Letter: Commissioners send bad message

If county commissioners choose to remain in breach of the contract with CREDC, as announced in the letter signed by Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke, what lessons can agencies and businesses learn before they sign contracts with Clark County?

1) If two out of three commissioners find fault with your board’s point of view, then the commissioners will feel free to breach your contract.

2) Despite terms in your contract, the actual funding of it might be subject to the whims of the commissioners.

3) A party contemplating contracting with the county would do well to withhold services or goods pending actual payment from the county.

4) Contracting with Clark County has become a risky proposition.

Commissioners Mielke and Madore have raised a huge warning flag to businesses that might want to deal with the county. The message they sent is that the county will be difficult to deal with and will take arbitrary and capricious action to abrogate its contracts. It’s a terribly regressive irony that the governing board of a county bordered by the Columbia River will not support the construction of a modern bridge and will flame other parties who publicly disagree with that position. This will be a negative factor when businesses weigh locating here.

Bob Ives

Vancouver