City employees more than twice as nice

The results are in, and a recount will not be necessary.

We’re talking about a challenge between the city of Vancouver and Clark County to see whose employees could donate more to United Way of the Columbia-Willamette and Parks Foundation.

The city, which has 961 employees, pledged $36,909.
The county, which has 1,577 employees, pledged $15,788.

(Those figures were from the county, by the way. The city reported the figures as $40,779/$14,038. Those don’t add up to the same total. And I thought journalists were bad at math.)

At any rate, more than $50,000 was raised.

The donations will help families with education, health and financial
needs as well as maintain parks, trails and recreational programs
for all children.

Clark County Administrator Bill Barron, as head of the losing team, will treat Vancouver City Manager Eric Holmes to lunch at the Hilton.

Then, at the Nov. 28 Vancouver City Council meeting, Barron will present what will become a traveling trophy to the city to commemorate what he acknowledged was a “stunning” victory.

Chad Eiken, the city’s campaign chairman, said in a press release: “We’re thrilled to be donating these funds to United Way. The competition was a fun way to inspire city and county employees to support the programs that United Way funds throughout Clark County. Eric and Bill are the heroes for stepping up and allowing us to use them as our motivation, and the employees of both organizations should feel good about the difference their dollars will make in peoples’ lives.”