Clark County Conservative

Probably no one in Clark County understands the futility and frustrations associated with Vancouver holding block veto power over the C-Tran Board of Directors than does city council member, Jeanne Stewart, who was unceremoniously dumped from her long held seat on the C-Tran Board at the direction of Mayor Tim Leavitt.

Ms. Stewart had the audacity to join with the rest of the non-Vancouver city council members of the Board and vote to split ballot measures pertaining to continuing funding of C-Tran with a sales tax increase from another sales tax increase to pay for operations & maintenance of Portland’s financially plagued light rail being extended into Clark County, a position the council adopted well after they dumped her off of the C-Tran Board.

At issue was the city council policy of the 3 representatives from Vancouver on the C-Tran Board being required to all cast votes in accordance with any position adopted by the council over concerns for citizen’s views. In effect, the Vancouver city council selected to give itself power over the rest of the county served by C-Tran.

Since the majority of the council most often sides with Mayor Leavitt when it comes to his strong desire to stack Portland’s light rail on our backs, holding block veto power over the Board of Directors at C-Tran and the council policy of requiring the 3 Vancouver representatives to the Board, you could say that one man, Tim Leavitt, holds excessive power in regards to the direction of our transportation policies in Clark County.