Soon-to-be former County Councilor Eileen Quiring O’Brien formally resigned Thursday in a letter to County Manager Kathleen Otto. Quiring O’Brien’s last day on the council will be March 1.
Quiring announced her intention to leave the council on Feb. 2, and immediately stepped down as the council chair. She was first elected to the council by voters in 2017 and was elected by the council as chair in November 2018.
“I have been honored to serve the people who elected me to represent them as chair for the Clark County Council. I have been proud to work with the majority of the council and I have especially enjoyed working with you, our county manager,” Quiring O’Brien wrote.
The outgoing councilor said she knew by June 2020 that she wouldn’t run for reelection when her term was up at the end of 2022, but she said “several personal extenuating circumstances” led to her decision to leave sooner than planned.
In a press release Friday, Council Chair Karen Dill Bowerman said, “We are indebted to Councilor Quiring O’Brien for the service she has given to Clark County over the years. I know personally that she has found great pleasure in serving, as she says, ‘the great people of Clark County Washington.’ ”
No stranger to controversy
Quiring O’Brien has been a vocal critic of Gov. Jay Inslee since the first pandemic-related mandate was issued in March 2020, lending her support to anti-mask and anti-vaccine rallies and protests. Most recently, she was the council’s lone vote in favor of a mini-initiative effort to ban vaccine and mask mandates.
In her resignation letter, Quiring O’Brien also took a final jab at fellow Councilors Temple Lentz and Julie Olson.
Recalling her experience serving in the Oregon Legislature and the civility among legislators on both sides of the aisle, Quiring O’Brien said she couldn’t go without mentioning “the deleterious, overreaching actions of the governor with his proclamations that have crippled and destroyed many businesses as well as others who have lost their jobs and ability to provide for their families through the never-ending mandates.”
She wrote her last several years as chair “were made difficult by the uncollegial behavior of two of the council members (Lentz and Olson) who apparently saw their positions as antagonists, and me as their enemy.”
In an interview Friday, Lentz said if that is how Quiring O’Brien feels, it would have been nice if she had conducted herself the same way. Instead, Lentz said, it’s Quiring O’Brien that has been hostile and uncollegial to the two council members.
“Based on how Eileen Quiring O’Brien has conducted herself over the last three years, I’m completely unsurprised by the content of her resignation letter,” Lentz said.
As for her time as a state lawmaker, Lentz said,“referencing her time in the Oregon Legislature as a time when she understood decorum is not how many of her colleagues remember her conduct during that time.”
Replacement candidates
With Quiring O’Brien’s resignation now official, Bowerman on Friday released the names of three candidates to be interviewed by the remaining councilors on March 2. The candidate ultimately selected to replace Quiring O’Brien will serve the remainder of her term through Dec. 31.
The candidates selected for interviews are: Richard (Dick) Rylander Jr., Thomas Schenk and Peter Silliman.
Rylander is a Battle Ground resident who currently serves as state committeeman for the Clark County Republican Party. In 2015, he launched an unsuccessfully bid for Battle Ground school board. In his interview with Bowerman, Rylander said his top goal is “to assure our community is safe, comfortable and an affordable place to live and raise families,” according to the county.
Rylander is president of BioPharmaceutical Strategies and has volunteered at Oregon Health and Science University.
Yacolt resident Thomas Schenk is a retired criminal investigator and senior special agent with the U.S. Customs Service. Schenk was also a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division.
In his interview, Schenk said it is his “earnest hope that I can bring a perspective to the position that helps to manage the burgeoning growth of Clark County in a fiscally responsible way yet with an understanding of the need to review and address the issues plaguing our society.”
Schenk and Rylander also filed to fill Quiring O’Brien’s position when she was elected chair in 2019.
The third candidate is Peter Silliman of La Center. Silliman was appointed as county policy analyst in 2014 and was criticized for what was seen as his close relationship with then-Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke. He was laid off in 2016 when then-County Manager Mark McCauley reorganized the department.
Silliman ran in the 2012 race for the 18th District legislative seat as a write-in candidate and was one of three Republican freeholders opposed to sending the county charter to voters in 2014. He now owns a business in the telecommunications sector.
In his interview with Bowerman, Silliman said he believes in honest and open discussions and “if chosen to fill this vacancy it would be my goal to represent the county in a professional manner.”
The Clark County Council is tentatively scheduled to interview the candidates on March 2. Additional details such as meeting time and links to join will be made available by the county early next week.
