I'm a general contractor by trade and it has treated me very well. I think the skills and abilities, I think the single biggest thing would be three and a half years serving on the county council. That has been an experience for sure.

4:21 And when you talk about drinking from the fire hose, the first couple years are very much that. So, I bring the experience, I bring the special ability. What I see as a very productive thing that I, a skill that I've learned over time is the ability to work with and communicate with folks that very much disagree with me. And coming to resolution, understanding each other and ultimately ending up with a positive conversation with them. - Thank you. Candidate Shull. - Hi, thanks to the League of Women Voters for this opportunity as well. I was born and raised here in Clark County. I've been here for decades with a little time out in getting my education. But I went to Hudson's Bay High School, graduated from there. I came back from my education with a degree in environmental and renewable energy engineering. And I have worked with utility companies up and down the West Coast in running renewable energy projects

5:19 and energy efficiency projects for them. I ran the largest, the operations for the largest solar company in America for a while. And in 2015, I founded Trapdoor Brewing, which is local. I founded it with my two sons. And that makes us a fourth generation in Clark County beer family. My father and my grandfather both worked at the Port of Vancouver at Great Western Malt at the beginning of the, well, from the 1960s on, but kind of founded the craft beer market through them. Trapdoor Brewing, I've grown to be multi-state and multi-country. I would like to bring, I know how to create prosperity. I've built hundreds of jobs, and I'd like to bring my skillset to Clark County. - Thank you. Candidate Bourdieu, the county has increased sales taxes twice this year without voter approval. It also can raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - You know, our community, our taxes need to be set

6:19 to support the services that people actually demand. And that's my main point. People expect good roads, safe communities, and reliable services. The conversation shouldn't just be about taxes. It should be about the value and accountability. Taxpayers deserve to know where their money goes and what they're getting in return. - Thank you. Candidate Young. - So this was-- - I'll read it again. The county has increased sales taxes twice this year without voter approval. It also can raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - They are challenging. There's no question about it. Everybody in our community is feeling the pain of the economy, and extra additional taxes are difficult to handle, quite frankly. But really what it comes down to, my job as a county counselor is to understand what level of service our citizens expect from our county government,

7:17 and to base those decisions on that. So what does our citizen require in terms of parks? What do they envision, that being our roads? How well maintained should they be? That is my role, is to understand what the community desires of the county, and to make sure that that happens. Sometimes that involves looking at tax increases, or fee increases that are able to be done by the council alone. And often that means going to the voters, and establishing to them the importance, and this is why I view that my view is so important that we fund this particular thing, and then you ask the voter at that point. - Thank you. Candidate Shull. - Hi. The plain truth is that governments don't create wealth. They only extract it, and I think that our state and our county and our city have a real revenue, spending problem, not a revenue problem. As a small business owner, I know firsthand

8:17 how mismanagement can crush the small businesses. I think that, I'm gonna come from a tax blast approach. I think that I do approve of making the super majority requirement for increasing taxes. I do believe that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. I know the budgets in the county are very tight, but I do believe that how governments operate and how we view the taxpayers has been mismanaged, and I would like to make some changes in that. - Candidate Arab, would you like for me to read the question again? - Sure. - Okay. The county has increased sales taxes twice this year without voter approval. It can also raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - I think it's important for everybody to understand that the way that Washington state works is that counties are always going to have a budget problem. So I think that leading with the fact

9:15 that we are going to start with a budget problem is the first thing that needs to happen. There needs to be better voter education around that so that they understand why we're bringing them levies. As far as the taxes that have already been passed, they make sense to me. The 1% increased property tax, we need to be taking it. Even that is not keeping up with inflation, which means that our services are going to continue to deteriorate if we're not taking that. So there's that piece of it. Additionally, I do support getting taxpayers opinions there. So levies makes sense to me. I will definitely be supporting the one that the Clark County Conservation District is putting together. I think we have a phenomenal parks and regional program in that regard, and I think that we all want to continue to keep that wonderful, and it deserves to be funded. - Thank you. Candidate Young, what is the county's responsibility for addressing water quality issues

10:12 in Lacumas and Vancouver Lakes? What additional actions should be taken, if any? - Very good question. I think water quality is very important. It's been a very big focus of my term in office. I have really led the charge at the county level on the work that we're doing at Vancouver Lake. It is a very complex subject. You're dealing with the Army Corps of Engineers, you're dealing with the Port of Vancouver, you're dealing with the county, you're dealing with the city of Vancouver, and there are other jurisdictions, but it takes a lot of tenacity and willingness to trudge through to the end. But clean water is so important. We've made investments during my time on the council, significant investments in not only addressing the lake itself, but the watershed that leads into the lake. And we have really beefed up our clean water program, and it's making a difference.

11:11 But we also want to see Vancouver Lake become a place where everybody wants to go to. Right now, it's kind of like a lost gem in the city of Vancouver, but it could be a real marvel. - Thank you. Candidate Shull. - Can you ask the question again? - Sure. - What is the county's responsibility for addressing water quality issues in Lacumas and Vancouver Lakes? What additional action should be taken, if any? - I think that the county's responsibilities are, as Glenn said, that they're mixed in with a lot of other responsibilities, specifically at Vancouver Lake. I grew up here swimming in the lake and swimming in the river at Frenchman's Bar. I think many of us were blessed to be invited by the Friends of Vancouver Lake to learn some of the problems that are there, and that most of the flushing that doesn't happen at Vancouver Lake because the port was built is because of the Salmon Creek watershed that empties into there. I do believe that, pardon my sense, that we've been dealing with the recurring

12:10 and harmful algal blooms. Clean water is exactly the kind of core function we should fund out of the existing budget by prioritizing it and not treating it as an optional money moment that gets tight. I bring an engineering background. I think that we can flush out Vancouver Lake by working through the channel that's there with the Corps of Engineers. - Candidate Arab, what is the county's responsibility? Do you want me to read the whole question? Okay. - So, I think that starting with Lacumas and Vancouver Lake is a nice way to start the conversation, but it misses the bigger framing, which is that we need to be doing a better job county-wide of taking care of our water. We have storm water and runoff plans that haven't been completed. They need to be completed. Developers are not paying their fair share in that regard. I think that a lot more needs to be done. I think we can be doing different things at the city level,

13:06 as far as are we choosing to use pesticides? All those things are leading to additional algal blooms. Anything where people's fertilizers and things, if there's too much nitrogen, it's going to be making those algal blooms more of a problem over time. And if that's the case, then we need to all be doing something here. Yes, the county has a responsibility, but we all do as individuals, too. There is so much more that can be done here. - Thank you. Candidate Bardew. - You know, I look at Vancouver Lake, and I see something, I see that it's such a huge asset to our community, and it's also a missed opportunity for us. We need a long-term solution that improves the quality and protects that recreation and that wildlife there. But do we think about what we can actually do with that lake? The rowing events there. It brings money into our communities.

14:05 We can make that lake look like a profit center and not an expense, and it helps our local businesses. But we need to do that by, the county needs to be in charge and make sure that we keep it clean and maintained. - Thank you. Okay, our next question. And this is for Candidate Schull. Clark County continues to experience rapid population growth, particularly in transitional areas. How should the county balance housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and preservation of rural and natural areas? - Yeah, Clark County is growing pretty fast, and I think that we have, the tasks that are in front of us are to really prioritize whether or not we're going to have urban growth, we're gonna develop agricultural lands or not. Oh boy, I blew this one, didn't I?

15:02 Can you ask that again, please? - Sure. Clark County continues to experience rapid population growth, particularly in the transitional areas. How should the county balance housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and preservation of rural and natural areas? - Right, housing needs. Dealing with, oh, I'm gonna pass, I'm sorry. - Okay. - I'm flustered, I'm sorry. - That's okay. Candidate Era. - Yeah, so first of all, I think we need to be prioritizing the urban centers and making sure that we are building up instead of building more sprawl. We have a serious problem across this county with thinking that it's appropriate to pave over farmland. As an urban farmer, I'm friends with a lot of other farmers in the area, and the amount of pressure that they are already under is so high. It's so high, and land is so expensive in this county. If we are not building next to where there are already roads and jobs, that means we're gonna continue

16:01 to see outsized infrastructure maintenance costs that are just gonna end up pushed onto taxpayers. I'm not okay with taxpayers continuing to end up responsible for what fundamentally is something that the people who are building here should be paying for. There are plenty of opportunities for infill, and I'm also a huge proponent of speeding up the permitting process when it comes to ADUs in particular. I would love to work with developers to get some small tiny house plans into a library similar to King County. - Thank you. Candidate Bardu, do you want me to read that again? - Yeah, please read the question. - Sure. Clark County continues to experience rapid population growth, particularly in transitional areas. How should the county balance housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and preservation of rural and natural areas? - You know, growth is coming, whether we plan for it or not. So our responsibility is to make sure infrastructure, housing, and public services keep pace.

