Two Vancouver City Council incumbents will keep their seats for another four years, while a third race for an open council seat was too close to call Tuesday night.
In Tuesday’s initial election results, Vancouver City Council contender Ty Stober took a tenuous 226-vote lead over opponent Linda Glover for Position 5, which Councilor Larry Smith is vacating at the end of the year.
With thousands of ballots remaining to be counted, the outcome could shift, noted Stober, who led with 50.22 percent, garnering 8,893 votes, compared to Glover, who followed closely with 48.94 percent. She received 8,667 votes.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Stober, 44, who advises businesses on the marketing and adoption of energy-saving technology. “During the primary, every day the results came in my lead increased, so all I can do is hope the same trend continues here in the general.”
Glover, 66, executive director of the nonprofit Gifts for Our Community, joked Tuesday night about the vote count. “That’s 200 more doorbells I should have hit,” she said.
She said she knew from the beginning the competition would be tight because her opponent was well-known in the community.
“I feel like we’re still in the race,” Glover said.
Council incumbent Bill Turlay nabbed a clear win in his bid for a second term in the Position 6 seat. He took 61.54 percent of the vote, while his opponent, 74-year-old insurance company owner George Francisco, trailed with 37.73 percent.
“This is best day I’ve had in a long time. … I’m just absolutely overwhelmed,” said Turlay, 79, owner of a beverage distributorship.
“It’s far exceeded any expectations I had. I ran a clean campaign,” Turlay said. “At times it was a little tempting to go negative. I said, I’m going to take the high road … and talk about the positive things we have in our community.”
Council incumbent Bart Hansen cruised to an easy victory for Position 4 over challenger Justin Forsman, a 27-year-old part-time Clark College student. Tuesday night, Hansen said he was “a little bit awestruck” to receive 81 percent of the vote, compared to Forsman’s 18.23 percent.
“I did not expect it to be that dramatic of a spread,” he said.
Hansen, 40, key accounts manager for Clark Public Utilities, was appointed to the council in January 2010 to fill the vacancy created when Tim Leavitt was elected mayor. Hansen successfully ran for election in November 2010 and then won re-election in November 2011.
He chalked up his win Tuesday to voters preferring his message (“one community — safe and prosperous”) over Forsman’s campaign to rid city water of fluoride. He appreciates newcomers entering politics and would hate for them to get discouraged by a loss because he’s been there, too, he said.
Vancouver voters approved all five city charter amendments on the ballot. The charter, which serves as the city’s constitution, is reviewed every five years by a committee of 15 residents who recommend potential changes to the city council. Here’s what will change:
• Midterm council members who run for mayor must forfeit their council seats at the end of the year, even if they don’t win the mayorship. They must give their notice of intent to run for mayor 30 days prior to the filing deadline, essentially tendering their resignations.
• The full text of all proposed ordinances must be posted on the city’s website. A provision requiring a full reading of the ordinance at a council meeting will be removed from the charter.
• The charter’s language prohibiting discrimination in all city programs and activities will be updated to make it consistent with state and federal law.
• A section will be added emphasizing the importance of boards, commissions, advisory committees and task forces and how they can be established and dissolved.
• The initiative process will be simplified and clarified by defining timelines for the steps, requiring the city attorney’s office to weigh in on whether the initiative would be legal, and removing the option for a second round of signature-gathering if not enough signatures were on the submitted petition.
