While the public was waiting just two blocks away, seven local elected officials spent 45 minutes Monday meeting with U.S. Rep. John Mica, the Florida Republican who chairs the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Clark County Commissioners Marc Boldt and Steve Stuart, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, Battle Ground Mayor Mike Ciraulo, Ridgefield Mayor Ron Onslow, Washougal Mayor Sean Guard and Woodland Mayor Chuck Blum all met with Mica, committee member Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and committee member Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas.
The meeting was 8 a.m. at Herrera Beutler’s office on Officers Row, near the Clark Public Utilities building where more than 250 people showed up for a 9 a.m. “listening session” on how to meet the nation’s crumbling infrastructure needs.
The pre-session meeting was hastily arranged at the end of last week, said Casey Bowman, Herrera Beutler’s spokesman.
“It was all part of a larger effort to get to hear about our local challenges,” Bowman said Tuesday.
“(The local officials) represent constituents throughout Clark County,” he said.
Leavitt said Tuesday the meeting was a good opportunity to talk about concerns over regulations, financing and investments.
They discussed funding alternatives, knowing that federal gas tax revenues are not keeping pace with the need for investments.
Leavitt said Mica and Shuster brought up tolling, a controversial aspect of the Columbia River Crossing project.
“(They said) the reality is that tolling is a fact of life in many parts of the country and tolling is a fact of life (elsewhere) in the state of Washington,” Leavitt said. “Tolling is certainly one way to garner local public financing.”
Stuart and Boldt also said they appreciated the chance to air local concerns.
Legally problematic
The meeting did put them in violation of the state’s open public meeting laws because a quorum of county commissioners attended without public notice. There’s no penalty for violating the law, however.
“Somebody asked me to a meeting and I wanted to go,” Stuart said. “And Marc was there also. I was glad to be invited.”
Stuart said he and Boldt talked about the regulatory environment that has increased costs and delays.
For example, the Salmon Creek interchange project was delayed almost a year because of federal stormwater guidelines that required the county not only to mitigate for the project, but also to plan for stormwater mitigation for potential development.
The county’s third commissioner, Tom Mielke, was invited to the 8 a.m. meeting but did not intend.
Mielke spent the time standing in line waiting to get into the meeting at the PUD building; he ended up as one of five people whose names were drawn to speak during public comment. (He said the Interstate 5 corridor is “full” and he’d rather have a third bridge across the Columbia River.)
The officials who attended the 8 a.m. meeting got more time to speak.
Ciraulo said Tuesday he had two messages for the members of Congress.
“Unfunded mandates are oppressive to the city of Battle Ground and that we need additional federal financial assistance,” he said.
Ciraulo said he and the other officials talked about their frustration with the “bureaucratic red tape.”
When a city or county has a project, considerable time and money is spent to meet federal mandates and regulations, he said.
Ciraulo told the committee members about the city’s need for federal dollars to help address transportation issues.
Ciraulo said he felt Herrera Beutler and the congressmen were open and receptive to local officials’ concerns.
“It sent a strong message to me that Chairman Mica came from Florida and Vice Chairman Shuster came from Pennsylvania to listen,” Ciraulo said.
Guard said he spoke about the Port of Camas-Washougal dike that needs to be recertified. The dike was designed and constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the Corps cannot recertify the dike unless there is a federally funded project involved, Guard said.
The port has to hire a private engineering firm that would also need to purchase an insurance policy for the recertification. Work is estimated to cost the port about $2 million.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it could do the work for about $200,000, Guard said.
Besides the cost savings, Guard said it makes sense to have the Corps recertify the dike.
“They’re the best ones to know it,” he said. “They’re out there walking it every single year.”
Guard also said removing some of the extensive reporting requirements for cities accepting federal funding would save time and money.
“There have been some instances where it literally costs us more to take the federal funding than what we’d get from the money,” Guard said.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