17:00 It requires good planning today, prevents bigger problems later. I support transportation projects. I support speeding up the permitting process, and our services need to match the type of growth our community is becoming. By speeding up the permitting process, we actually reduce the cost of that. One of the things I want to do also is I want to prioritize low-income housing and/or incentivize low-income housing. And what does that look like? It could look like, you know, we have a low-income housing project coming into play, and that area needs to be upzoned. Maybe we prioritize that area and give the ability to upzone that location. So that's my basic thing. - Thank you. Candidate Young? - Sure, I think the key word that you mentioned, and there's balance. And that, to me, really is what needs to be done,

17:58 is balancing all the different needs. I have often heard, you know, when we're having our meetings, I hear the comment, we need to stop growth, or we need a moratorium on growth. Clark County's a great place to live. And as long as it stays that way, we're gonna continue to grow. And there's really only two things that I can do as a county counselor to stop that, and that would be either to make it such a miserable place to live that nobody wants to move here, or make it so expensive that nobody can afford to live here. And neither of those are options. So we have to live with the growth. The question is, how do we do it? And that's a very philosophical question, and it's a very challenging question, and people have very, very strong viewpoints on that. Different jurisdictions have different viewpoints on that. Do we grow up, do we grow out, do we do some of both? It's a real large community discussion that has to be had, 'cause every jurisdiction, meaning the cities, the small cities, the city of Vancouver, and the county,

18:56 all had a vision for themselves, and that vision should help drive that conversation. - Okay, thank you. Candidate Arab, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - I mean, I would say that I have to agree with the public in that particular regard. So even though we have time for public comments, it is so abundantly clear that the decisions are already being made, and a lot of those decisions are being made whether or not public comment comes in, and regardless of what that public comment actually is. I've seen very few instances where counselors are willing to change their position on something when the public overwhelmingly says one thing or another, and that's incredibly frustrating. I think the other side of this actually is a communications problem

19:54 just that is Vancouver and Clark County specific, in that because we're looped into Portland media, residents are not being notified, so they don't know what's going on, and that is so challenging, both as a resident and as somebody who is trying to get involved here, because it's hard to know what's going on, period. So I would be absolutely for any initiatives that would improve communications between the county council and the public. - Thank you. Can I, we're doing, shall I read that again? - Please. - Residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - You know, I want residents to know what I'm working on before they have to ask. I'll explain my decisions, welcome feedback, and remain accessible to the people I represent. The trust is what needs to be built through transparency

20:53 and consistent communication, so communication across the board, and it works so well on so many other things, like homelessness, you know, collaborative communication. - Thank you. Candidate Young, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - It's a very good question, and it really highlights a very difficult challenge that we have and experience. I can't speak for my other fellow council members, but I can speak for myself that I have changed my vote based on new information that I've received at public hearings multiple times. I believe in making decisions based on the data and the information that I have in front of me. There's even been times where information has come forward later on after a decision was made that has led me to reverse the decision that I've made. I don't consider that a weakness.

21:53 I consider that a strength, somebody that's willing to adapt to new information. The challenge that we really experience is when I see all of the people that are engaged at the council meetings, I often see missing what I really wanna see, and that is the average citizen of Clark County that is just interested in making their community better and expressing their own personal experience. We often end up with a lot of people that have specific interests in mind that dominate the conversation. - Thank you. Candidate Schull, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - Public comment is very important. It is the people's, kind of the people's branch of the government,

22:51 and I believe that it is the way for all of us to have our inputs in. You can hear the frustrations. I've watched some of the council meetings, and I've seen people on extremes or in the middle come to the meetings and express their views and not be heard, have decisions not go their way. I think that the council has a very challenging job, and listening to everybody's viewpoint may not always come out the way they want. I think my commitment is simple. I'll show up, I'll be accessible. I'll listen to all of my constituents, not just the ones that I agree with. That means an adequate notice of what's being decided, open meetings, accessible public records, and explaining those decisions in plain language. People who deserve to know that they're heard and that their input matters. - Thank you. Candidate Bardu, I hope I'm saying that right. Candidate Bardu, okay. Clark County's economy and transportation system are closely tied to the Portland metro area.

23:50 What role should the county play in coordinating with Oregon partners on major transportation issues? - Oh, the bridge. (laughs) We knew that was coming. You know, we have got to keep pushing through. We gotta keep pushing forward to build this bridge, and by moving past all the hurdles that are being thrown at us right now. It has got to happen, light rail has to happen. End of story. - Thank you. Candidate Young, should I read that again? - No, I don't need to. - Okay. - This element is a huge component of transportation, so both the I-5 bridge and then what you talked about working with Portland. A lot of people don't realize that the city of Vancouver and Clark County themselves are not decision makers on the interstate bridge replacement project. So what can we do? For example, on our meeting yesterday, I brought forward a resolution that was looking out for the best interest of our community overall.

24:50 I know light rail is a contentious issue, and I understand the pros and cons on both sides. I understand why people are passionate about it one way or another. But the reality is that that has been selected as the preferred alternative for the rapid transit in our community, and it's up to us to make sure it is the most efficient one possible. So the IBR wanted to cut expenses by not bringing the light rail to the library, but ending it at the waterfront, and the resolution which passed, it was to make sure that it gets all the way to the library. - Thank you. Okay, candidate Scholl, Clark County's economy and transportation system are closely tied to the Portland metro area. What role should the county play in coordinating with Oregon partners on major transportation issues? - Well, the role that the county plays is gonna be dictated by the rules that are at play, but I think that we need to take a step back and look at what the bridge is for.

25:49 We wanna move goods and services and people back and forth between the two states, and right now we have a bridge that kinda does that, we have congestion. And so if we're trying to solve the problem of what the bridge is, we also have a seismic issue. So if we're going to build a bridge, let's make sure that we focus on what the goals are of it. To suggest that we need extra lanes for bike and pedestrian, do we actually need extra lanes for that? Can the existing services provide those things? So I'm going to be stepping back and making sure that we take a look at things. I don't know what, like Glenn was saying, that the county has a lot of input on that, but I wanna make sure that we could have built two bridges by now at $850 million a piece, we've spent $400 million talking about this bridge, so I'm glad that the decision was made to move forward at the federal level yesterday, but I think that we need to make sure that we have our basics covered of what we need the bridge for. - Thank you. Kennedy Arab, shall I read it again? - No. - Okay.

26:46 - As far as the bridge goes, I think it's a good thing to remember that most of us actually do want light rail. Most of us are actually excited to be better connected to Portland, whether that's to go to concerts and enjoy the other amenities that Portland has to offer, or folks who have jobs on the other side of the river and don't wanna have to sit in the godawful traffic there, or wait when a boat has to use the drop thing. The sooner we get it done, the better, but as somebody who doesn't drive and actively uses C-TRAN at the county level, I think the best thing we can be doing is making sure that C-TRAN is continually paid attention to because God knows that TriMet is not always the most efficient company to work with. So I would say that anything we can do to support C-TRAN in having just as much of a stake at the table as possible and continuing to support them as we continue to expand

27:45 light rail, hopefully far beyond just the library. - Thank you. Candidate Young, county government faces limits on revenue growth while demand for services continue to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - We just had this discussion this week. We're looking at potentially needing to cut about 2% from our general fund budget, and we had a discussion about how that would look, and the original suggestion was just two and a half percent from every department in the county to be fair. And although I do agree with the thought process on being fair, but I think the most important thing is that we recognize there are critical services that the county provides, and there are important services that the county provides. And so we really need to look at what the impacts

28:42 of those cuts are, and unfortunately some departments will likely have to shoulder a little bit more of the load than others, but it's about prioritizing what our citizens' needs are here in Clark County. - Thank you. Candidate Shull, county government faces limits on revenue growth while demand for services continues to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - I believe that government cannot be all things to all people, and we do need to have a strong definition of what we consider critical services. I think that's a term that has been abused. And moving forward, I think it's pretty straightforward. We need to fund the core functions first out of the budget that we already have. I think that, I know that the budgets are tight, but again, it's about defining what is actually critical services, public safety, transportation, water quality. I think that I do support also a structural guardrail

29:42 that raising taxes should be the last thing that we do, and I'm gonna stand behind that. - Thank you. Candidate Arab? - Can I get the question one more time? - Sure, happy to. County government faces limits on revenue growth while demand for services continues to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - Probably. So right now, nationally, I mean, we are all in the middle of a massive affordability crisis. And because Washington's tax structure is already regressive, and it's one of the worst in the nation for that, we have to be putting everything through a lens of affordability. Is this service something that makes this a more affordable place for us? So things like housing, making sure that low-income housing continues to be funded, making sure that people are able to stay in their homes. So making sure that things like eviction prevention services,

30:41 tenant relations, anything like that to keep more people in their houses so that we're not having to worry about spending money getting folks off the streets. If we can prevent that in the first place, then we're gonna all be better off. So I think we can start there. And I also think that we have a lot of really wonderful people in this community. We have a lot of great nonprofits. We should be utilizing and collaborating with them to the best of our ability. - Thank you. - Candidate Bardu, do you want me to read it again? - No, I'm good. - Okay. You've heard it four times. - This goes back to we have to have taxes that support the services that people demand. What do the people want? My priorities are public safety, infrastructure, housing, and protecting our quality of life. Every budget decision should answer one question. Does this improve services for the residents? End of story. Thank you.

