Election 2026: Clark County Councilor District 2

0:00 I was born and raised in Austria in Germany and moved to the United States over 40 years ago because I believed in the promise of America and all it has to offer. My wife and I are very proud to call Clark County our forever home. We live through the same challenges all of you do. We have two adult daughters that live in our home because they cannot afford to start out on their own. Professionally, I have led government reforms in Washington and Oregon and run large and small organizations. Within that, what I have always focused on is transparency and accountability and accessibility,

0:56 as well as keeping costs low for taxpayers, balancing the budget, and very important, ensuring that I work well with both political parties. I have deep expertise in behavioral health and public health oversight, as well as financial regulatory oversight at the state and at the national level, and I will expand on this more in my response to the next questions. Why should the voters select you for this position? My life has always been about service to country and community, and that has played out in positions of responsibility that have prepared me really well for the council's work. For over 20 years, I have worked in an environment that works a lot like county councils, meaning I have led or overseen agencies with oversight boards that function a lot like the council, and I have a great record of accomplishments that come with it. Specifically, I have developed deep expertise in mental and behavioral health oversight,

1:55 and I have significantly strengthened patient safety and public protection requirements in mental health. At the Washington Department of Health, I was directly responsible in leading major improvements to the opioid crisis response tools by getting far better prescription data into the hands of medication prescribers to improve public health outcomes. In essence, the case to the voters that I am making is that I am a great choice for the council. It is based on my deep experience with the type of oversight work that the council does, combined with a record of fiscal responsibility and accomplishments that show that I am really good at this work, and I do it in a nonpartisan manner, listening to all viewpoints. Finally, I can commit that working for the council and this community will be my top priority. If elected, what will be your top three priorities?

2:50 Affordability, public safety, and finally public health and homelessness are my top three priorities. On affordability, costs are out of control, starter homes have become a thing of the past, seniors are struggling to stay in their homes, and rents are rising. I believe our Clark County government must be disciplined, transparent, and focused on smart growth, responsible budgeting, and policies that expand housing opportunity without sacrificing quality of life. With respect to public safety, I support our law enforcement and first responders, and I believe that their work and public safety works best when there is trust, professionalism, and accountability. I also don't believe that public safety is solely about law enforcement. This issue overlaps with managing our growth better.

3:46 No issue has come up more frequently in my conversations with residents of Clark County than concerns about traffic and specifically safety issues related to roads carrying traffic they were never designed for. So I care about public safety from this broader perspective as well. On public health and homelessness, my background in mental health regulation and public health systems would be helpful in support of the role of the county overseeing the Board of Health and serving on the Board of Health. The values I would bring to that work are focused on accountability and grounding in data. With respect to homelessness, prior to my work in government, I have also worked in a nonprofit for 11 years, focused on service delivery to the very poor and homeless. So I bring both a record of compassion and an understanding of the complexity of the issue.

4:43 What actions would you recommend for addressing housing affordability in the county? Everyone talks about affordability, and often that happens with a lack of detail. He here really is to be honest with voters about what we can really control at the county level when it comes to issues of affordability. I will offer two examples. First, we have to be smart about how we manage our growth. One element of this is planning better and leveraging as much of the expensive infrastructure that already exists to lower our cost. A second specific example of how we can impact affordability at the county level is the cost, length, and unpredictability of the permitting process. The permit costs themselves are not the primary issue here. It's the length and inability to predict the permitting process that imposes really significant

5:41 costs and affects the county's economy negatively. Developers face costs from permitting delays that they pass on to consumers. Labor is impacted negatively because construction projects are delayed when permits are delayed, and consumers are impacted negatively as well because the costs of permitting are priced in to the price of homes or into the price of rents that are higher than they need to be. This issue, I believe, is one where we can find some common ground, and I intend to make that one of the areas of my focus. How would you rate the county's response to the impacts of homelessness, and what changes would you recommend? Clearly, there is still significant need. In fairness, this is a really complex and hard issue, and it's not just all on the county or all on the city, for that matter.

