Opinion

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News / Opinion / Columns

Donnelly: Town hall draws hundreds to address crime

By Ann Donnelly

Published: February 6, 2022, 6:01am

A town hall on Jan. 12 drew some 300 participants to a grassroots group’s Zoom link to discuss the property crime crisis. A video of the event is on the Facebook page of the newly formed Clark County Public Safety Alliance.

The meeting was moderated by community leader Jim Mains, who helped organize the effort. At the outset, Michele Rudi and I, the other organizers, acknowledged that the event’s 90-minute limit precluded addressing the complex challenges of homelessness, the drug trade and untreated mental conditions. We stressed we intend to begin by pinpointing actions and pursuing results.

Our immediate target is the crisis of brazen, seemingly well-financed criminals, mainly healthy-appearing young men, helping themselves to equipment, cars, catalytic converters, shoplifted goods in homes, driveways, garages, and businesses. Mercilessly opportunistic, they commonly carry firearms or knives.

Sadly, small businesses are victims. On Rhododendron Drive in the Southcliff neighborhood, for example, a longtime landscaping service recently experienced a daytime theft of its leaf blower while the owner was working nearby. Not a “petty crime” to a small business.

Exceeding organizers’ expectations, the town hall drew over 20 Vancouver businesses and dozens of concerned individuals and neighborhood association partners. Vancouver’s Downtown Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Association, Clark County Realtor Association, and Identity Clark County also participated.

All members of the city council and the city manager and mayor, as well as the public, were invited. Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle attended, and the Clark County Council was represented by Councilor Karen Bowerman.

Invited speakers offered a broad and bipartisan perspective. They included Jill Brown, widow of slain Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Brown, Sheriff Chuck Atkins, Vancouver Police Chief James McElvain, Vancouver Police Assistant Chief Troy Price, Police Cpl. Greg Catton, and County Prosecutor Tony Golik.

State legislators of both parties commented from Olympia, including Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver, Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, and Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver. Harris gave his allotted minutes to Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who is guiding pertinent legislation in this session.

We asked speakers to identify actions the movement could take to reestablish public safety. We are already making progress on several of these initiatives.

First, the aging Clark County jail is inadequate and inhumane, leading to the nonincarceration of some offenders. With lack of consequences, some return to our neighborhoods to commit crimes. An expertly analyzed study by an advisory commission in 2018-2019 outlined alternatives and costs. A new effort must update the work and evaluate funding alternatives for a selected jail solution. Further delay merely escalates costs for labor and materials.

Second, HB 1310, though well-intentioned and needed in part, went too far in imposing confusing and restricting requirements of law enforcement responding to crimes. Jill Brown calls it “the most paralyzing to law enforcement.” The criminals know it and are taking full advantage. We must support prudent revisions now in the works in Olympia.

Third, we will support efforts to improve law-enforcement staffing. Clark County ranks at the bottom of the state’s counties for such staffing levels, and Washington at the bottom in state rankings. We must understand and correct conditions that are discouraging recruits and retentions.

Fourth, we must inform the public, and especially young people, that drug decriminalization in Oregon brings crime to our streets.

Another town hall is anticipated soon.

Erratum: In my Dec. 5 column, I stated that the owner of a popular Heights-area auto repair shop, Wrench n’ Time, was considering closing the shop. He is instead considering selling the operation to a colleague. Wrench n’ Time will remain open, I’m told.

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