31:41 - Thank you. Okay, Candidate Scholl, how does the county address the needs for more affordable housing while balancing increased housing density with problems caused by lack of parking and neighborhood character? - Thank you. There's a lot of talk about affordable housing and there's some basic costs that go into housing and there's a lot of variables that can't be controlled and there are variables that can be controlled. The cost of land and the cost of permitting are a couple of the largest increases that there is some, there is some code and some changes that can be made to affect those. The permitting process, it can take up to $100,000, $135,000 per unit to just get through the process before you hammer a single nail. And I'm building a project right now that is, we're mired in inefficiencies at the county level, at the permit level. And that's something that we can address, that the county can address and that I plan to assist with.

32:41 We need some balance in our land use. We do need to focus on the core, the discovery corridor, the I-5 corridor and make sure that we're building where things, where the infrastructure is already in place so we don't have to double up on those things. But again, we're not gonna be able to tax and spend our way out of a supply problem. - Thank you. Candidate Arab, how does the county address the need for more affordable housing while balancing increased housing density with problems caused by lack of parking and neighborhood character? - I don't think lack of parking is an actual problem. I think too many cars is a real problem. I am a C-Tran user. I love riding the vine, it's great. It's super fast, it's nice. I hate to tell you guys this, but it's actually really nice. So I was riding a bike. I'm a huge fan of more forms of active transportation. I firmly think that we should be building in the corridors we've already established and extending that service. As far as affordable housing goes, we need lots more options.

33:41 I am a huge fan of these little cottage-style homes and developments that are creating real little communities for people to be a part of. We're not talking Soviet-style affordable housing here. It can be nice, it can be places that people actually want to live. And we can incentivize people putting them in. Wolf Industries is a fantastic company. I'm really impressed with a lot of work that they've done with nonprofits like Community Roots here in town. I would love to see those models expanded and for us to continue to fund that, Habitat for Humanity, et cetera. - Thank you. Candidate Bardu, how does the county address the need for more affordable housing while balancing increased housing density with problems caused by lack of parking and neighborhood character?

34:29 - It's interesting that my district is the city of Vancouver and they are doing a very good job of bringing forth a plan to address those issues. But we can address that by making sure that we have specific parking regulations for a certain amount of density. But we need that density in order to increase our tax base to pay for our services and not to increase our taxes. That is what I would say is the most important thing, but growing up and not out. - Thank you. Candidate Young, should I read that again? - No. - Okay. - So I would say the biggest thing here is we all have to realize that we have a massive housing shortage. That's what's leading to the unaffordability of our housing here locally. So the problem and the conundrum and the challenge here is that virtually everything that you do

35:26 to increase the supply and the affordability of housing comes with trade-offs. It comes with challenges, density, growing out, you know, more expensive building, I mean, you name it. Anything that will contribute to our housing shortage comes with a trade-off. And so really it comes down to, again, that community conversation. What are our values? What are our visions? We want to do everything that we can to increase affordability of our housing. How much are we as a community willing to tolerate those consequences, those unintended consequences that come with the various choices that would lead towards affordable housing? That's the biggest discussion. - Thank you. Okay, now it's your turn to close. You may want to elaborate on an answer that you already gave or talk about something we didn't cover. And we'll begin with candidate Arab.

36:25 - I would say that I firmly believe that the environmental crisis that we're experiencing right now is at the core of everything else. From the housing issue to a lot of the pressure that is happening as far as water quality and everything else. And I think the more that we can do to address that, the better off we're all gonna be. From addressing our tree canopy at the county level to continuing to do things like support C-TRAN. I think that there's a lot of good things happening in this community and they deserve more visibility. So figuring out a better comps plan between the county and the citizens who live here. Thank you. - Thank you. Candidate Bourdieu. - Butter, flour, oats, sugar, brown sugar, raisins, eggs, milk, salt, baking soda, cinnamon.

37:21 A community is a lot like ingredients in this cookie, which I don't have in my hand 'cause I ate it already. No one ingredients make the whole thing on its own. But each one plays an essential role. You need structure, balance, warmth, and character. And when the ingredients come together in a right way, you create something strong, lasting, and worth sharing. That is how I see Clark County and that is how I see good leadership. A healthy community depends on people with different experiences and perspectives all having a place at the table. I am running because I believe I am the ingredient for this council right now. I bring deep relationship to the community, a background of service, and a leadership style rooted in collaboration. I know how to create space for people to feel heard, respected, and included. And that is the kind of leadership that helps the council work better in a community to move forward together. Thank you. - Thank you. Candidate Young. - So good leadership, in my opinion, is working

38:20 to solve the problems that make the biggest difference for our community. Sometimes, actually oftentimes, you won't get recognition for those. They're not things that'll show up in the newspaper. Vancouver Lake won't be solved by the time I'm out of office. It'll be much later down the road. Good leadership is willing to focus your effort on the things that matter most and for no other reason. And that is how I have lived my life in the past three and a half years is being focused on things that matter for the people that live here. And I really enjoy doing it. And I really enjoy meeting with so many people with so many different viewpoints and perspectives. And there's never one easy solution to all of our problems, but together we can get there. And I would be honored to be considered for four more years to continue that work and build on the relationships that I have developed and the knowledge that I've accumulated

39:19 to be able to make more difference in the community. - Thank you. And candidate Scholl. - Hi, thanks again to the League of Women Voters. And I apologize for being flustered up here. It's not my best foot forward. I'm usually behind the scenes, making things happen, growing businesses I can find. It's a unique opportunity to find someone who has the skillset of holding the cornerstones of ideas together, of a business together, of a policy together, and making sure that we don't wander off of the ranch, so to speak. I believe in smart, intentional, limited government focused on real affordability, public safety, and a clean environment. I've dedicated my life with my renewable energy engineering degree. I've dedicated my life to keeping spaces clean, keeping the environment clean, and creating jobs in the process. And I wanna bring that discipline to the county. I'm asking for your vote. - Thank you to all of you.

40:17 Now it's time for a public service announcement. The League of Women Voters has asked the candidates to sign the Fair Campaign Pledge. In the pledge, candidates agree to conduct a campaign that focuses on the issues and candidate qualifications, and to avoid unfair attacks on opponents and distortions or misrepresentations of facts. Please go to our website, lwvclarkcounty.org, to see the pledge, and find out which candidates have signed it. And thank you to all of you. (audience applauding) - Okay, that was my other question I was gonna ask you. I kept thinking that I had all these, and I asked-- - I'll switch it around. - Yeah, yeah. So, we let Melanie come up and do the thank you. And then we do the public service, yeah, yeah. I couldn't remember.

41:15 - Okay, that's-- - I'm glad to hear that.

41:35 (people chattering) (people laughing) - Run it around with all the things. - Testing. - Do you think that'll help? - Can you all hear me better? I'm hearing that you can't hear me, and I didn't think you wanted to hear me, okay. All right. All right, give me a moment here. Whenever you're all ready, I think. Melanie, can I start when I'm ready to, okay. We'll wait till all the waters are opened. - Oh, they're open actually, I'm sorry. That was your first test.

42:35 Okay, our next forum features the candidates for the Clark County Council District Two. Joining us are Martin Pittione, Michelle Belcott, and John Zingale. Welcome to all of you. Candidates, please watch the league timer and stay within the timelines for each question. You will have 60 seconds to answer each question unless instructed otherwise. You'll first answer in the order that you appear on the ballot, and we will rotate after that. All questions are prepared by the League of Women Voters of Clark County, and we're providing the timers. Candidate Pittione, how long have you lived in District Two, and what skills and abilities and experiences with community organizations would you bring to the position? - Well, first of all, thank you to the league for organizing this event and having us. My wife, Dinah, and I have Clark County as our permanent home.

