Anonymous attack ads target Camas candidates

Anonymous “attack ads” targeting three Camas officials have appeared in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 7 general election.

The billboard-like signs, which bear no notice of who sponsored the advertisements, went up in late October along roads leading in and out of Camas, including a busy stretch of Southeast 192nd Avenue near Southeast Brady Road, just off Highway 14.

• a $78 million bond Camas voters overwhelmingly rejected during the November 2019 general election, which would have constructed an aquatics-community center with recreational and competitive swimming pools, sports courts, community meeting rooms and an indoor walking track and upgraded sports fields throughout the city;
• the recently completed subarea planning work in Camas’ North Shore, which changed zoning and design requirements to better reflect the community’s vision for the nearly 900-acre area northeast of Lacamas Lake;
• a long-planned remodel of Camas’ historic Crown Park, which is set to include a large, interactive water feature that will cost $530,000, not $7 million as the sign indicates;
• and the 2022 Camas City Council decision to diversify the City’s property- and sales-tax dependent revenue streams by implementing a temporary 2% utility tax — a tax that has, so far, cost the average residential utility payer around $3 a month.