Judge dismisses Belkot suit against Clark County

A U.S. District Court judge last week ruled in favor of Clark County in a lawsuit brought by Councilor Michelle Belkot after the council removed her from her seat on the C-Tran board of directors in March 2025.

In a judgment filed March 18 in Tacoma, Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright denied Belkot’s claims against the county and dismissed the case.

On Friday, Belkot said she was disappointed by the ruling and would consider appealing the decision.

“From my perspective, this case and decision wasn’t about me,” Belkot said. “It was about council members who seemingly coordinated in an effort to replace me to fund Oregon’s TriMet light rail and keep it from the public.”

Belkot initially filed the lawsuit in Skamania County Superior Court on March 28, 2025. The case moved to U.S. District Court in April.

At the heart of the case was the county council’s decision to remove Belkot from her position on the local transit agency’s board of directors. The council had voted weeks earlier to support a C-Tran board decision that would allow the transit agency to contribute to future operations and maintenance costs for the TriMet MAX light rail line expected to extend into Vancouver as part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program.

In February 2025, Clark County Council Chair Sue Marshall, who represented the county on the C-Tran board with Belkot, told county council members it was important for them to be briefed on the bridge replacement project and light rail costs so she and Belkot could follow the council’s direction when the issue came before the C-Tran board.

Cartwright noted in the ruling that Belkot “never disputed that the purpose of the council’s work on the C-Tran issue was to determine the council’s collective position.”

Belkot, who represents constituents in the county’s more rural areas, has argued she represents residents who have historically opposed extending light rail to Clark County.

After Belkot told the C-Tran board she intended to vote against C-Tran funding any light rail operations and maintenance costs, the county council voted to remove Belkot from her C-Tran seat and instead appointed the council’s alternate C-Tran representative, Councilor Wil Fuentes.

Councilor Glen Yung noted during the March 12, 2025, county council meeting that the county’s two seats on the C-Tran board belong to the council as a whole.

“It’s concerning to me that we have a councilor that is on a board that has chosen to vote in opposition of the council as a whole,” Fuentes said during that meeting. “To me, it’s not about light rail or not light rail. This is how we — in our assigned boards and committees — this is how we conduct business. And I think it’s very clear when the council as a whole gives direction, that that needs to be followed.”

Yung said that if a councilor was not willing to represent the council as a whole, they should be removed from their appointed committee or board position.

“Because this will go a lot further than just light rail,” Yung said at the meeting. “I think this is an important piece of the process that we need to dial in right now.”

Claims denied

Belkot argued in her lawsuit that being removed from the C-Tran board violated the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Clark County Charter and Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act.

In addition to dismissing Belkot’s lawsuit, Cartwright denied Belkot’s request to be reinstated on the C-Tran board. She ruled that all five of Belkot’s claims had “failed as a matter of law” and said oral arguments in the case were unnecessary.

In the judgment, Cartwright said Belkot’s First Amendment claim had failed for two reasons.

“First, her intended vote on the C-Tran motion was not constitutionally protected activity,” Cartwright said. “And, second, the council’s decision to remove her as one of its representatives to C-Tran was not a materially adverse action in the realm of electoral politics.”

Belkot and her co-plaintiff, Clark County resident Kathryn Bauer, also claimed the county had violated the 14th Amendment’s “one person, one vote” principle, and argued that replacing Belkot with Fuentes, who mostly represents Vancouver constituents, would lead to underrepresentation among Clark County’s rural voters.

“They argue that, because the population in unincorporated Clark County is roughly 45 percent of its total population, the nine-member C-Tran board should be composed of four delegates from those unincorporated areas,” Cartwright said in the ruling. “It is unclear how Clark County could be the cause of any ‘one person, one vote’ violation. Clark County does not determine the structure or bylaws of the C-Tran board. It selects only two of the nine members … the rest are picked by various cities inside the county.”

Cartwright also ruled against Belkot’s claim the council did not have the power under the county charter to remove her from the C-Tran board before her one-year term expired.

“The county has the authority to appoint two C-Tran board members who serve at the council’s pleasure,” Cartwright said in the ruling. “The council may also remove those board members at any time without violating the Clark County Charter.”