43:33 We've lived here for about over four years now. With respect to the qualifications and the skills and abilities that I bring, I have a really deep bench of experience, primarily in the last 25 years in government services and making government agencies run well. I've balanced agency budgets. I've done a lot of oversight work with boards and commissions that operate a lot like Clark County Council does, and then also have legislative functions, public input functions, and so I have a wealth of experience that is primarily in the public health arena, in the financial regulatory oversight arena that I would very much hope to bring to the council. It comes with a significant record of accomplishments that I've built in public health, in the opioid crisis response and mental health response that I think would work really well on the council. Thank you. - Thank you. Candidate Belcott, how long have you lived in District Two,

44:31 and what skills, abilities, and experience with community organizations would you bring to the position? - I've lived in District Two for 10 years, but I grew up in Clark County. I've been here mostly all my life except for when I served in the military. I served 25 years in the military. I'm a mother of two, and I'm your Clark County District Two incumbent. I spent 25 years in both the Navy and the Air Force in many command leadership positions, and I have a few degrees in management and organizational leadership. I think this has equipped me with proven budgeting and leadership and strategic decision making under pressure, especially when it's come to serving on the council for three and a half years. Aside from serving on the council, I've been a civil servant for over 20 years in acquisition and procurement of multimillion dollar construction, architecture, and engineering contracts. - Thank you. Kennedy Zingale, should I read that again?

45:30 - No, thank you. Thank you all, especially to the League of Women Voters for having us all here tonight. I'm John Zingale. I've been living here in District Two since 2018. There was a little blip this last year. When you get divorced, sometimes you gotta go find some new housing. I was 50 feet away from the border. Now I'm back living right in District Two, right next to my kids, but I've been teaching here in Clark County since 2013 and serving the community at Vancouver ITEC Preparatory. I've worked hard at things my entire life. Prior to teaching, I actually spent 16 plus years in the grocery retail business, started bagging groceries, worked my way all up, worked my way up to assistant store director. I know how to do things and get things done. And then after moving out west, I, like so many, went back to school, got my master's degree in teaching. And for the past 13 years, I've dedicated my life to teaching our youth here in Vancouver and across Clark County, I should say. Before that, I've won lots of local, state, and even national awards.

46:30 I'm the current 2026 Southwest Washington Teacher of the Year, and I fostered a love of learning. And I've learned through all of this how to be innovative and lots of different things. And so I'll run and bring that dedication, perseverance, innovation, and critical thinking and lead with empathy. - Thank you. Candidate Belcott, how do you suggest we finance maintenance and expansion of Clark County's regional park system on a long-term basis as demand grows and resources become more limited? - Well, I don't normally support taxes, but in the case of parks, I recently did. And we have a pretty robust budget when it comes to the construction of parks, constructing or remodeling them, but not so much when it comes to the upkeep, because that comes from the general fund of the county. That's always a challenge because we are a county,

47:28 unfortunately, that has a sales tax leakage issue because we're right next to Portland. And what does that mean to us? A lot of us go shop over in Portland because some of us are tax evaders. So that, unfortunately, takes money from our general fund. I think there are ways, and we've discussed this on council, in order to raise additional revenue to keep the parks in the most beautiful way that they can be. And recently we just talked about finding, actually, people who did not pay the park entry fees and what that would look like and the amount of revenue we could potentially raise for the parks. That has not come back to the council, but we are having conversations about that. I also recently spoke to a parks board member. - Thank you. Candidates Zingale, how do you suggest we finance maintenance and expansion of Clark County's regional park system on a long-term basis as demand grows and resources become more limited?

48:28 - My kids literally play in our Clark County parks every single day. They are important, it's one of the things that keeps bringing people here to Clark County. And we have an issue that we need to address. There was an article, I believe it was in The Reflector, just this last little bit about moving to a metropolitan park district. Now that would have to be brought out to voters, but that would allow us to spread the costs out across the entire county and alleviate some of those different stresses. Under that approach, the revenue from the district would be shared with cities, which would also then be able to manage their own parks within those different boundaries. And so as we look forward to managing all of this, I really think we have to look at this innovative design that's been working in King County and other places so that we can sustain, and not just sustain, but grow our incredible parks here, because they are part of the reason why so many people are living and love to live here. - Thank you.

49:26 Candidate Pittione, how do you suggest we finance maintenance and expansion of Clark County's regional park system on a long-term basis as demand grows and resources become more limited? - Well, so first of all, I agree with both of the other candidates that came before me on this question that parks really are critical to the livability and the sustainability of this community and need to rank really high up on the priority list. So there's really, in order to answer that question, one is within the budgetary resources itself of the county, which I realize are very limited, we do have to, quite frankly, come to an agreement that the parks themselves need to be a top priority. That said, I do also agree with the statements already made that we really need a regional funding strategy that goes beyond kind of the structural problem

50:21 that we have right now and addresses this much more broadly, so I agree with also John's comments on that relative issue, and I won't repeat that part, so just to keep us all-- - Thank you. Candidate Zingale, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on the controversial land use, taxes, or transportation issues? - Yes, thank you. Public input is vitally important to everything that we do. I encourage it, I welcome it, because that's how we learn and how we grow. I'm a classroom teacher. Every day I get input, and I know whether things work well in a classroom and whether they don't, and sometimes we have to be big and admit that didn't work, and we need to be able to pivot and do something else, and so I want more outreach.

51:20 I think we need to be getting into other places, working with cities like Richfield and Camas and Battleground and hosting more forums there so that people don't always have to come here, because it's hard to always get here. We need to make sure that we're being proactive and getting out to the other areas of Clark County. I sit on the Historic Preservation Commission, and I get input from people when we're making decisions all the time. That helps me be a better person and a better commissioner and a better counselor, and I look forward to doing the same for the Clark County Council in District 2. - Thank you. Candidate Pitione, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - Yeah, so for me, there is probably very few issues that are more critical than that, and I actually need to give John some credit,

52:19 'cause I believe that he's the first candidate, no offense to panel number one, that actually brought up the issue that it's not enough to have people come to you, but it is actually really, really important to actually seek it out, because it's absolutely true, and you heard this on panel one, that often you hear about just the usual suspects that have the time or the ability to show up at the council meetings themselves. From my perspective, there has to be a lot more done to actually seek out the input of the regular citizens and make them feel heard. I'm an agency head right now in state government. I publish my work cell on the website. I believe direct access to the top is really, really important, and I believe that seeking input, not just asking people to come to you, is an absolutely critical element. It's not just about listening. It's about seeking and having those community events, having those community forums,

53:19 and going out into the neighborhood meetings. - Thank you, thank you. - Kennedy Belcott, residents often feel decisions are shaped before public input occurs. What does meaningful public engagement look like to you, particularly on controversial land use, taxes, or transportation decisions? - Well, I think public input is essential and must be a priority and not minimized. I talk to constituents on the regular business partners in my district. As a counselor, I attend community events all the time and neighborhood association events. I listen to people all the time. I know another counselor recently mentioned that we make decisions, but we do change our mind based on public input. That happens all the time. I will say council-wide. So as a counselor, I mean, I listen to people all the time. I interact with them. I call them back. I actually physically go meet with them

54:16 at places that are pretty interesting, actually. I think public input should be above all special interests. I'll continue my clear communication with all my constituents, ensuring decisions reflect local priorities rather than top-down agendas. - Thank you. Candidate Pitione, the county has increased sales tax twice this year without voter approval. It also can raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - So first of all, I don't think that you can answer that question really truly in isolation, really, because taxes is all part of overall government budgeting and spending. I have a lot of experience I will bring to the table keeping agency budgets in check, which also then helps on the taxation and making sure that programs are run efficiently. The agency I currently run hasn't raised fees since 2015. So I have a lot of experience kind of with cost controls

55:15 in government itself. The issue in Clark County specifically is that we really have been trying to operate government here with, quite frankly, a constant stream of reduction in ability to actually keep up the services that we're currently funding, let alone increase services, because, quite frankly, inflation runs a lot higher than 1% from year to year, and that's the maximum the county could potentially choose to increase taxes. So I'm not one that thinks that good government is really amenable to extremist solutions, either never raise taxes or that's the default. I think it needs to be something that has to be on the table but I, quite frankly, prefer to get that as late as in any way possible. - Thank you. Candidate Belcott, the county has increased sales taxes twice this year without voter approval.