6:38 There has been some progress, but also signs of increasing stress. According to the latest numbers available from the Council on Homelessness, there has been an 18% decline on the overall homelessness population in the county from 25 to 26. But underneath that, there are also signs of significant stress. For example, a significant increase in the number of families with children that are homeless. For example, seniors are still getting priced out. That also remains a key issue. So much work still has to be done. With respect to the county, on my radar is close coordination between the county, city, and the Council on Homelessness on how best we can combine or coordinate our efforts. That's an ongoing area of emphasis for me. Within that, it's also really clear that the problem of homelessness does not respect artificial boundaries, like where the city ends and unincorporated Vancouver begins.

7:36 That means for me, for example, looking at the city's Homeless Assistance and Resources Team HEART program, comprised of outreach specialists and police officers, and seeing if we could expand it, leverage it into Clark County, that is a real item of interest for me. To have something that is showing promise, so can be expanded out into Clark County, would be a great idea. Beyond that, the stressors I just discussed are also a direct reflection of the lack of affordable housing. So another issue for me is that we have to do more at the county level to affect the availability of affordable housing. Clark County has been facing a structural budget deficit for many years. What actions would you favor for addressing future budget shortfalls? The issue here is even worse than the question suggests.

8:30 Yes, the county has been living off its savings account, and that approach effectively does not acknowledge that there has been an ongoing imbalance between expenditures and revenues, and that must stop. It is fiscally irresponsible, and we must get off that train. So that is one thing that I favor. What makes this worse is that our state budget that leaves minimal reserves is on a collision course with this approach at the county level. Just very recently, the State Stops Budget Officer wrote a memo to state agencies to get ready for what could be a historically challenging budgeting cycle. That means the county, in addition to the fiscal problems of its own making, will also likely face a budgetary environment where the state will seek to limit or reduce support to cities and counties wherever possible. That environment will also produce significant incentives for unfunded mandates coming from

9:29 the state and the county. In that context, I believe that effective relationships and working with legislators in Olympia closely will be key to stave off the worst and ensure the maximum support possible coming from the state to the county. This is an area where my extensive experience of working with legislators could be an asset to the council and the county. Final question, what makes you the better candidate? Well, I believe I just transitioned to that. Simply put, I would bring a unique wealth of experience and record of accomplishment in how to make government work well for everyone and operate within its means. The state agency I currently oversee has not raised fees since 2015 as a direct result of my fiscal stewardship. Frankly, I do believe that my two decades of experience leading or overseeing government boards and commissions that operate a lot like the council are also a significant asset

10:28 that make me the better candidate. Similarly, my extensive experience in public health will be an asset to the direct oversight role councilors have on the local board of health. Beyond these qualifications and my record, I can also say unequivocally that my service on the council will be my main focus and not a side job. The council and the residents of District 2 deserve a candidate that will give their concerns and the council their full attention. For more information, contact Martin Pituni, PO Box 62, Ridgefield, Washington 98642, phone number 360-980-7572, email martin4clarkcounty@gmail.com, and website martin4clarkcounty.com. Clark Vancouver Television invited all candidates running for Clark County Councilor District 2 to participate in this program.

11:27 We have been unable to schedule candidate Michelle Belcott at this time. Please tell us about your background. Currently, I am the 2026 Southwest Washington Teacher of the Year and a middle school history teacher here in Vancouver for 13 plus years. Over those years, I've earned many local, state, and national awards. Before teaching though, I spent 16 years in the grocery retail business working for Albertsons. I started out bagging groceries because my dad said, "If you wanted a car, get a job," and I worked my way all the way up the company ladder, eventually becoming an assistant store director. I also currently serve on the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission. I've served on various other educational boards, and I've also been a union rep for my building with the Vancouver Education Association. As far as my education is concerned, I have a bachelor's in history from Northern Illinois

12:22 University and a master's in teaching from the University of Portland. We've helped out over the years at the Clark County Food Bank. I'm a classroom partner with the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. I work with the National History Day program as a co-coordinator for Southwest Washington, and as a close-up educator, I've taken over several hundred kids to Washington, D.C. over the past decade. Why should the voters select you for this position? The voters of Clark County should elect me for the Clark County Council because I want to ensure the Clark County government is as hardworking as the people it serves. I'll bring innovative, common-sense solutions to the challenges facing our community. As a current Southwest Washington Teacher of the Year and an award-winning advocate for civic engagement, I've spent these last years empowering the next generation to lead with integrity. My work in our community has taught me that progress requires empathy, perseverance, and

