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Of the 52 candidates vying for a position on the first Clark County Home Rule Charter Review Commission, 10 are from Camas-Washougal.
After three failed attempts (in 1982, 1997 and 2002), the Home Rule Charter won voter approval in November 2014, changing the county’s form of government from a three-member commission to a five-member council plus county manager and giving county voters the ability to propose initiatives and referendum on the ballot.
The new charter contained a provision that a 15-member, nonpartisan charter review commission would form five years after its adoption to review how the county’s new form of government is working — and coming up with ideas for what might need to change.
Lindsey Shafar, senior policy analyst in the county manager’s office, told the League of Women Voters of Clark County at a May committee meeting that the new review commission will decide if the 5-year-old Home Rule Charter is meeting the needs of Clark County residents.
“This charter review commission is really going to set the path for what future charter review commissions are going to look like,” Shafer told the League of Women Voters. “So it’s very open ended … if they just want to rip the whole charter to shreds and start over, they can.”
The review commission will include three members from each of the county’s four districts and three “at-large” members.
Voters will decide the makeup of the new review commission in the November 2020 general election. The candidates will not compete in the August primary election.
The commission is expected to last one year, or until the commissioners have completed their work. Any of the commissioners’ proposed amendments to the Home Rule Charter would need to garner voter approval in the 2021 general election.
The candidates from Camas-Washougal include current and former city councilors as well as a former state legislator. Following is more information about the local candidates running for the charter review commission.
Greg Anderson (District 4, Position 3)
Anderson, a Camas City Council member since 1997, said he would not bring any preconceived visions to the table, if elected to the charter review commission — but does believe voters need to have more information about the charter and the county’s form of government.
“When this was up for discussion five, six years ago, there was a huge amount of education for voters,” Anderson, 65, said. “Since then, we’ve gained in population and probably 15 percent of (county voters) weren’t here when this was first discussed, so that education process will have to continue.”
Anderson, a former United States Army officer who recently retired from his career as a warehouse operations manager, said he would like to help voters in East Clark County better understand the history of the county home rule charter and be a part of the discussion about how that charter is impacting county residents.
He added that his decades of experience in local government and experience working as a Camas voice on regional groups such as the C-TRAN Board of Directors (Annderson is in his second term on the C-TRAN Board and also served from 2015 to 2017.)
“I recognize that government moves slowly,” Anderson said. “I recognize it takes time to work through the layers of topics that are brought forward. And I think I take a regional view and have a good idea of how the community works as a whole.”
Anderson said his new life as a retired person gives him ample time to dedicate to both the Camas City Council and the charter review commission.
“I have infinite more time now than I’ve ever had,” Anderson said. “(The commission) is just something that I want to contribute to. I want to help in any way I can … but I don’t have any preset outcomes I want to achieve. I’m more of a process-oriented kind of guy.”
Anderson lives in Camas with his wife of 33 years, Colete Anderson. The couple has two grown daughters and one grandchild.
Anderson added that he had hoped the commission race in November would be truly nonpartisan.
“It is a wish,” he said of the race avoiding partisan politics, “but I don’t know that it’s going to happen.”