56:14 It also can raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - I think families are already stretched way too thin because of inflation. I've consistently opposed new taxes and I was the sole vote against recent property tax levy increase this year, and multiple years, actually. We must manage the existing resources responsibility, cut waste, cut some staff, unfortunately, at the county level, that was mentioned before. We need to prioritize core functions like law enforcement. CCSO is significantly very important and they have a staffing issue that we as county councilors need to really focus on continuing to support Sheriff Horsch, that's very important to me. No new taxes or tolls that hit commuters or working families will continue fighting for tax relief and accountability. - Thank you.

57:12 Candidate Zingale, the county has increased sales taxes twice this year without voter approval. It can also raise property taxes annually. What is your position on tax increases? - Thank you. Yeah, the 1% permissible tax that we're talking about here, it's really one of the only mechanisms that the state gives us to bring in money for our county. And we haven't taken that a lot and that's why we're running in a deficit. And so, as I was meeting with our current counselor earlier this morning, I was told that that could equate to about five to six dollars a year per household. That's not too much, in my opinion. Does it, is it great? No. But that's less than what inflation is driving right now. And we have to make sure that we have our service levels to the places that people actually want. And if we have to keep cutting things, then the services that everyone is expecting us to provide won't be there.

58:11 We, it was mentioned earlier that there's a 2.5% budget reduction. You know, we can't keep reducing and reducing and reducing because the expectations are there, everyone's gonna have that we're gonna maintain the parks. We're gonna maintain our roads. We're gonna provide other services like safety with the police and everything and the sheriffs. And we can't do that if we keep cutting. Thank you. candidate Belcott, what approach should the county take to regulating personal fireworks use? Is there a better alternative to use for community celebrations? Well, I think we're already doing a lot of education in this community. I know that TNT has come to the council multiple times to talk about the bucket parade, that they provide education. They just did an educational workshop up in Longview, Washington recently. I don't think that we need to be taking a heavy hand and completely reducing fireworks

59:10 or cutting them all together. I think it needs to be public education and safety as the priority. We already have pretty extreme limitations on fireworks where we only let them be sold a few days a year. We used to have the biggest fireworks display West of the Mississippi for decades and that was eliminated after COVID. If that were to come back, I'm sure you would see a large reduction in fireworks happening in the neighborhoods, which would make things probably even a lot better that way as well. Thank you. - Thank you. - Can I just send yolly? - Yes, fireworks. Well, I love fireworks. They are fun, they're entertaining, but I also just talked to a person in my community that's left for the week because they can't handle it and their pets can't handle it. So this is a balancing issue with all of that. Enforcement is difficult. I heard fireworks going off three days ago,

1:00:07 like the day they were sold, I heard them going off. It would be great if we could just say, hey, we're all gonna set them off on this one day and people can learn to deal with it a little bit easier. But when they keep going off four or five days later and people are trying to get to work, it is extremely difficult. I think we need to find the funding. I think it was 2019, actually pre-COVID when the Fort's show went away and we need to bring that back. We need to maybe work on having a drone show available for people that want that instead of just the big loud noises. We have wonderful places across the county that we can partner with to have lots of different shows and things and by allowing those to happen, we can reduce the stuff going on in our individual communities. - Thank you. Candidate Pittione, do you want me to read that again? - No, that's fine. I think that I have a lot of overlap with the prior to answer and the fireworks issue 'cause the fundamental truth is the community is pretty split on this issue, right?

1:01:06 You have those that really like it. You have those that are deeply affected by it, that are deeply affected by it, whether it's they have PTSD or animals or living out in an area where there's horses around that don't, we have 35,000 horses in this county. That's not very much fun for them either. So there's really strong feelings on both sides of that issue. And I think in government, you have to be really careful when you navigate issues where there are some pretty hard passions on both sides and they probably are a little bit more increasing, especially when you have a 250-year anniversary coming up. I also don't disagree with the idea raised by Michelle that it may be better to have one large, very well-managed kind of display rather than putting the pressure on individual expressions. Thanks. - Thank you. Candidate Zingale, county government faces limits

1:02:06 on revenue growth while demand for services continue to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - Thank you, yes. There's a lot of things that we need to prioritize. Right now, as I was doing my homework for this, I was informed that 75% of all of our costs go towards law and justice right now. That's a large chunk. That means that leaves 25% for roads, parks, housing, all the other things. And so what I hear every day is, we need to make sure our roads are taken care of. They're like, John, I'm one pothole away from a car payment and a repair that I can't make. We need to make sure that that's done. We love our parks. We wanna maintain them because that's some of the thing that makes Clark County what it is. Our open spaces, that's what brings people here. Like I said, I'm outside with my kids every single day in those spaces.

1:03:06 We need to prioritize that because if we neglect it, then we're making, as Councilor Young said, a place that we don't wanna live and we don't want that. So roads, parks, public safety, housing, those need to be our priorities. - Thank you. Candidate Patione, county government faces limits on revenue growth while demand for services continues to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - Well, I think that there's really two things for me. One is I think it's just important to be really upfront with voters that these choices are gonna be very difficult and to have priorities when you have such a constrained funding structure because the simple truth is if you increase or prioritize funding for area A, you're gonna have to cut area B even deeper when you're already in a cut environment. So that's the first piece is to just be honest about those dynamics.

1:04:05 The second piece is then how do you make those choices? And for me, one of the things that I really like to focus on in my experience with budgets is to be super focused on outcomes and which part not simply making an assumption that if we spend X money, let's say, on a homelessness investment, that all of those expenditures by themselves are driving the same level of outcomes. Can we focus them more on specific ones where we know, hey, early intervention is the key? Oh, sorry, okay, I'll stop there. - Thank you. Candidate Belcott, county government faces limits on revenue growth while demands for services continues to increase. How would you prioritize spending when funding needs exceed available resources? - No, I've already mentioned that a little bit before. My top priorities have been the sheriff's deputies, emergency services, and fire protection,

1:05:04 essential infrastructure, and core county functions. Those are core county functions. I've advocated for redirecting resources toward effective strategies rather than spending programs without results. We need accountability measures to track outcomes. We need to be tracking things much better and not letting some staffing that is not appropriate to be staffed. We need to keep neighborhoods safe and services reliable before non-essential spending occurs. - Thank you. Candidate Petione, Clark County continues to experience rapid population growth, particularly in transitional areas. How should the county balance housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and preservation of rural and natural lands? - So for me, really what's,

1:06:01 it's really primarily an issue for me of better planning. We have, and one key for me within that is, I think we have to do as much as possible and do a better job at leveraging existing infrastructure. That's another way of saying what other candidates have referred to, build up, not out. I do believe that our growth really needs to occur as much as possible inside the urban growth boundary and leveraging the existing infrastructure that we have to keep the costs as low as in any way, as low as in any way possible. Within that, I believe that the other piece that I think we have to do is to really also emphasize the issue of permitting improvements and making sure that we can actually support the growth and get more projects online, quite frankly, in a speedier manner. - Thank you.

1:07:00 - Kennedy Belcott, Clark County continues to experience rapid population growth, particularly in transitional areas. How should the county balance housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and preservation of rural and natural areas? - I believe it's balance, especially in my district and District 2. We do have, we still have a lot of rural areas and we have more urban areas. I think growth brings a lot of opportunities, but it also strains housing services and infrastructure and availability. So we need to plan smartly and not just have a bunch of sprawl because we do wanna maintain our rural areas. We need to focus on affordability and that is through the permitting process. There is ways to do that smartly and I have advocated that we look at the permitting process on several occasions to see if there's anything that we can do about that. Also keeping the tax burdens down, it's very important

1:07:58 because that will hurt growth as well. I mean, we do have state mandates, but there are other ways that we can look at things and see if we can improve things, especially when it comes to the time our permitting takes, which also increases the cost of affordability of housing. - Thank you. Kennedy Zingale. - Yes, thank you. Yeah, by the numbers, I think in 2025 to 2045, we're projected to grow by about 200,000 people. That's gonna put our population around 715 to 725,000 people. That's a lot. We have to think differently about the type of housing we're building. Mixed housing, middle housing, where we have houses of different size where someone can start off in a starter home and then as they progress through life, they can move into one of the next housing up and stuff and you build these communities around one another and that's what's gonna make Clark County great.

