Jack Burkman, a former Vancouver city councilor and longtime local civic fixture, announced Friday his intent to run for Vancouver port commissioner.
Burkman is running for the District 3 seat, currently held by Jerry Oliver. Oliver announced Dec. 12 last year he did not intend to run for re-election.
Burkman was on the city council for 12 years, first from 1998 to 2001, then from 2010 to 2017, when he chose not to run for re-election. He said he took the time off to focus on family and home life, catching up on projects around the house and spending time with his grandchildren.
Burkman also served 10 years as a Clark College trustee, eight on the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council board, seven on the Fort Vancouver Regional Library board and four as a local League of United Latin American Citizens executive council officer, among other roles.
“But what I realized is I really missed making a contribution to the community,” Burkman said. “The port role is less intensive than being on city council, so it fits into my life that it still allows me to have that time for the grandkids and hobbies and such.”
His time on the council will be helpful, he said, as port and city projects and issues often overlapped, as would his experience on regional transportation planning and business experience. Burkman also spent 30 years working for HP Inc.; 20 of those were spent locally managing product development.
“That’s what I’m really looking to do, is bring forward that extensive experience in business, local government and leadership, and take that into the port board,” he said.
The port handles more than 7 million tons of cargo annually, is home to more than 50 industrial tenants and generates about $2.9 billion in annual economic benefit for the region, between the value of cargo handled and industrial tenants’ business, according to port staff.
Burkman said the port, with its hundreds of acres of unused land, some already with infrastructure, presents opportunities to create well-paying, stable jobs in Clark County.
“And then we got to fix the bridge, because, in particular, freight is just getting hammered,” he said, with the traffic on Interstate 5 over the bridge to Portland.
Burkman pointed to his contributions in building out the 192nd Avenue corridor, and how it took the combined effort of local government and business groups to lobby for attention, and assistance, from the Legislature for development.
“There is no one group or one person that makes this work,” he said, adding that’s what it can take to draw the focus from the larger Puget Sound area. “It’s about all the organizations working together, and in particular, heading to Olympia and saying, we’re Southwest Washington, and we’ve got to fix the problem.”
Any bridge work will take the same sort of effort, he said, along with collaboration with stakeholders in Oregon.
In his announcement, Burkman also emphasized his intent to create a climate action plan for the port that “balances business and environment needs,” contribute to building a skilled workforce in the community and continue efforts toward greater community involvement and transparency.
The election is in November. Port commissioners serve six-year terms.
“Bottom line is, I’m not quite sure what retirement means,” he said, laughing.
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Correction appended: This article initially mischaracterized the $2.9 billion in economic benefit generated through the port as simply revenue, and has been updated.
