A coalition of protesters plan to appear at tonight’s Clark County council meeting to show support for county staff, according to Facebook posts.
The local coalition of the Black Lives Matter movement, along with members of two Facebook groups primarily focused on Clark County politics, will attend this evening’s meeting to “show support for the embattle (sic) county staff in a positive way,” according to social media.
Cecelia Towner, founder of the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, said the group fears Community Planning Director Oliver Orjiako, who recently filed a complaint against Republican Councilor David Madore, may not be treated fairly as the county investigates his complaints.
Orjiako recently filed a whistle-blower complaint accusing Madore of violating the Growth Management Act through his involvement in the county’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan update. He also accused Madore of discriminating against him based on his race and Nigerian accent.
An independent attorney is investigating Orjiako’s claims, but Towner says she fears “the process will not be fair to him because of institutionalized racism within our justice system.”
“We are considering how we may best be helpful to both Mr. Orjiako and our local black community that experiences oppressive dynamics due to unintentional culture as well as racism,” Towner said.
The council’s agenda includes two proposals that have already prompted outcry from Madore, and are therefore likely to be pulled by the councilor for discussion. The council will consider granting its annual legal advertising to The Columbian. The county’s paper of record has been Battle Ground’s weekly newspaper, The Reflector, since 2014.
The council will also consider providing pass-through grant funds from Kaiser Permanente to the city of Vancouver to hire a planning consultant to help in the Fourth Plain Forward project, which will promote active living projects, policies and environmental changes along the west end of Vancouver’s Fourth Plain corridor.
Madore has criticized both items on his Facebook page.
The council is also slated to consider creating a rural industrial land bank, which would convert about 600 acres of farmland south of Battle Ground from agriculture to light industrial zoning.
But even that item, which has been largely without controversy, may be mired in political intrigue. Last week, the council asked Acting County Manager Mark McCauley to find budget capacity to hire outside attorneys to represent it in land-use issues, after Madore accused the county’s in-house attorneys of lying about the impact of Alternative 4, his controversial zoning proposal to the comprehensive plan.
While the county works with an independent attorney to investigate Madore’s allegations, the county has also hired an additional attorney to represent it in land use issues, McCauley said Tuesday afternoon.
The Columbian will cover tonight’s meeting live. Follow along here or follow reporter Kaitlin Gillespie on Twitter.
