LA CENTER — On the first Monday of the past five months, 30 to 50 La Center residents filed into City Hall for a two-hour meeting. While it usually takes a proposed development or road project to get this many people to show up at City Hall, these residents were there to learn how local government works.
“It’s been a lot bigger than expected,” said Jeff Swanson, who was hired to teach the classes. “We were anticipating maybe 15 or 20 people, optimistically, would participate. At the first meeting, there were like 50 people there.”
Swanson is the interim city manager in Medina, but he previously worked for the cities of La Center, Camas, Battle Ground and Longview, as well as Clark County.
“The council … identified this as something they wanted to do. They wanted to help the community better understand how city government works,” he said.
Called La Center University, the free classes covered everything from open public meetings laws, municipal budgeting and finance, land use planning, permitting, public works and public safety.
“I try to be concise, and I make it very focused on La Center, showing maps and explaining what they’re looking at on the map in terms of incorporated limits of the city, what’s in the city’s urban growth area and then what’s rural land, what’s outside,” Swanson said.
The idea started with La Center Mayor Tom Strobehn, who admitted to copying a similar program offered by Battle Ground. Strobehn said he has been very pleased by the turnout.
“They’re blowing the expectations out of the water. People laughed at us when we announced this. They didn’t think we would get anyone to come,” he said.
Strobehn said he would like the students to take what they’ve learned back to their friends and families to dispel misinformation. Then, the next time a controversial development or road project rolls out, residents will better understand the process and how to make their voices heard.
“The whole point was that, for a lot of people, their opinions become their facts. And it’s caused a lot of headaches for our city and for others as well. Hopefully, this will educate them in the manner of how (city government) actually works or at least give them an idea of how to ask the questions they need to get the proper answers,” Strobehn said.
The classes also covered the growth plan updates the cities and the county are currently working on. Swanson said it’s an important but complicated process that many want to better understand, especially with the city’s population expected to grow by more than 50 percent over the next 20 years.
“I didn’t get into the particulars right now, more on the history of how La Center expanded out to the (Interstate 5) junction and brought land into the incorporated area,” he said.
Swanson said he encourages everyone, not just his “students,” to follow the county’s growth plan update and how the cities and county are working together.
“Usually, there’s a big battle between Vancouver and Clark County in terms of comp plan policies and implementation, and the smaller cities are kind of left to fend for themselves,” he said.
The final class on Monday covered public safety, followed by a graduation ceremony where each student attending all five classes received a certificate.
Lifelong La Center resident Al Filla was among those graduating.
“I’m a skeptic, naturally. It was pretty good,” Filla said just ahead of Monday’s final class. “(Swanson) has been associated with the city as a consultant a good number of years, so he knows a lot of the ins and outs. That has really helped.”
Kristy Humphrey was another of the graduating students.
“We learned how the city’s finances, the budget, public works, just a whole barrage of things,” she said, adding that learning how the city budgets and how funding works was probably the most illuminating.
“The way that Jeff presented the material, it was at our level, and we could understand everything,” Humphrey said. “I just didn’t realize how complicated the process is. And ongoing all the time.”
Even those more familiar with city government took something away from the classes. Paul Jones is on the city’s planning commission and attended all five classes.
“I have greatly enjoyed it. Jeff has quite a breadth of information and background of understanding of just how a city runs,” he said.
Jones said even though he serves on the planning commission, he learned things about open public meetings laws he didn’t know before and now better understands what constitutes a meeting, how communications are limited, etc.
“I love to see the response of so many from the community who participated throughout the five months,” he said. “I think a lot of people just don’t have a clue of how a city operates. It’s been very helpful.”
The city of La Center spent $12,500 to offer the five classes — money well spent, Strobehn said. He said the city will definitely offer the class series again, most likely in 2026.
But Strobehn had another goal in mind when he announced the launch of La Center University.
“I’m hoping that something like this starts getting (residents) more motivated to do stuff in the community. I’m hoping that we get a couple of people that want to run for council. That’s my ultimate goal,” he said.
Swanson said his message to residents is simple: “Get on a board or commission. Start preparing yourself so that someday you can run for council. It wasn’t intended for those seats to be forever occupied by the same people.”
