Incumbent faces challenge in Camas council race

If you notice a guy and his wife walking packs of pooches around downtown Camas — he might well be your city council position 1 challenger.

Shawn High’s wife just opened a dog-training business, and Shawn, who works as a flight attendant, frequently helps out. He’s an outgoing guy who likes talking to people as he strolls, he said — which is probably a great way to campaign, he realized.

High just turned 40 and felt like it was time to give something back to the town he loves, he said. He grew up in the Midwest and finds the same small-town charm in Camas, he said.

But he really has no problem with the councilman he’s running against, he added. It’s the town’s ward system that forces him to run against the incumbent in the area where he lives.

“Timothy Hazen is a stand-up guy and I don’t have a single thing where I would go against what he voted for,” High said. “He’s a good councilman. I’ve met him several times.

“It’s more of a timing thing for me, a need to get involved. I want to keep Camas successful. Win or lose, I just wanted to make sure I was trying.”

Given that, what’s important about Camas to High? Growth. “It’s a tough one. I’ve seen runaway suburbs in some towns. I’ve seen good stuff and bad stuff. Growth is pretty much unstoppable, but I want to be involved in that process,” he said.

Being a flight attendant has given him a “worldly view” of growth in many different places, he said. “I think that’s one of my strengths,” he added.

Outdoor living — parks, walkability, the ability to ride bikes — are high on High’s list. “That’s one of the main reasons I picked where I live now. Continuing park growth is a huge thing,” he said.

He noted that Camas used to lean heavily on the paper mill for a big chunk of its tax base, but those days are over. The good news, he added, is that Camas still has a strong and healthily diversified tax base in its high-tech industries and high-end homes. So paying for critical needs does not appear to be a problem, he said.

“I’m not 100 percent a master of the budget, but I’ve talked to some people,” he said. “I think it’s more balanced than other cities around.”

Timothy Hazen is the incumbent in position 1, and has held the job since he was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2011 and then elected to the same seat later that year. He’s a businessman — the owner of Premier Senior Living, a housing agency — and he said one of his proudest accomplishments on the council has been putting together incentive packages to attract businesses to Camas. He mentioned Fisher Investments and CID Bioscience — which relocated within Camas recently — as specific examples.

Hazen agreed that Camas is an economically healthy city that’s managed to attract good employers and good housing developments. “That doesn’t accidentally happen. It’s through good planning and through great leadership — that happened two years ago and 10 years ago and 20 years ago,” he said.

Hazen said he’s proud of the way the city worked out a deal recently to buy Fallen Leaf Lake from the mill. “That was a coup for us,” he said.

And he’s proud of the way the city has managed, despite the Great Recession, to keep up on road maintenance and transportation projects including extending 38th Street.

Hazen is the council’s liaison to the Planning Commission and he sits on the city’s Parks and Recreation board too. He said good planning is a matter of staying out in front of issues and keeping the town’s geography and population densities in mind. He also said good government is a matter of hiring excellent staffers to fill leadership positions.

“That’s a key function for a city that’s growing and I think we’ve done a good job. This is a very workable council. We work well together and we communicate well together,” he said. “City government is complicated and it takes time to figure out. I’ve got five years invested in this position and I understand how to get things done.”