Published in the Aug. 14, 2007, edition of the Post-Record

Candidates battle for city’s top seat
Liz Pike looks to unseat incumbent Camas Mayor Paul Dennis

By Heather Acheson
Post-Record staff

Camas was recently named by Money magazine as one of America’s top 100 best places to live, and two candidates are seeking citizens’ votes hoping to be selected to lead the vital city into the future.

On the Nov. 6 General Election ballot, voters will have a choice between incumbent Paul Dennis and his opponent Liz Pike, who is currently in the midst of her first term on the city council.

Paul Dennis

As a certified city planner and economic development consultant, Paul Dennis conducts economic assessments, studies demographics, and analyzes how growth impacts communities. It is this skill set, Dennis said, that makes him a valuable asset to the city as mayor — a position he hopes to retain for a second term.

“That’s one of the things I brought to the table as both a council member and as mayor — that understanding of how growth affects public services and the need for long-term facilities,” he said.

Dennis has spent most of his life in Washington. He graduated from Columbia River High School in Vancouver, and then earned an associate’s degree from Clark College and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Western Washington University. The desire for “small town Americana” eventually brought him and wife Julie back to her hometown — Camas.

Dennis began working for E.D. Hovee and Associates in August 1990, and he continued working with that firm until 2003 when he started his own consulting business — Cascade Planning Group.

Dennis began serving on the city council in 1997, and was elected to his first term as mayor in 2003.

When asked about his accomplishments as mayor, Dennis first cited flushing out the city’s finances and leading the municipality to an economically stable place following a period when budget cuts were necessary in response to a declining economy.

The city’s financial status has rebounded during the past three years, Dennis said, and provided the ability to support the development of Klickitat Park, re-develop Heritage Park, re-introduce the street overlay program, and re-instate library and pool hours previously cut. In addition, he said, a rainy day fund has been established and the city’s reserve fund has doubled since he took office.

Dennis also pointed out that with council’s help a resolution to the fire department overtime expense issue that had put a black cloud over the CFD was put into place. A department analysis was conducted, a strategic plan was developed, and a new fire chief was hired.

“As people look back today, they say ‘wow, what a department,’” said Dennis, who has received an endorsement for mayor by the local firefighters union. “In community surveys they’ve got top marks, 95-plus percent say they think the fire department is doing a great job.”

Although he said he has been accused of being “pro-tax,” Dennis points to his record as proof of his stance that new taxes should be a last resort.

“I think I’ve proven to folks that I’ve done all of the other things,” he said. “I haven’t imposed a bunch of new taxes. In fact, for the 2008 budget I’m proposing a zero percent increase in property taxes — leave them as they are today. And that’s because we’ve been able to focus in on the other aspects of our expenses and revenue stream.”

Dennis said there has been a lot of “silent growth” in the business sector of the community in recent years. As examples, he said WaferTech and Underwriters Laboratories have both invested in their Camas sites, and smaller companies such as Abacast have opened new facilities in the city.

In the future, he said, some local business development will include focusing on underutilized lots — specifically in the area surrounding the downtown core, which has seen a significant revitalization since 2000.

“Since we undertook the revitalization of Camas in 2001, retail sales have increased by $14 million,” he added. “We are now starting to generate the sales tax dollars because we have a vibrant downtown and we’re trying to develop other commercial areas.”
Downtown Camas’ largest tenant — the Georgia-Pacific paper mill — has seen a rough year with the elimination of 300 of is 800 positions. While the long-term future of the mill seems to be uncertain, Dennis said it is unwise to speculate when and/or if the mill is closing its doors.

“I think that’s the wrong thing to do as a policy maker,” he said. “I don’t think you tell people, especially when you have no facts to back it up, that the mill’s closing. We still have 500 families dependent on that, and what are you telling those families? I think that’s the wrong thing to do.”

Having said that, Dennis also indicated that since the mill’s downsizing the city has been working with Georgia-Pacific management to determine how some portions of the mill property might be utilized in the future.

“What I’ve asked [the mill] to do is build a framework,” he said. “Let’s have a conversation with the community and let’s attract businesses that line up with the community’s values.”

Dennis said if he is re-elected in November, his plans will focus in on laying foundations for the future.

“I focused a lot on city organization and city finances during my first term. It was setting the stage for looking toward the future,” he said. “That is what my next term will be all about — the future.”

Dennis is anticipating working on a new parks plan this fall that will include plans for 50 more miles of trails, 100 more acres of parks, and a multi-use sports complex next to Doc Harris Stadium.

He will also put the cleanup of Lacamas Lake on his priority list. Dennis wants to establish a citizen panel, and include funding in the 2008-09 budget for an environmental specialist.

“There’s a whole community conversation about the lake that needs to take place next year,” he said. “It will be five to 10 years before we start seeing a difference [at the lake], but we need to set the stage now.”

Through funding generated by economic development and retail taxes, all of these items, Dennis said, can be accomplished without raising taxes.

“If we are creating a program, we are going to create it at a level that we can sustain,” he said.

Some of the city’s future economic development is likely come on the north side of Lacamas Lake — an area that is expected to be approved in the near future by county commissioners for inclusion within Camas’ urban growth boundary.

A group of property owners in that area have banded together and are planning on eventually petitioning for annexation into city limits.
“You have some longstanding families there that want to work with the city on how that property is developed,” Dennis said. “They want to make sure that they leave a legacy. It’s not just about profit for them, it’s about community.”

Proposals for the development in this area has included a mix of uses, from housing to commercial and industrial development.
Dennis said the city is already planning for the growth. When and if annexations take place, a utility moratorium will be put into place so that a master planning and public input process can be held.

