All Politics is Local
Another tab for taxpayers?
We all know people don’t seek elected office for the money. They do it for their egos. But most elected officials get some compensation. In the case of the Vancouver City Council, members are paid and eligible to receive health insurance. The five councilors currently earn $1,781 a month, while Mayor Pro Tem Larry Smith earns $2,000 […]
July 24, 2014 5:41 pm
All politics is (hyper) local
Every election year, a flood of fliers begins flowing into mailboxes. Candidates rely on direct-mail campaigns to reach the largest number of people with the least amount of work. And, despite being annoying, they tend to work. That’s why candidates do it. What has traditionally been the bailiwick of candidates running for governmental position appears to […]
July 24, 2014 3:13 pm
Vancouver to FVTV: You’re Not Worthy
At Monday’s Vancouver City Council meeting, TV ETC. and CVTV were re-designated as the education and government access providers for the Comcast cable system. But, in what was a first, the council, acting on the recommendation of the Vancouver/Clark County Telecommunications Commission, denied Fort Vancouver Community Television’s application to be re-designated as the public access provider. […]
July 23, 2014 10:46 am
Ted Nugent, who lost Clark County Fair gig, has another show canceled
Turns out the Clark County Fair isn’t the only place Ted Nugent has had to scratch off his concert schedule. As we reported, Nugent was supposed to play the fair on Aug. 5, and the news of his show prompted Vancouver resident Troy Maxcy to start an anti-Nuge petition on MoveOn.org. Within a week the Nugent […]
July 22, 2014 5:49 pm
Dead, dormant … or delusional?
I follow “Overheard in the Newsroom” on Twitter, because it produces occasional gems: This quote came to mind during a July 7 Vancouver City Council meeting, when councilors were discussing whether the three city council representatives on the C-Tran Board of Directors should vote to terminate a contract with TriMet regarding the operation of light […]
July 21, 2014 3:05 pm
Fireworks policy elicits Kafkaesque conversation
It’s been a rough couple of weeks at public meetings. First there was the Sieg Heil dude, whose Nazi salute set the C-Tran board on edge (yet elicited a smattering of applause among the audience, who were perhaps unaware that nowhere in the tenets of National Socialism is there mention of Bus Rapid Transit). Then at Tuesday’s […]
July 17, 2014 10:54 am
Vancouver spent $20k confirming the obvious
As a local government reporter, I’m so numb to writing about ridiculous amounts of money, millions and millions of dollars, the money doesn’t seem real. But $20,000? That’s the same amount my husband and I have saved up, over months and months and months, for a home remodeling project. I suspect other people have an easier time imagining […]
July 16, 2014 2:44 pm
Commissioner’s Facebook post makes you go hmm
Commissioner David Madore is living by Mark Twain’s old adage that one shouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. In a Facebook post Monday, Madore spreads a baffling rumor about Scott Campbell, publisher of The Columbian. You see, the commissioner received an anonymous note the other day. It said that the […]
July 16, 2014 11:36 am
Survey says: The Vine wins BRT name game
Two months after announcing four possible names for its proposed bus rapid transit line, C-Tran has picked a winner. Vancouver’s BRT system will be known as “The Vine.” The Vine beat out three other candidates — The Vibe, The Voyage and VROOM — in a survey of 157 people. Respondents were asked to rank the […]
July 15, 2014 3:54 pm
Vancouver union leader: Morale at all-time low
As reported, Vancouver city officials have been researching whether they pay their employees enough money. They did a study and (surprise!) found in many cases, they don’t, at least according to compensation data from about 20 cities and six counties in Washington and Oregon. Non-union employees received received salary adjustments, then the city council voted to give City Manager […]
July 14, 2014 4:12 pm