1:08:57 We need to also think up, not out because infrastructure, if we wanna keep costs down, infrastructure is expensive, but we have existing infrastructure that we can build around to keep from just spreading out and causing more costs. And so we need to look at permitting. We need to do a lot of things, but we need to think innovatively and outside the box and see what's working elsewhere and bring that here to Clark County so we can create this place that we wanna continue to thrive. - Thank you, thank you. Candidate Belcott, what role should Clark County government play in addressing homelessness and behavioral health needs and where do you believe responsibility should fall between county, city and state government? - Well, a lot of homelessness is unfortunately fueled by drugs, mental health and an accommodation of housing costs as well. I support a results-oriented,

1:09:54 orientated results-driven approach, a balanced approach with law enforcement and mental health providers, not just law enforcement by themselves. We need to not just have a housing first, we need to also have recovery and availability of mental health facilities. That is an issue in this area. Just look at the mental health facility off 134th Street that was built without funded FTEs and is just languishing. That's a diamond in the rough for us. That would be very beneficial in assisting with the homeless issue. Progress requires balancing public safety and preventing enabling our current course is just not sustainable. There's more things that we can do. And I know recently the council approved one of the law enforcement officials that we approve is a HART officer. - Okay, thank you.

1:10:52 Candidate Zingale, what role should Clark County government play in addressing homelessness and behavioral health needs and where do you believe responsibility should fall between county, city and state government? - The county needs to be much more proactive. After the Supreme Court ruling last year and cities are now making more rules about camping, more and more people are coming to the city of Vancouver. But houselessness doesn't end where the district, where the city border does. Over 99th and 99th, where I live, I see it every single day. The city has made great strides. The numbers just came back. They've reduced houselessness by 18% this last year. By using their safe state facilities, their safe park facilities, there's no reason that that can't also happen on county land. Let's be holistic about this. And drugs don't cause homelessness. They are a byproduct of people dealing with all of those stressors. We should never victimize the houseless. And that facility that you speak of, I know it well. It's right across from my school. I've actually toured it.

1:11:51 That's a state funding issue, not necessarily a county. But maybe the county can work with the state and collaborate to open that facility up. We need to do a lot more. - Thank you. Candidate Pitione, what role should Clark County government play in addressing homelessness and behavioral health needs and where do you believe responsibility should fall between county, city, and state government? - Well, on my end, I believe that this issue is pretty much under-resourced at every level that you can imagine. It needs a lot of compassion, but it also needs a lot of smartness. It's a complex issue. I've spent 11 years prior to government work in nonprofit service that was focused on services for the very indigent, including the homeless. And I would love to bring that experience to the council. Because in order to answer your question, that experience to me taught me early intervention is key. Prevention is key.

1:12:49 Focus on the root causes is key. It also means that I would very much support the HEART program that Michelle has mentioned. I would love to expand that out of the city and into the rest of the county because it does not stop neatly at the city. This problem does not stop neatly at the borders of the city. So I would love to be able to see that. And overall, I think we really need better collaboration regionally and leveraging the resources with the nonprofits that operate in that arena. - Thank you. So now it's your turn to close. You may want to elaborate on an answer that you've already given or talk about something we didn't cover. And we'll begin with candidate Zingali. - Thank you again to the League of Women Voters for having us all here tonight. This is one of the most important civic engagement things that we can do. There are many issues that we have not discussed here tonight, so please reach out to me. My website is zingaliforclarkcounty.com. You can also reach me at six, or sorry,

1:13:48 360-553-9712. That's my personal cell phone. I'd love to hear from you. I'm running to ensure our county government is as hardworking as the people it serves. For over 13 years, I've served Clark County as a teacher, advocate, community volunteer, and I've dedicated myself to creating the next generation of active and engaged citizens. When elected, I'll bring that innovative mindset, collaborative spirit, and tireless work ethic to the council. I'm honored to be endorsed by local leaders, like State Senator Cortez, Mayor McEnerny-Ogle, and Councilor Fuentes. I hope to earn the vote so I can get working for all of you. Thank you. - Thank you. Candidate Pittiani. - So, first of all, thank you to the League of Women Voters to organize this event. Again, it's a real privilege to be here and to connect with voters in this way. I simply would humbly ask for the support

1:14:47 of the community and a vote for me based on the record of experience that I would bring to the council, my deep experience in service that's a lot like what the county council already does. That record is informed by the values of collaboration, innovation. I have a lot of successes in that work in government. I have a record of fiscal responsibility, and I have a record of inclusion. And I would love to be able to work hard for the people of Clark County. And I will be able to make a commitment to the citizens of this county that I can make the work of this council my main focus and my full focus. - Thank you. Candidate Belcott. - My District 2 record shows advocacy for taxpayers, public safety, and listening to District 2 residents and business owners.

1:15:47 I'll keep fighting against higher taxes and burdensome projects while delivering practical leadership. I appreciate your time and ask for your support in the primary. Together we can ensure Clark County government works for the people. Please visit my website at electbelcott.com for additional information, and thank you so much to the Women League of Voters. I appreciate your time. - Thank you to all of you. - Thank you, county council. (audience applauding) Can we please have Candidates Matthews, Rogner, and Jessica? - While our last set of candidates comes up, I have another public service announcement. Remember, Washington residents do not need to request, all right, I'm gonna wait 'til it's quiet.

1:16:45 (chattering)

1:17:06 All right, I'm going to be doing a public service announcement, so if we could keep it kinda quiet. Remember, Washington residents do not need to request a mail-in ballot. They will be mailed to all registered voters on July 17th. You can make sure you're registered by going to votewa.gov. The deadline for registering online and by mail is July 27th. You can register up until 8 p.m. on election day, August 4th, if you go in person to the Clark County Elections Office in Vancouver. All right, are we ready? Rogner? - Rogner. - Okay, I failed to meet up with you ahead of time. - Okay. - So I just wanted to make sure I was saying, I know the other two candidates, how to say their names. (laughing) All right, are we ready to begin? Our final forum tonight features candidates for the Clark County Public Utility Commission District Three

1:18:04 joining us are Gordon Matthews, Kevin Regner, and Jane Van Dyke, welcome to all of you. Candidates, please watch the league timer and stay within the timelines for each question. You will have 60 seconds to answer each question unless instructed otherwise. You'll first answer in the order that you appear on the ballot and we will rotate after that. All questions are prepared by the League of Women Voters of Clark County and we're providing the timer. Candidate Matthews, tell us about why you want to be a public utility commissioner and what skills and abilities you would bring to the job. For this question only, you will have 90 seconds to answer this question. - Thank you and thanks to the League of Women Voters for the invaluable service you provide to our community. So my name is Gordon Matthews and I have spent pretty much my entire professional life in the electric utility industry, 42 years of it.

1:19:02 32 years with the Bonneville Power Administration. I left two years ago because there are things happening in the industry that I don't think Bonneville is addressing and that they're going to impact us. I am known as a very sharp analyst. I've managed $100 million programs across multiple states. I've tested and evaluated utility equipment starting with the research center and BPA laboratories. Pretty much anything a poll I've touched. And I've also done policy and corporate strategy for BPA. For 11 years I managed a $100 million portfolio for BPA's technology innovation for transmission. We actually did some really important things that's made our system far more resilient.

1:20:00 I've designed business practices, I've done rate design, and I've had a long career working with other utilities, developing industry standards, working with national laboratories and with universities. We're facing a very challenging decade. Bonneville has provided power for us for 88 years, and now we're going to be exposed to the market based on the new contracts. - Thank you. Candidate Regner, tell us about why you want to be a public utility commissioner and what skills and abilities you would bring to the job. You have 90 seconds to answer this question. - Yes, I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters for this opportunity. My name's Kevin Regner. I was employed by Clark Public Utilities for nearly 35 years worked my way up from meter reader to protection control technician, and worked in the accounting department,

1:20:57 had a lot of different careers or jobs during my career at Clark Public Utilities, and I felt that I bring the inside knowledge to how the utility works to become a candidate for Clark Public Utilities Commissioner. - Thank you. Candidate Van Dyke. I will read the question again. Tell us about why you want to be a public utility commissioner, and what skills and abilities you could bring to the job. You have 90 seconds to answer this question. - Thank you. I am Jane Van Dyke, and I do want to thank all of you in the room for being here tonight, and also for those listening online, and those of us who will be watching us in the future. And a special thanks, of course, to the League of Women Voters for hosting the forums. And I am honored, and I am a current Public Utilities Commissioner here at Clark County, and I'm honored to serve you and our community. As a commissioner, I've actively promoted and supported

1:21:55 our outstanding customer service provided by our excellent employees, energy and water conservation and efficiencies, effective and efficient management at the utility, and our community and environmental programs. As far as for a short background, I'm a native of Washington State. My husband Bronson Potter and I have lived here for almost 45 years, raised our family, and like to say I'm fortunate that my granddaughters live here along with one of my sons, and the other lives in Seattle. I have a longtime interest in energy conservation and efficiency. I attended Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law, practiced law, and worked as an executive director for several nonprofit organizations. I've also been active in the community, volunteering in tree plantings and other activities, and serving on nonprofit boards. And of course, I've been active in my utility community since I've been serving as commissioner,

1:22:53 serving on a national committee for public power and our state association, including serving as president. I'm an advocate for you, our customer owners, and believe we're extremely fortunate to have a local controlled public utility. - Thank you. Candidate Regner, what do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing the utility in the next 10 years? - Changes in the marketplace from Bonneville Power Administration, restrictions from the state of Washington on the River Road generation plant and its ability to generate electricity for our community. Keeping rates low is gonna be a big challenge as things get passed through from BPA to Clark Public Utilities.

