Camas voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have raised the city’s utility taxes by 4 percent to fund new Camas police positions.
Initial results posted to the Clark County Elections website at 8 p.m. Tuesday show the city of Camas’ Proposition 5 failing with 60.69 percent, or 3,185 voters, casting ballots against the measure and 39.31 percent, or 2,063 voters, approving it.
In November 2024, Camas City Council members approved placing the 4 percent utility tax on the ballot to help realize Camas Mayor Steve Hogan’s plan to shore up a $6 million budget shortfall in 2025-26, and to pay for what the mayor and police chief have called “critical staffing needs” at the local police department by increasing city revenues.
The new utility tax would have been added to an already approved 2 percent tax on the city’s water, sewer, garbage and stormwater utilities, and been earmarked for police staffing and related equipment and training.
“It was something I wanted to put before the voters, to hear their voice,” Hogan said Tuesday night after learning the ballot measure was failing. “They spoke, and I respect the concerns of the citizens. Now we have to come together and find alternative solutions to support our police.”
If it had passed, the new utility tax would have raised around $1 million annually and funded four new police positions, including two police sergeants, one lieutenant and one police officer to help plan for a potential “retirement cliff.”
Camas Police Chief Tina Jones said last year that 45 percent of the Camas Police Department’s sworn officers will be eligible to retire within the next five years and noted that it can take nearly 18 months to recruit, hire and fully train new police officers.
Jones said Tuesday night that, while she was disappointed by the election results, she wasn’t giving up on trying to bring the police department’s staffing levels up to where she believes they need to be.
“As our community continues to grow and the demands for services on our team increase we see indicators that we are not staffed appropriately to meet the current and future police service needs,” Jones said. “This need has been here for years, so the longer things get delayed, the more demand that puts on our services.”
Jones said staffing issues have already strained her department.
“We’re already seeing that negative impact on our service levels,” Jones said. “And I still worry greatly about inadequate supervisory support, especially for our new employees. But I’m not throwing in the towel. Sometimes we have setbacks, but we find ways to move forward with the resources and the people we have.”
Jones said she wasn’t taking the voters’ rejection personally or as an indicator that Camas voters don’t support their police department.
“I heard from many community members during this process saying they support the police and see the need for the positions, they just did not want to see the funding come in the form of a utility tax,” Jones said.
Hogan said he intends to keep pushing for funding to help bring police staffing levels to where he and Jones feel they need to be in a growing city.
Clark County Elections reported a 25 percent voter turnout as of Tuesday, with 81,344 ballots counted and approximately 17,000 ballots left to count. The county will count ballots again at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
