Candidates confront economy of county

Clark County commissioners candidate Pam Brokaw and other candidates met with the Shumway neighborhood Association to discuss their platforms at The School for the Arts Thursday, October 3, 2008 (The Columbian/ N. Scott Trimble)

Clark County commissioners candidate Tom Mielke and other candidates met with the Shumway neighborhood Association to discuss their platforms at The School for the Arts Thursday, October 3, 2008 (The Columbian/ N. Scott Trimble)

All economics was local Friday night at Washington State University Vancouver, as four county commission candidates agreed that Clark County’s government and residents are in for trouble.

“We’ve got some tough times ahead of us and we’re going to have to pull together to get through them,” said Democrat Pam Brokaw. “We’re going to need to have a new business plan.”

Comments like Brokaw’s framed the night’s debate, which was hosted by the county’s Realtors, building industry association and farm bureau.

Marc Boldt, an incumbent commissioner up for re-election, predicted that the county’s dire financial situation will force big changes, which will have to be overseen by the next set of commissioners.

“Come January, the county’s going to be a different form of government,” said Boldt, a Republican. “We’re almost like a ways ago when Chrysler retooled. … We’re looking at major code rewrites, and with the help of the other two commissioners, we’re going to decide what are the major priorities of government.”

Vancouver City Councilwoman Jeanne Harris, Boldt’s Democratic opponent, said tough times call for public spending.

“Much as we did in the days of FDR, you take public funds, you invest in public infrastructure,” she said.

Tom Mielke, Brokaw’s Republican opponent, said Clark County should make the most of its biggest asset: a huge, increasingly underemployed labor force.

“I think we’re sitting on a gold mine here,” he said.

Here’s what else the candidates had to say.

Harris: Wants the county to stop defending its 2007 growth plan against a state challenge, and start working on a new one. “We were planning for too many people. … We need to make sure we have a balance of jobs to housing.”

Boldt: Says the county’s first growth plan, in 1994, assumed too little growth, and he doesn’t want to make that mistake again. “There wasn’t enough area for housing. What happened was, we didn’t build enough roads. (Now) we have huge congestions on Mill Plain and 134th.”

Mielke: Said the county has planned for too little residential and industrial growth. “We don’t have enough industrial and heavy industrial land here to create those jobs. … We need a diversity of jobs, not just green jobs. We can’t be out there picking and choosing when we have people unemployed.”

Brokaw: “We need a strong economy and we need economic development. … I also support sharpening our pencils and looking at what we need to do here and now.”

Harris: Backs programs to let farmers sell their development rights to builders elsewhere while keeping their own land open. “We also need to think about growing a new crop of people who are interested about farming.”

Boldt: Said problems have arisen from interspersing subdivisions with farms. “If you farm, your neighbors are mad at you. We really have to look at that checkerboard.”

Mielke: Says the county over-regulates agriculture; doesn’t think small farms have much future. “To think that someone’s going to make a living on five acres is ridiculous. … That’s not a farm. A farm is something you make your living at.”

Brokaw: Thinks longtime landowners have been left behind by land-use shifts. “It hasn’t been easy over these many, many years as zoning has changed and regulations have occurred. … I think the time has come to have a conversation about those folks. … We really haven’t addressed it.”

Mielke: Prefers a third bridge, or a widening of Interstate 205. “The congestion (on Interstate 5) starts down there at the Rose Quarter. … Clark County doesn’t have a problem. The state of Washington doesn’t have a problem. … It’s the agenda of somebody who wants to have a pretty road coming through their town.”

Brokaw: “I support a new bridge. I think it’s a tremendous safety issue for us. … I think that light rail is a good tool as part of a transportation system that takes us where we need to go. … I think that tolls are something that we need to look at as well as a piece of that.”

Harris: Supports a new bridge; wants poorer people to pay lower tolls. “I don’t like tolls. If we have to have tolls, they have to be fair.”

Boldt: Supports a new bridge in theory, but doesn’t want local tolls so high they block freight. “They say it’s one-third federal, one-third state and one-third local. It’s got to be more than that for federal. We’re going to ask (the state) for money for widening 219th … They’re going to say, well, you’ve already got your money on I-5.”

Mielke: “I’m older. I used to think my grandpa was the smartest guy in the world, and now I know why. … I’ve got the experience. I’ve got the knowledge.

“The problems we have today are the same problems we had three years ago. And we’ve talked it to death. We’ve studied it to death. … I’m more of a person of action than a person of meetings.”

Brokaw: “My opponent believes that if you pretty much throw regulation out the window and you just kind of let the world do what it needs to do, everything will be fine. Well, we saw what happened on Wall Street with that kind of approach.

“It’s a new day for our community … I’m a candidate who represents that new day, those new ideas. It goes beyond just saying no.”

Harris: “I have a tendency to be out in public a lot. I wish I saw Marc more at more events in the city.

“I have the local government experience — 12 years of local government. It’s different from state government. … I’m a convener and a collaborator.”

Boldt: Said his favorite part of being a county commissioner is casework, because when you help people solve their problems, “you see the dirt.” “I personally think I bring some dirt to county commissioners. … I went through a recession. I rode a mixer truck. … I’ve been in farming. … On one of our payroll days, we paid $8,500 cash for payroll, and my kids didn’t have enough money to go to Burgerville.

“To tell you the truth, ribbon-cuttings, I don’t like ’em. In fact, I don’t even like parades.

“If you’ve got a problem, give me a call. My phone’s listed.”