1:23:40 Changing water quality standards throughout the communities and providing for our ever-growing community for infrastructure. - Okay, thank you. Candidate Van Dyke, what do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing the utility in the next 10 years? - Well, has been mentioned, and you probably all read, it is a changing environment out there, but I believe we are well-situated at Clark Public Utilities. We currently have a diversified power supply with our contract with Bonneville Power Administration, which lasts for the next 19 years, also our River Road generating plant, and we recently signed a public power purchase agreement to have the output of Box Canyon Dam brought to our community. We also have wind, and we also have our community solar projects, and we have signed also an agreement

1:24:36 for a utility-scale solar project in Eastern Oregon. But as we know, there are challenges and requirements, as mentioned at the state level, to meet our Clean Energy Transformation Act, which means we have to be carbon-free by 80% by 2030 and 20% carbon-neutral, and we're gonna meet that goal in 2029. So we're ahead of the curve, and we are willing and able to meet these challenges. - Thank you. - Candidate Matthews, what do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing the utility for the next 10 years? - So we have lived with the BPA as the principal power provider for all public power. The new contract says that they'll still provide all the hydropower to the public, which is 75% of Washington state, and when they run out, they'll go to the market.

1:25:34 And because they're a non-profit, they'll pass those costs on to us. If you remember two years ago, during the MLK cold wave, we have temperatures stay below freezing for a week. In five days, Clark had to go to the market, where prices were a thousand times higher. Clark burned through $21 million of its reserves in those five days, and then next month, we got a 14% rate increase. We need to be partnering much more aggressively with the utilities on the east side, where solar is far more abundant than on our side. And that's where, and we can also completely reinvent the way that we do community solar, not once every eight years. - Thank you. Candidate Van Dyke, what, if anything, should the district be doing regarding climate change?

1:26:34 - Oh, let's see. Climate change is certainly something that we're all concerned about, and we know that there's many factors contributing to climate change. Of course, greenhouse gases, as well as human, other human uses of the land have made a big difference. And it's also impacting our, for example, the hydro that we get from Bonneville Power, because there's potentially less snow and so less runoff. But it's also affecting solar production, as well as wind production. So climate change is something to take into effect, and we need to plan for it. - Thank you. Candidate Matthews, what, if anything, should the district be doing regarding climate change? - Taking it very seriously. It's getting us two ways. Is our climate, we have more intense winter cold snaps,

1:27:32 we're having more protracted heat waves, and that drives up the demand. Not just for us, but for everybody in the region. As I mentioned before, with our exposure to the market, not only are we not building any more dams, but this pervasive drought that's working its way over the past four years further and further north is limiting the amount of hydro. And these gorgeous days that we have in May, where it's 80 degrees, that snowpack is coming down way too early. We need to be aggressively looking at opportunities to partner with utilities on the east side, some of which I've already spoken to through other events, who want to become the Saudi Arabia of wind and solar, and we should also be looking at the new advances in doing geothermal. - Thank you. Candidate Regner, what, if anything, should the district be doing regarding climate change?

1:28:31 - I believe the district should be looking to increase its abilities to purchase renewable energy from the east side. Do you understand that we do have part of a wind farm? We do have part of a generation, or a dam. But we need to do more to increase the capacity that we can get from the eastern part of Washington and other parts of the region to address that. - Thank you. Candidate Matthews, the utility recently published the mix of fuels used as sources for our electricity. It shows that about 7% comes from nuclear. What are your thoughts on nuclear power? - We're actually very fortunate that we still have a Columbia Generating Station running.

1:29:28 It's 1,000 megawatts, a gigawatt of base load power. That's a foundation to our system. I'm confident that we can operate nuclear reactors safely. There are 97 of them running in the country as we sit here in this room. But for new nuclear, we're at least a decade away before any of those resources come online. And even though Clark has invested almost a quarter million dollars in the small modular reactor development, one question that we haven't been asking is are the developers going to be responsible for 100% of the fuel cycle? We already see what the problem is with nuclear waste. They need to either be taking care of reprocessing, shooting it into the sun. That's not in their budgets, and it needs to be. - Thank you.

1:30:25 Candidate Regner, the utility recently published the mix of fuels used as sources for electricity. It shows that about 7% comes from nuclear. What are your thoughts on nuclear power? - Well, my thoughts are that as long as it's part of the mix from BPA, the utility itself shouldn't invest in nuclear. It's too small of a utility, too small. To develop a nuclear, like in lieu of the River Road plant, it wouldn't make sense to develop nuclear here, but I'm fine with it being part of the mix from BPA providing it to our customers. - Thank you. Candidate Van Dyke, should I read that again? I think I have it, okay, two times you can get it. So nuclear is part of our diversified resource mix. We get it because all the power

1:31:23 from the Columbia generation station goes to Bonneville and they're obligated to buy it. And it's about 7% of our supply last year, for example. And Columbia continues to provide reliable power, and it's also going through an up-rate, which is going to increase about 150 megawatts the amount of output they have. So that will make it cheaper. We are, and there's looking at next generation, the SMRs. And Energy Northwest is looking at building with X-Energy a plant in the Tri-Cities area. Right now it's committed, the first four modules are committed to Amazon, and Amazon's paying $500 million. So it's not being built by the public utilities. It's a separate entity that's building it, and it's all gonna be paid for by that contract. And it's important to note that new nuclear is different

1:32:23 than the Columbia generation station and the fuel that it uses, and for example, the containment area that it has. - Thank you. - Candidate Regner, with the population and potential job growth in the utilities service area north of Vancouver, what challenges, if any, do you see in providing an adequate supply of water? - Well, the utility has limited resources in the North County as far as where they have service. Obviously, the smaller communities, Battle Ground, List Center, Ridgefield, have their own water systems. But Clark Public Utilities has built a large well field in the North County with the intent of growth. So we're on the right track as far as getting it, but we just have to build the infrastructure to get the water from the well fields to the customers, which could be quite expensive and timely.

1:33:22 - Thank you. Candidate Van Dyke, with the population and potential job growth in the utilities service area north of Vancouver, what challenges, if any, do you see in providing an adequate supply of water? - The utility serves the unincorporated areas of North County, but we also do provide water to the cities of Ridgefield, Battle Ground, and List Center at times on a contractual basis. So we have adopted, last year, two years ago, 2024, a 10-year water plan, which includes new supply, maintaining and increasing our distribution system, and improving the level of fire flows. This will have our, for example, we're building new water towers that are seismically safe. We're also putting the distribution system in to connect the Carol Curtis well field down in Lower River Road out up to Hazel Dell and beyond,

1:34:20 so the people, so the water will be distributed. And we also have a well field out at Paradise Point, as well as a treatment plant out there. So we are on our way to tying our system together with better piping, better materials, and we should be able to have the supply that's needed. - Thank you. Candidate Matthews, with the population and potential job growth in the utility service area north of Vancouver, what challenges of any do you see in providing an adequate supply of water? - Clark is a very well-run utility, both for electricity and for water service. One thing I've noted in attending the PUD meetings for the past two years is that we are developing, we are awarding contracts, the construction is occurring, and the revenues on the water side

1:35:17 are actually slightly positive on a month-by-month basis. So we're living within our means, we are developing the system, and it, as with the electric side, is well staffed and well planned. - Thank you. Candidate Van Dyke, what is your philosophy on electric and water rates, and what criteria would you consider before deciding to raise them? - Well, rates are, of course, the foundation of electric, or all utilities, in our case, the electric and water utility. And it's important to note, as a public power utility, we serve at not-for-profit at cost rates, and rates are set through a process of study and consideration by the board. The setting of rates is one of the board's main responsibilities, as well as the budget. And we are fortunate that we have low rates because we do have supply from the Bonneville Power Administration,

