Washougal council race features incumbent and former mayor
Rod Morris will face Jeff Guard

By Dawn Feldhaus, Post-Record staff

Rod Morris, the Washougal City Council Position 2 incumbent, will be challenged by former mayor Jeff Guard on the Nov. 6 General Election ballot.

Rod Morris

Morris, 52, has served on council for more than 12 nonconsecutive years.

“There are a lot of things I want to work on with the mayor,” he said. “I think she has a really good vision of where she wants the city to go, and I want to continue to work on that.”

Issues important to Morris include downtown revitalization and the future pedestrian tunnel under state Route 14. He was among local officials who have traveled to Olympia and Washington, D.C., to seek state and federal funding for SR-14 safety improvements.

Morris favors sustainability, to create “good livability for citizens and being conscious of our surroundings — in that we don’t remove too many trees and keep the Washougal River as healthy as we can.

“We have a lot of parks, but we don’t have a lot of things in them,” he added. “They’re open spaces, but not truly parks.”

Other issues of importance to Morris include attracting additional “family wage” jobs to Washougal. Other challenges facing the area include the slow down of the residential building boom and potential new growth with urban growth boundaries and annexations.

Regarding the potential RiverWalk on the Columbia LLC project, Morris said he is in favor of waterfront development — with public involvement.

“I’m pleased that they’ve gotten more of the community involved,” he said. “They started off wrong with the marketing. Their approach to starting it was not presented well to the public. It appeared underhanded and behind closed doors.

“The process was handled poorly,” Morris added . “Since then, the port and the citizens groups are talking. It’s vitally important they all keep the lines of communication open.”

On the topic of a proposed Camas-Washougal community center, he is concerned about who would pay for the center’s maintenance and operations. Morris also said he would prefer that funds be raised privately for the center, rather than creating a Metropolitan Park District to pay for it.

“It’s just another angle of going to the taxpayers again,” he said. “I’m concerned about overtaxing people. There is a need for a community center. It boils down to the funding aspect of it.”

Morris has served for 29 years as a volunteer firefighter with the Washougal Fire Department. He is a battalion chief with the volunteers, and he serves as president of the Washougal Volunteer Firefighters Association.

“I see a lot of needs when I do my job as a volunteer fireman, that I relay to the council and mayor,” Morris said. “I bring maturity to the council. I bring leadership.”

He has served as the Washougal mayor pro tem five times, including the current term. As such, Morris presides at city council meetings and appears at occasions on behalf of the city when Mayor Stacee Sellers is not available.

From 1998 to 2002, he was on the Civil Service Commission serving public safety personnel. Morris is a journeyman machinist at Tidland Corp., in Camas. He has worked there for 33 years.

Morris and his wife Connie have four sons.

Former mayor seeks to return to council

Jeff Guard

After serving as mayor from 2002 to 2006 and being a city council member for eight nonconsecutive years, Guard said he would like to serve on city council once again.

“I still have a great desire to be part of the community — to be part of the decision making process,” he said. “I have a large interest in seeing things through and helping guide Washougal to be a better place to live. I still want to be a part of the help.”

Issues that the city is facing — according to Guard — include paying for additional police officers and firefighters as well as expanded wastewater treatment and acquiring rights to dig wells. He mentioned the funding of additional downtown improvements to 20th Street as another issue of importance.

Guard, 54, said city employees need improvements to and expansions of their offices. A proposal to build a new civic campus, with a new library, failed in February.

“I would challenge the Fort Vancouver Regional Library system,” Guard said. “Rather than building a building for them and outfitting it for them, they need to be a stronger player. The city could partner with them and the school district and work out a way to build a library. Get creative, and look for new partnerships that don’t exist right now. Pare it back from their earlier proposal.”

Other issues mentioned by Guard include maintaining the availability of affordable housing.

Regarding RiverWalk, he called the waterfront “a perfect jewel.” Guard said he is concerned about a lack of process demonstrated by the Port of Camas-Washougal commissioners and the appearance of behind-the-scenes activities during early talks about the project.

“I’m concerned about Washougal changing zoning and condemning property,” he said. “I don’t want to be forced into a position where a city entity is asked to condemn a piece of property. I would love to see it work out where everyone’s needs are met — with an enhanced or expanded marina, a nice shop, good restaurants and open access to the river.”

Guard also said he is in favor of saving Parkers Landing Park. If he is elected to council, he said he would resign from the Concerned Citizens in Action — a non-profit corporation formed in March to encourage greater accountability in government.

Guard said he is in favor of a joint community center, but he figures some of the proposed elements can be left out.

“I think Camas and Washougal have a rich history of working together on things — sharing street equipment and mutual response for police and fire,” he said.

Guard is a senior risk specialist for the City of Portland Water Bureau. His community involvement has included volunteering during Frontier Days and Camas Days, serving as the city liaison to the Parkers Landing Park Advisory Committee and raising funds for multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and the American Cancer Society.

Guard is the father of three and grandfather of six.