“Master planning will be a whole community discussion,” he said. “The development cannot be a drain on the city.”

Another issue that will likely be the subject of discussion in Camas is whether a community center should be built. Earlier this year the formation of a metropolitan parks district was proposed to support the construction of a facility. It was later tabled so that the focus could be placed on fundraising.

After decades of discussion in the community about wanting a recreational facility, Dennis said the proposal to form an MPD was about letting the voters decide if the project should move forward.

“If they don’t want it, then let’s stop talking about it for 20 years,” he said. “If they do want it, let’s do something about it instead of talking about it for 20 years. I think the time has come to make a decision.”

Dennis supports current fundraising efforts for the recreational facility, and then coming back to the community next year with potential financing strategies and other options for the community to consider.

“I’m still for the community center,” he said. “I think it’s way too early to start talking about taxes. We have to see where we can get and then we go to the community for the rest.”

Liz Pike

Liz Pike, nearing the end of her first four-year term on the Camas City Council, believes a city should model itself after successful companies.

Come November, she hopes this perspective along with what she describes as her aggressive business style and anti-tax platform, will earn points with voters.

“I’m not making any apologies for where I stand,” she said. “I think government should be run more like a business.”

Born and raised in Brush Prairie, Pike graduated from Battle Ground High School and immediately began working in the advertising industry in ad sales and commercial printing management. She lived in Honolulu for 10 years before moving back to the Pacific Northwest 15 years ago. She opened Pike Advertising Agency in 1982, and in 2003 moved her business to a storefront on Dallas Street in the downtown Camas area.

According to Pike, 47, her background in advertising and experience as an entrepreneur has helped her develop a “take-no-prisoners business style” — a trait she feels will be beneficial to the position of mayor.

“I am a businesswoman. I am a successful businesswoman,” she said. “And I’m pretty much self-made. I don’t have any formal degree. Some people confuse education with intelligence. I prefer to categorize myself as one highly intelligent, motivated, self-starting individual.”

Since being elected to the council, Pike claims she has already had a positive impact. She was instrumental in organizing the First Friday Art Walk and Camas Wine Art Music Festival, as well as leading the effort to produce downtown walking maps, and new business recruitment packets.

“There are a lot of things we take for granted now that have my fingerprints on them,” she said.

If elected mayor in November’s General Election, Pike said she has a list of changes she would set into motion — from implementing an aggressive job recruitment strategy, to organizing outside performance audits of nearly every city department — a move she thinks leaves some city employees uncomfortable.

“The people who are really afraid, they will take care of themselves — probably because there will be resignations between November 6 and January 1 when I take office,” she said.

If elected, however, she does hope to add one person to the city’s payroll — a temporary consultant to work on job recruitment strategies fulltime.

“We’re not being aggressive enough to get our fair share of those new jobs here in Camas,” she said.

Bringing in additional jobs could become increasingly important, she indicated, given the reduction of 300 jobs from the Camas mill in the past year.

“It’s not a question of ‘if’ the mill is going to shut down,” she said. “I think it’s more of ‘when’ is it going to shut down.”
She believes the city needs to start planning for this possibility.

“We have a real challenge with what is going to happen with that site,” Pike said.

Cleanup of the site will be necessary, and the city should begin mapping out potential funding sources. Pike envisions going after local, state and federal monies through avenues such as the Washington Department of Community Trade and Economic Development.
“It’s 650 acres,” she said. “That’s a huge piece of land that is just waiting to be re-invented into something better and job producing. When that happens, I want to have the tools ready to go, to be aggressive and be in line for that clean-up money.”

As she has been campaigning door-to-door, visiting more than 3,000 households so far, Pike said the number one comment she hears is that Camas is growing too fast. While to an extent growth is inevitable, she maintains the city does have some control.

Much of the future growth of Camas is likely to come on the north side of Lacamas Lake, an area that Clark County Commissioners are set to earmark for approval into the city’s urban growth boundary.

Pike suspects that the decision to expand the boundaries will be appealed to the Growth Management Act’s Hearings Board. The city, she said, should adopt the new boundaries with an effective date that is beyond when the appeals process would end. In the meantime, the city can work on studying and planning for what infrastructure is needed in that area and how it will be funded.

“What I want to do is be more careful and more methodical about these annexations, and that is something we can control,” she said, adding that developers should share in the costs of building the infrastructure needed to support new construction.

An area of Camas that has seen substantial improvement and development in recent years is downtown. According to Pike, in the future efforts should be put toward expanding to Third and Fifth avenues property improvements that have so far primarily focused on Northeast Fourth Avenue.

“When you get somebody to the table like me, with a landowner, I could sell anybody anything and that is why I have been successful in my marketing and advertising career,” she said. “And that same charisma, charm, friendliness I have will help Camas move forward and re-develop some of these underutilized parcels.”

A key to growing the downtown area will be keeping taxes and fees to a minimum.

“Those are the kinds of things we can do to protect the businesses we have,” she said. “Just continue to be business friendly through our policies at City Hall. That’s going to keep our small-town feel because those businesses are going to stay there if we do this.”

Pike said the city should focus on providing essential services to its constituents, although she also said she supports parks and trails, in addition to being in favor of building a self-sustaining year-round indoor swimming pool and some kind of gathering place for senior citizens and children — funded using donations and grants.

She is not in favor of the $37 million community center proposed earlier this year, or funding its construction or operations through a metropolitan parks district.

“I am for replacing the aging community center in Oak Park. It’s old, it’s dilapidated,” she said. “Do I want to replace it with a $40 million Taj Mahal that competes with the private sector? Absolutely not.”