CAMAS — Faced with a $1.5 million budget deficit in 2025, city leaders say they have paused the search for a new Camas Parks and Recreation director.
Trang Lam, who had led the department since December 2020, left the city to take a position as Port of Camas-Washougal CEO in June, leaving Camas Communications Director Bryan Rachal as Camas’ interim parks director.
The city started a search for a new director and received applications from more than 50 interested people before city leaders decided to halt the hiring process.
“We had 53 candidates total, but due to budget issues, we’re holding until January,” Rachal said. “We want to see what the mayor’s recommended budget will allow.”
Rachal told the Camas Parks and Recreation Commission that the mayor’s budget may not allow the city to hire a director. He added that the city may not be able to fill the city’s recreation coordinator position after Krista Bashaw, the current recreation director, retires later this year.
“We are possibly not filling the parks and rec director with an actual director but with an employee of some sort,” Rachal said.
Parks Commissioner David Dewey said he wanted to go on record as opposing that idea.
“I believe not filling the parks and recreation director is not the right way to go,” Dewey said during the Sept. 25 commission meeting. With Camas having more parks per resident than many communities, Dewey said he believes not replacing Lam with a full director would be irresponsible.
Other commissioners shared Dewey’s view.
“We have been told on record over and over again, for years, that our community values our parks, recreation and open space — that it’s one of the top two reasons people move here,” commission Chairwoman Ellen Burton said. “Our Parks and Rec has been historically underfunded for decades. The median spend is about one-half to one-third that of other parks departments.”
Burton said the Camas Parks and Recreation Department has far fewer employees — four, including the director — than other parks systems in similar-sized cities.
Burton said cutting the parks staff would likely have unintended consequences.
“We know a dollar deferred now will cost much more later,” she said. “We need the city to hire a parks and rec director in the first quarter of 2025. It’s critical that we have a land professional — a parks and rec professional — managing these assets.”
Commission members also pointed to the nearly $1 million in grants awarded to the parks department in 2022-23 for its Crown Park and South Lacamas Creek Trailhead projects and said those projects will require operating and maintenance dollars.
Commission members said they will likely ask Mayor Steve Hogan to fund a parks and recreation director in the first quarter of 2025; maintain the department’s operating budget in 2025-26; increase the department’s maintenance budget to help maintain the renovated Crown Park and the new South Lacamas Creek trailhead area; add a volunteer coordinator position with the many volunteers who maintain trails; and work on other parks and recreation projects.
Hogan is expected to unveil his proposed budget for 2025-26 during the Monday Camas City Council meeting.