13:19 a commitment to working collaboratively to achieve these results. I'm embedded into our community and have taught students from all across Vancouver, Battleground, and Clark County for many, many years. I've listened to the challenges that they've faced and their families. People respect and reach out to me because I care, I know how to get things done, and I know how to work with people from all backgrounds and abilities. I also do not take decisions lightly, and I like to be as informed as possible. Using my background and history, I know how to analyze data and other information, and I also know how to spot historical trends that will help inform the decisions that I'll be making for Clark County. If elected, what will be your top three priorities? My top three priorities would be responsible growth, public safety, and social responsibility. For responsible growth, we must make sure that we're building responsibly and not expanding unnecessarily.

14:18 We don't want to lose the fantastic lands and natural spaces that we have here that make Clark County one of the best places to live. Having said that, we also need to maintain and care for our parks and public lands that so many people use daily and throughout our lives. For public safety, we need to make sure our roads and infrastructure are properly maintained and repaired. We can't just wait for things to deteriorate to the point where it's ruining cars and people no longer feel safe on our roadways. We also want to make sure that we have the right people responding to emergencies. We need to really look at and be forward-thinking if we have mental health specialists and other people responding to the emergencies for people in certain crisis. As far as social responsibilities, we need to take care of our houseless people. To do that, we want to try to keep people in their homes as well as making sure the

15:16 county is working directly to help house our houseless population like the City of Vancouver has been doing. Last but not least, we don't want to waste taxpayer dollars. We need to make sure that the right money is going to the right places and that we are being fiscally responsible with all of our money. What actions would you recommend for addressing housing affordability in the county? First off, we need more housing. Clark County is going to grow and our hardworking and dedicated county staff determined that we have enough space to accommodate this growth when we look at the different housing models like middle housing and encourage density. This will create more communities around the infrastructure that we already have in place, bringing businesses nearby so that we have people, people have places to shop without being car dependent and will help ensure that homeownership remains attainable path for families to help build wealth by keeping costs down.

16:15 I've heard from so many people that we don't want to spread out and lose our public spaces, nature, and farmland that make Clark County so special. I'll make sure to continue to listen to you and our experts to make sure we grow responsibly and sustainably for our shared future. How would you rate the county's response to the impacts of homelessness and what changes would you recommend? I believe the county has done a decent job at addressing this issue, but I also believe we can do more. Much of the burden has been placed and taken up by the city of Vancouver and we've seen many successes as the number of people that are houseless decreased by 18 percent last year. However, houselessness is not just a city issue. I believe that we should implement some of those same programs and strategies like the safe state communities and safe park sites at the county level because homelessness doesn't end at the city borders. To truly help and lift up our community, the county needs to take on a more proactive

17:14 role. Clark County has been facing a structural budget deficit for many years. What actions would you favor for addressing future budget shortfalls? First off, everything needs to be on the table. We need to be innovative in our thinking to see what revenue streams might be available to us and we need to look closely at the programs we are funding and see how our money is being spent. We also need to foster our relationships with our state leaders in Olympia and advocate for Clark County. The more we can do to bring state funding back home, the more we can do with our local funds to support everyone around us. Final question, what makes you the better candidate? I am the best candidate because I've shown up and been a leader in our community for many, many years. My passion and dedication for my work and our community can not only be seen with my many local state and national awards, but also in the thousands of students and their

18:11 families that I've impacted throughout my 13 plus years of public service. I'm an innovative thinker and leader that will lead with empathy and a forward thinking mindset. I've built programs from scratch, I've fostered partnerships with organizations like the National Park Service, and I'm a lifelong learner, always wanting to expand the knowledge that I have to better myself and the community that I serve. I look forward to hearing back from all of you, the Clark County District 2 voters. For more information, contact John Zingale at 10013 NE Hazeldale Ave, Suite 123, Vancouver, Washington, 986A5. You can also call me at 360-553-9712. You can email me at electjohnzingale@gmail.com and you can check out and learn more about me on my website at zingaleforclarkcounty.com.