1:36:17 but we've also diversified our supply in the past and by building River Road, and that's kept our supply different, and using gas is different than water, so we've been able to run River Road effectively. And one of my important philosophies is that we don't always raise rates like some utilities do when the Bonneville Power Administration raises rates. We need to raise rates when we need to, and not just 2% here this year, 3% this year. So that's how we've been without raising rates for many years. - Okay, thank you. Candidate Matthews, what is your philosophy on electric and water rates, and what criteria would you consider before deciding to raise them? - So as a public entity and a non-profit, Clark is running a cost-based business

1:37:12 with reserves to handle short-term events when they occur. So I mentioned earlier, if we get exposed to market prices when everybody else in the region has to go to the market because it's a weather-related event, or a Bonneville shortfall, we could see huge increases in our costs. Clark has no choice but to pass those costs onto its member customers. So I think it is absolutely essential that we start leveraging the fact that we're the second largest public in the state, which is 75% publics, to work very closely with the east side utilities to be able to develop new resources to lessen our exposure to potential market rates. - Thank you. Candidate Regner, what is your philosophy on electric and water rates,

1:38:11 and what criteria would you consider before deciding to raise them? - Water and electric utility rates are really important because that's essentially affordability in the community. We need to look at what we're doing and what we can do to maintain our rates as low as possible, possibly going through another review of processes that we do, community outreach programs that we do. Are they something that the community still wants or desires that we spend rate-payer money on? But the best thing we can do is stay on top of when rates are gonna be coming from a large supplier like BPA and do the best we can to keep the rates as low as possible. - Okay, thank you.

1:39:07 Candidate Matthews, extreme weather events and outages can significantly affect residents and businesses. What should Clark Public Utilities prioritize to improve reliability and emergency preparedness? - So Clark is doing a good job as far as keeping our right-of-ways clear to minimize the potential of fires. We're doing proactive tree trimming, which is great because it's the trees and squirrels that cause a lot of outages. One of the things that I've benefited from in the first 12 years of my career in utility with Georgia Power Company was something called SERP, or the Storm Emergency Restoration Program. During that, I worked in the research center,

1:40:04 but when SERP was called, there was an ice storm or some event, I had a second job. I went to the warehouse to be able to keep our crews working 24/7. I'd like to see a program like that where everybody at Clark actually does have a job when the system is in trouble. A second job to be able to get everybody's lights back on as quickly as possible. - Thank you. Kenny Rigner, extreme weather events and outages can significantly affect residents and businesses. What should Clark Public Utilities prioritize to improve reliability and emergency preparedness? - Having worked in the field for 30 plus years, as a journeyman lineman, I've weathered many of the storms and many of the hours. Our biggest complaint would be tree trimming. Things that get, a lot of the city of Vancouver,

1:41:02 a lot of their utilities were put in backyards. Awkward to get to, difficult to get to. We've done a lot of work as far as making our system redundant so we can pick up parts of the system quicker than others if they're less affected by the damages that were done by trees or ice or in many cases it's ice that does us as the worst or snow. So I gotta say that tree trimming is the biggest factor in keeping the lights on, looking at more undergrounding in areas that are having issues and hopefully eliminating those problems. - Thank you. Kennedy Van Dyke, extreme weather events and outages can significantly affect residents and businesses. What should Clark Public Utilities prioritize to improve reliability and emergency preparedness?

1:41:58 - So as has been mentioned, it's hard to be the last person sometimes, we do have an excellent record on reliability. We shouldn't skip over that fact that our system has been rated as 99.90% reliable and I'm sure you've all experienced that. Things we do like tree trimming but we also have, and redundancies are important, for example, substations that are served from different directions. But as things are changing and we know what they are, we have been involved in a grid modernization and advanced meter infrastructure program and that's gonna upgrade our systems countywide so we'll be able to more proactively see where power is out, we can see by your meter as opposed to having to call in to us. So it'll be a great system once it's there and the grid will be hardened as well as part of some of these activities. - Thank you.

1:42:57 Candidate Regner, utility decisions can directly affect residents' monthly costs and quality of service. How would you ensure transparency and public accountability in commission decision making? - Well, I believe that the opportunity to get out, which has been discussed in the other candidates in other offices, is getting out to the community. We typically have commissioner meetings at the Electric Center in Vancouver, get out to the rural areas. We used to have a service center in Camas. Battleground, there's a lot of community activity that we should include the people of those communities to educate them on what's going on. - Thank you. - Kennedy Van Dyke, utility decisions directly affect residents' monthly costs

1:43:56 and quality of service. How would you ensure transparency and public accountability in commission decision making? - Transparency and public accountability is of course utmost important for a public agency and we are subject to the public meetings laws as well as the Public Records Act of the state of Washington. The board does meet twice a month to conduct business, hear from staff, sometimes outside presenters and to share information. And we also hold an annual power supply workshop with staff and outside experts looking at the future of our power supply and the decisions that are upcoming. And as mentioned, the utility is very active in events. We have a booth at the fair. We have booths at different activities and participate in things like the Pollinator Festival. So people have a chance to come and talk to staff that are at those meetings.

1:44:52 And of course, there's always the send us an email or call 'cause if the utility is reached and there's a question for a commissioner, they always send it out to us. - Thank you. Candidate Matthews. Utility decisions can directly affect residents' monthly costs and quality of service. How would you ensure transparency and public accountability in commission decision making? - So Clark is doing a good job with having open public commissioner meetings every two weeks, twice a month. But I think that we can do more when there are important rate issues. For new electrical service, those rates just went up. There was outreach and contact to some of the developers. But if there is going to be a rate decision made to affect people, running a newspaper ad

1:45:52 is a great thing for people that take the Columbian. But there is one way that Clark does communicate with every single rate payer every month. And those are bill stuffers. So that if we are going to have a rate action, it should be a policy where there's a stuffer. People are given a month before a decision is made, a website where they can vote or ask for more information or attend a meeting. - Thank you. Well, now it's your turn to close. You may want to elaborate on an answer that you already gave or talk about something we didn't cover. And we'll begin with candidate Van Dyke. - Okay. So in closing, I want to thank the league and to thank all of you again for coming. And I want to say it this way. It's all about 24/7.

1:46:47 And that is that utility has to operate in a 24/7 way. People work at our utility 24/7. They're at the control center. They're at the River Road plant. And they're out protecting our offices, our outbuildings, our water wells, and our substations. We need water and electric supply available 24/7. And we work 24/7 for you. You can call Clark Public Utilities 24 hours, seven days a week, and they'll be answered by a live person. We respond and we take care of business. And that's why we're known for excellent customer service. But also, as I mentioned, how reliable we are in both water and electricity. We're working for you and the community. And I'm honored to be a part of Clark Public Utilities in serving as your District Three Commissioner. You can reach me for more information at janevandyke.com and be sure to vote August 4th. - Thank you. Candidate Matthews.

1:47:46 - So as I mentioned, we are facing a very challenging decade. The environment is changing around us, we're growing. BPA that has really been the umbrella that has kept us all supplied isn't, doesn't have as big of an umbrella anymore and there are more of us trying to get underneath it. The Clark on a day-to-day, month-to-month basis is very well run. The job of the commissioners is to interface with the rest of public power in the state. Three-quarters of Washington State's public power. They also coordinate with the Public Power Association. They learn about new technologies. All of these can benefit us. We have big challenges, we don't have to face them alone. And so far what I've noted, that's what we're doing.

1:48:43 I've lived here for 34 years, I've raised my son here, I have two grandkids here, and it's really important to me that I leave them the same quality of life that I've enjoyed. If you'd like more information about some of these plans I've mentioned, matthewsforclarkpud.org. There's a website and I think you'll find some interesting material there. Thank you all for being here. - Thank you. And Canada Regner. - Yes, I'd like to thank again the League of Women Voters for this opportunity to present my case for my candidacy here. As a lifelong resident of Clark County and a 35 year employee of Clark Public Utilities, I understand how the utility from the inside works. And I would like to serve the community as a PUD commissioner. If you see fit, please vote for me on August 4th. Thank you very much. - Thank you.

1:49:41 So that concludes this evening's forum. Special thanks to all of our candidates for participating in this event, to CVTV for their support in putting it together, and to everyone watching. The League of Women Voters has two more primary election forums scheduled. Tomorrow night, we'll be back here at the Downtown Vancouver Library with the candidates for the 17th and 49 legislative districts. And on July 12th, we'll return to the library to hear from candidates for county auditor and county clerk. For information about your candidates, check out vote411.org. And thank you, and don't forget to be a voter. (audience applauding)