In order to address citizens across the 18th Legislative District before the new session starts Jan. 14, Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida, and Rep.-elect Larry Hoff hosted a marathon town hall session on Saturday starting at 9 a.m. in Ridgefield and ending at 4:30 p.m. in Salmon Creek.
The schedule was so jam packed Hoff even got a speeding ticket trying to get between Ridgefield and Battle Ground in a timely fashion.
Room after room was packed full and the public came armed with insightful questions about everything from opioids and climate change to mental health, education funding and as many might predict, what’s going on with the Interstate 5 Bridge.
Vick said Ridgefield and Camas both focused more on environmental issues, Battle Ground dove into property rights and the railroad and Salmon Creek asked about anything and everything. The Salmon Creek town hall was a first for the 18th Legislative District; usually the stops include just Ridgefield, Battle Ground and Camas. But as Vick noted, Salmon Creek had the best attendance and nearly everyone who stopped by asked it to become a regular occurrence.
Rivers said as she marked off her 60th town hall Saturday, she’s looking forward to adding more events to the schedule.
“My district is changing, the demographic, the issues that my district cares about is changing significantly,” she said. “I just want to know where my district is at with respect to the myriad of issues so that … I can hear things, I can sort of pluck out and see if I can come up with elegant solutions or compromises.”
Vick added that while town halls can be a grab bag of emotions, the day’s events were productive.
“And I don’t think too many feelings were hurt,” he said.
Here’s a quick look at some of the discussions.
Opioid epidemic
Rivers has spent the last several years working on the opioid epidemic and said she expects that work to continue into 2019. But what’s really needed now is increased enforcement of the law.
“We can make as many laws as the day is long, but unless there’s enforcement what difference does it make?” Rivers said.
Looking back and helping those already addicted to opioids is also on her mind. She questioned if methadone, which is often used to reduce withdrawal symptoms for those addicted to opioids, is the best solution.
“That just kicks the can down the road,” she said. “You can’t replace an addiction with an addiction and think everything’s going to be fine.”
I-5 Bridge and light rail
When asked when a civil open discussion about the need for a replacement Columbia River crossing will occur, Vick said it’s already happening — albeit the discussion is just in its infancy.
“There is a lack of civility circulating, but honestly a lot of it is made up,” Vick said of rumors circulating on social media about light rail and the bridge’s future. “Nothing is going on without you knowing it.”
Speaking about light rail, Rivers said while multimodal transit is needed she doesn’t believe light rail would be the selected type.
“The problem with rail is it’s fixed, it can’t respond to the shifting needs of a demographic,” she said.
Hoff added that he’s just happy the discussion is taking place once again.
“I’m just excited to get something done,” Hoff said. “Hopefully in another 10 years we won’t be talking about whether or not we need light rail.”
Global warming
Some constituents asked what the legislature can do to work toward a cleaner state.
Rivers argued Washington is actually already on top of the list, and once the Centralia Power Plant shuts down, the state would have among the lowest carbon dioxide levels in the nation.
“The only place for us to go is the tailpipe,” she said, alluding to reducing vehicle emissions.
Vick said he agrees we need to continue working on global warming, but he wants to focus on partnerships and incentives rather than fines, like those proposed in the failed 2018 carbon initiative.
Hoff said he also voted against the initiative because he didn’t support collecting taxes without specific objectives.
