Yacolt Council votes to oppose charter

With Election Day just two weeks away, Clark County’s smallest municipality has officially come out against the new county charter.

The Yacolt Town Council voted 3-0 Monday night to adopted a resolution opposing the charter. Councilors Dave Hancock and Rick Urias were absent from the meeting.

The resolution praises the county’s long-standing three-commissioner structure.

“Clark County government has operated as a stable and uniform county government for the past 125 years as prescribed in the Washington State Constitution,” the resolution reads. “Changing the structure of county government during this economic recovery could have negative consequences on our economy.”

One of the council’s main problems with the new charter is the addition of a county manager to oversee day-to-day operations. The position would reduce the public’s access to the commissioners, the councilors said.

“I think the entire county is a very big area for one person to be in charge of,” Councilor Lewis Gerhardt, who wrote the resolution, said Monday night in reference to the proposed county manager position.

Councilor Vince Myers called the creation of a county manager “one more step to an oligarchy.”

A month ago, Yacolt Mayor Jeff Carothers joined a group of vocal opponents to the charter, posting a campaign video to an anti-charter group’s website, www.votenocharter.com. In the video, Carothers says that under the current county government system, he’s never had trouble getting a hold of the commissioners to talk about the town’s issues.

Proponents of the charter also have a website: charteryes.com.