Steve Hogan to end run as Camas’ mayor in 2027

For someone who has spent two decades in Camas city government, Steve Hogan might be expected to have a strong opinion about how that government should operate. But as the city considers a potential shift to a council-manager system, he said he’s not picking sides. “I’ll be happy either way,” Hogan said during the Camas City Council’s Aug. 17 meeting. That’s because Hogan, a city councilor starting in 2005 and Camas’ mayor since 2021, will not seek reelection when his term ends in November 2027. While many Camas residents may not have known it, Hogan said he decided before beginning his current term that he would retire from elected office in 2027, a decision driven in large part by his desire to spend more time with his wife, Mary Beth Hogan. “I was ‘voluntold’ by my wife (to retire),” Steve Hogan said with a laugh. “But what the hell, I’ll be 75. I don’t want to be a Joe Biden or a Donald Trump. I’d rather keep my reputation, at least.” Hogan has combined a long private-sector management career with more than two decades of public service in Camas. He worked as a senior manager and chief operating officer in the steel, paper and wood industries before bringing that business and management experience into local government. He was first elected to the Camas City Council in 2005 and served as mayor pro tem in 2014, 2017 and 2021 before becoming mayor. “Steve Hogan has adapted his well-developed skills as a CEO of steel, wood and paper industries and applied those to our municipal operations. His insights into the public leadership through the lens of a business executive has helped inform the city’s programming,” Camas City Administrator Doug Quinn said. “He has pursued several projects, including promoting priority-based budgeting, capital budget prioritization methodology and economic recruitment that provides long-term strategic investments with returns. This is balanced with our critically important work of providing exceptional service to our residents.” The years before Hogan became mayor were unusually tumultuous for Camas. The city cycled through three mayors — Scott Higgins, Shannon Turk and Barry McDonnell — between 2018 and 2021, while its top administrative position also turned over twice. City Administrator Pete Capell retired in 2020, and his successor, Jamal Fox, resigned less than a year later, just weeks after McDonnell had stepped down. Hogan was elected mayor in November 2021, arriving at a time when the city was seeking a measure of stability in both its elected and administrative leadership. “It was like a bad earthquake. It seemed like the whole building was falling down, and everything was going to hell,” Hogan said. “So I talked to my wife and said, ‘I’m going to step up.’” He framed his approach to the mayor’s job in nautical terms: Keep the ship together, keep the best crew on board, and spend time below deck repairing the engines and hull rather than chasing high-profile projects that might draw more attention but were less essential to the city’s long-term health. “He was a stable force,” said Bryan Rachal, the city’s director of communications and public affairs. “I think he’s done a phenomenal job. When he talks about being a manager of people, that’s exactly what he did. He came in, he saw some issues, he focused on those issues. He had individuals like myself who moved here from across the country to some turmoil. I’ve been here for five years now, and I wouldn’t have stuck around if I didn’t feel like leadership was on the right track.” Quinn said Camas has “benefited significantly” from Hogan’s leadership. “His experience, familiarity with Camas and strong work ethic have made him a capable and effective leader,” he said. “But I don’t think the value comes simply from the number of years he has served. It comes from who he is as a leader and how he uses that experience.” Change vs. status quo The Camas City Council voted Aug. 17 to authorize city attorney Shane MacPherson to draft a resolution that asks voters whether they would like to reshape the city’s form of government. The combined resolution, which would be placed on a Feb. 9 special election ballot if approved by the council Sept. 21, will ask voters whether to shift from a mayor-council to a council-manager form of government, with Council Position No. 1 serving as the new council “mayor,” effective Jan. 1, 2028. Hogan said during the meeting that if voters approve a change in the city’s form of government, he would not stay in office until his term’s scheduled end in 2027. Instead, he said that as soon as the election is certified and the new form of government officially takes effect, he would step down at that point. Hogan receives a $3,106 monthly stipend in 2026, or about $37,272 annually, along with a $350 monthly vehicle allowance and $100 monthly cellphone allowance. The city also pays $17.88 annually for his employee assistance program coverage. For comparison, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, the leader of a council-manager form of government, receives about $3,438 per month. Mayor David Stuebe in Washougal, which also has a council-manager form of government, receives $966 per month. “The new form of government, if I stick around, is going to change my job, either after I’m gone at the end of 2027 or they’re going to feel like they’ve got the power now to change in the interim, and (my new role would be) more like cutting ribbons and kissing babies, and I’m not up for that,” Hogan said. “I’m done with that. I consider myself a professional manager.” Rachal said Hogan could have used his authority as mayor to stop the proposal but intentionally chose not to. Hogan acknowledged that its timing complicates his agenda for his final term, but he said he believes the question of how Camas should be governed is ultimately bigger than any one mayor or the preservation of the system that put him in office. Hogan prefers keeping the strong mayor form because it provides a single, directly elected executive with clear control over staff and operations, and he believes his career of running complex organizations — and the point he’s now reached, where he fully understands the system and knows “the right questions to ask” — makes that model particularly effective for Camas. “It really doesn’t matter which form of government they go to. This was established in 1906, so we’re 120 years into it. (Changing the form of government) is not a catastrophic event,” he said. “I think the first priority is to look at the quality of the person wanting to be in control. In either form of government, they’ve got to be sharp enough and talented enough to pick up the pieces and reorganize them.”

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