Vancouver might seek more control over C-Tran

C-Tran rolled out its new fleet of diesel-electric hybrid buses last July. (Troy Wayrynen/The Columbian)

Vancouver is questioning if the city should have more control over C-Tran, a move that might be seen as a power play by some and simply a matter of fairness by others.

The local transit agency currently is managed by a nine-person board consisting of the three Clark County commissioners, three Vancouver City Council members and three representatives from the county's smaller cities.

A memo written by Ted Gathe, Vancouver city attorney, says almost 60 percent of the agency's sales tax revenue and 40 percent of its population come from within the Vancouver city limits.

But Gathe also said Tuesday that no one in the city is proposing Vancouver be given more clout on the C-Tran board.

State law requires that a review board, consisting of the three county commissioners and one elected official from each of the seven cities inside
C-Tran's boundaries, meet at least once every four years to examine the board's composition.

That review committee met Tuesday afternoon and, after a meandering discussion, voted to ask C-Tran Director Jeff Hamm to return July 14 with different options for equitable representation on the C-Tran board.

What equitable representation means — or what Vancouver actually wants — is wide open to interpretation.

During a Vancouver council discussion Monday, Mayor Royce Pollard said the question of whether his city deserves more representation at least needs to be raised.

"We are the major producer (of revenue)," Pollard said. "And we have the least representation."

The only decision the Vancouver council made Monday was that Councilwoman Jeanne Harris, the most senior of the city's three C-Tran board members, would represent Vancouver on the review board.

Not trying to 'take over'

At the start of Tuesday's discussion, Harris disputed any suggestion that Vancouver was trying to "take over" C-Tran.

Harris never mentioned the possibility that Vancouver should have more representation. Instead, she proposed reducing the number of county commissioners on the board and adding a union representative, as well as another community member.

State law dictates that C-Tran can have up to nine board members and all must be elected officials, so any proposal to appoint other representatives would require legislative action.

Harris said organized labor has lobbied state lawmakers for such a change in the past two years.

Mielke objects

Tom Mielke, the only county commissioner to attend Tuesday's discussion, objected to a labor representative being given a C-Tran board seat.

"When I get a seat at the union table, we can invite them to come here," he said.

Mielke said he was "amazed" to hear talk about how much a city has in terms of population and what that means for board representation.

"We are supposed to be representing people," he said. "We are not here to jury-rig an area or jury-rig a board."

Most representatives from the county's smaller cities said Tuesday they were satisfied with the current composition but would be willing to listen to alternatives.

Under C-Tran's bylaws, Vancouver's three representatives can vote together and veto any C-Tran board decision.

County commissioners also enjoy this bloc veto power. At one point, there was speculation that commissioners would stop C-Tran from endorsing light rail as part of the Columbia River Crossing project, but that never happened.

La Center Mayor Jim Irish pointed out that smaller cities don't enjoy the same bloc veto power.

"I think the composition that we have now is fairly adequate," Irish said. "If you start changing, then the small cities are going to lose."

One of 10 votes

Even if Vancouver were to strongly advocate for an increase in city representation or a decrease in county representation, the city has only one of 10 votes on the review committee and has little power to demand a change.

Moreover, no one seems able to point to a major C-Tran decision that ran contrary to the city's wishes.

Gathe's memo, which was erroneously marked "attorney-client communication," does not argue why Vancouver should have more control over C-Tran, nor does it detail what legal recourse the city might have if it doesn't get more representation.

Gathe said he had prepared a draft that included legal strategy, but that information was taken out before the memo was distributed. The "confidential" header should have been taken off the document, he said.

Jeffrey Mize: 360-735-4542 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.