Clark County is bound to have some growing pains in the coming year.
The Clark County council will expand next January from three members to five, and the addition of two new faces to the county council is likely to come with new direction and policy.
Whatever your political leanings, one thing is clear: The county council and its often-controversial policies have come under intense public scrutiny in recent years.
Among those policies is Clark County’s fee waiver program, which was approved in 2013 to encourage job development by waiving permit application and traffic impact fees for nonresidential projects. But the fee waiver program may be changed — or cancelled altogether — as all four county council candidates who won in the primary election have criticized or otherwise questioned its efficacy.
Staunch supporters of the waiver claim it has created thousands of jobs in Clark County. Councilor David Madore, a Republican, has even credited the program for making Clark County “the most business-friendly community on the West Coast.”
But critics and independent groups have questioned those claims. Perhaps the most damning indictment of the waiver came in an award-winning audit from the Clark County Auditor’s office last November. That audit determined the program may be financially unsustainable, and said only 115 jobs at the time had been added to Clark County by businesses receiving the fee waiver. Most of those jobs, according to the audit, are in the low-paying retail, food and customer service industries.
Here’s where Clark County chair candidates Mike Dalesandro, a Democrat, and Marc Boldt, who is running with no party preference; and the District 2 candidates, Julie Olson, a Republican, and Chuck Green, a Democrat, stand on the waiver. State Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, a council chair write-in candidate, did not return a request for comment.
Mike Dalesandro
Dalesandro called for a swift “repeal and replace” of the fee waiver program, which he said caters too much to employers who pay minimum wage. In essence, it has become a “handout to developers.”
“It’s not working as it was intended,” he said. There may be jobs available — and “every job is important,” he said — but too many people are underemployed, meaning they have low-paying jobs or part-time jobs when they could qualify for better, family-wage jobs.
Instead, the council should pursue policies that incentivize the development of businesses that create careers and pay higher wages, he said.
“We need to look at targeted incentives for the jobs we want to have in Clark County,” he said.
Marc Boldt
Boldt has called for an end to Clark County’s fee waiver program, saying it puts an unfair burden on residential developers. The current waiver applies only to commercial developments, which “isn’t helping” would-be affordable housing developers.
“It’s unequal application,” he said. “We need apartment units.”
Clark County can work with the state to put more reasonable and equitable fees on developers as opposed to “taking money from one area of the county and giving it to someone else.”
“There’s no free lunches,” he said.
Boldt also criticized the county for its apparent disregard for the county auditor’s office’s critical examination of the program.
“Unless you give credit to (county staff,) you’re not going to move forward,” he said.
Julie Olson
Olson has been relatively reserved in her criticism of Clark County’s fee waiver program.
However, she said she wants the council to study the program in January to determine if it’s truly effective. Olson called for “real metrics” to determine how many jobs the waiver has built and how much money it’s driven into the local economy.
Olson also recommended considering limiting the waiver. More-targeted fee waivers for small businesses and entrepreneurs could be an effective compromise for unincorporated Clark County, she suggested.
“If 80 percent of the job creation is small business, let’s help them,” she said.
Big-box stores that pay minimum wage, for example, won’t be swayed to come to Clark County, as opposed to Portland or the city of Vancouver, by a fee waiver, she said.
“They make decisions based on demographics and market,” Olson said.
Chuck Green
Green is a vocal opponent of Clark County’s blanket fee waiver, but says targeted incentives for job-building companies can be an effective compromise.
While chains and big-box stores have benefitted from the fee waiver, it’s failed to attract “family-wage” jobs, Green said. “You really haven’t gotten it in the middle.”
He has specifically pointed to Vancouver’s fee waiver as a successful example. That program reduces fees for some companies that build jobs paying higher than the median income, such as Banfield Pet Hospital.
But fee waivers are only one tool for attracting family-wage jobs to the area, he said — and Clark County should be working with other jurisdictions instead of competing with them for job growth.
For example, Green proposed that the county work more closely with the Columbia River Economic Development Council, the city of Vancouver and the Port of Vancouver to create “shovel-ready sites” that are already fitted with utilities or that have their initial permitting already completed.
“In order to attract big companies, we need to be able to act quickly,” he said.
