CLARK COUNTY IS ABOUT TO TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE -- IF YOU DON'T INTERVENE!

In the last few years, there has been significant progress in dismantling the arrogant and costly big-government culture in Clark County government. In the prior 20 years, Clark County government grew fat, arrogant and ideological, as liberal politicians and professional bureaucrats progressively controlled it.

The new Council Chairman Marc Boldt is attempting to immediately reverse recent progress. On December 31st Mr. Boldt directed additions to the agenda for this Tuesday's (Jan 5th) county councilor meeting to repeal eight resolutions of the prior board that were passed in December.  These resolutions formalized policy and direction in important areas of regional transportation throughput, public transportation, and reducing unnecessary government regulation and costs. These resolutions built upon the work and lessons learned from the councilor's past three years, aligned with citizen advisory vote results, and had been openly debated before passage.

The speed and severity of this condemnation of the past council's work is blatantly telling. Why would Boldt play it this way?  He could have acted like a thoughtful statesman, but he chose the path of outright arrogance and vindictiveness. The 'large and in charge' school of leadership, it seems, will be his style, if left unchecked. He evidently thinks he now has the power to run roughshod over those that had the temerity to expose his deficiencies and then ran him out of county office a few years back. Further it appears Boldt does not even have the authority to conduct these actions, as his position and authority was not even effective until after the New Year.

Boldt is also attempting to pass pay increases for senior county bureaucrats. This is a brazen attempt to buy their favor when you consider how this is being attempted. A rational person would go through a very different process to study the situation, determine if there was some discrepancy in pay, establish the ability of the county to offer pay increases, and then vote on it after this work was done. This action also implies that the past board members were misers and the problem that was so bad it had to be corrected in the first few days of the new council without any background investigation. Government employees are almost always paid considerably more (pay and benefits) than their private-sector counterparts, so it is very unlikely the current status with pay is a problem. To make matters worse, it appears there may be some collusion with one or more senior bureaucrats on this matter, so www.ClarkCounty.info will investigate this further and report back to you.

Fortunately, we have four other councilors who can and should work together to stop Boldt's aggressive actions to reassert the liberal Vancouver establishment's power and control. Mielke and Madore will work to counter Boldt's destruction, but they need the help of Councilors Stewart and Olson. They both have sufficient conservative credentials to do the right thing for the citizens of Clark County and legislate for the greater good. However, the deal making and infighting of the recent election leaves their perspectives uncertain. It's up to us to contact councilors Olson and Stewart and encourage them to not further empower the self-serving ruling class. The meeting in which they will consider all of this is Tuesday (Jan. 5th) 6pm at County hearing room of the Public Service Building (6th floor) 1300 Franklin, Vancouver.

Julie Olson - County Councilor District #2 - julie.olson2@clark.wa.gov
Jeanne Stewart - County Councilor District #1. - Jeanne.Stewart@clark.wa.gov
Details at:  https://www.clark.wa.gov/the-grid

The local news website www.ClarkCounty.info will go live in a few weeks. Our emphasis is wise and ethical local government. These sorts of actions by Boldt (with the help of one or more senior bureaucrats) are exactly what we loathe, and we will chronicle them to the thousands of local citizens who receive our messages. 

Mark Engleman - Founder www.ClarkCounty.info

Our Vancouver Port Commissioner Said What?

Vancouver's port commissioner just said the following:

Well according to the National Rifle Association (NRA), over 50% of firearms sold are semi-automatic. And Clark County has a few 'white guys'. So it appears LaBrant has cast thousands of local citizens as potential terrorists. And just for the record, there are 'white gals' and Americans of other colors who own many more such weapons. So the list of citizens he's insulted is actually considerably larger.

Stunning Poor Judgment

Even if someone had this sort of fringe point of view, how could they have such poor judgment to publically spew this condemnation about salt-of-the-earth regular citizens?  Further, why would they do this after just being elected to a position in which public confidence in your judgment is important? Why would someone who will be involved with making decisions related to our port operations make this inflammatory statement in spite of the actual facts? No rational person would have this point of view, much less say it in public.

There was a time when stupid thoughts stayed in people's heads-as there was a price to pay for overt stupidity.  If, by chance, such poorly conceived thoughts escaped, there usually enough sensible people around that the thought was quickly squashed, and the person who let it out chastised and reminded that such broken, and inflammatory, thoughts should stay where they formed and not be let free to roam the world. Usually, if this happened several times, the culprit would think twice before popping off with such idiocy as a rational family member or friend would strongly tell them they were wrong, and worse were upsetting others.

Then Facebook and twitter came along, and not only were people free to let out their stupid thoughts, but found kindred spirits who also harbored similar fringe thoughts.  In today's world of participation trophies, everyone gets rewarded for thinking.  It doesn't matter if you're lazy and think only stupid thoughts, or if you actually take the time to examine facts, quantify trends, identify patterns and analyze risk.  Hey, at least you're thinking, right?  Gold star for you!

Now back to Mr. LaBrant. It seems pretty conclusive that his verbal flatulence here is bereft of thought, generated more from a meme-driven ideological agenda than any actual consideration or factual basis. It's arrogant, wildly off base and poorly advised (see more in footnote #1). It is in fact, a stupid idea, and should have stayed in his head instead of being presented to the world.  Such a public declaration demonstrates a level of incompetence that suggests a difficult time for anyone working with LaBrant in the future. He's a liberal. Nearly all liberals are about ideology first - and facts are only considered if they don't conflict with the ideology. This is a terrible background to have in a role in which complex commerce opportunities need to be carefully vetted, planned, and pursued.

The question we have to ask ourselves is, what is a buffoon like this doing as Port Commissioner, and how did he get there?  We at ClarkCounty.info will be watching him closely.  Further, after this stunning statement by LaBrant, we're resolved to work toward his early removal from office; not necessarily through a formal recall process, but through highlighting his idiocy and anti-business attitude on a regular basis. Such people hate to have their incompetence and strident ideology exposed, and this pressure can have them resign or decided to not run for office again. ClarkCounty.info will be watching and writing.

Sean Emerson
Writer for ClarkCounty,info

This article is an example of the content that will be available at ClarkCounty.info as we seek to promote wise and ethical local government. This article was sent to about 950 Clark County citizens -- most of which have received similar messaging in the last few years. We will introduce another 3500 contacts we have with local businesses after the formal ClarkCounty.info website is live. Then to increase readers, we plan to advertise through social media, radio, and proactive work-of-mouth campaigns.  Mark Engleman  - Founding member of ClarkCounty.info. 

Coming December 2015

Footnote #1. Reference in second to last paragraph 

Background on comparing Islamic and domestic terrorism:  The issue of Syrian Muslim refugees is a serious one worthy of examination. We at ClarkCounty.info took the time to consider the facts before weighing on LaBrant's fringe and caustic statement.  One wonders why Mr. LaBrant felt it was necessary to come to the defense of Syrians and Muslims, and why he chose to do so in such a way as to incite hostility against his fellow Americans.  It seems clear that Mr. LaBrant probably has little or no interest in the plight of the Syrians or the Muslims, but is actually using this as a backdoor way to publicly espouse a liberal anti-gun agenda.  Yes, Mr. LaBrant is a typical low-information gun grabber.  Let's look at the facts to further establish LaBrant's poor judgment and lack of knowledge about certain history.

So let's see. . . let's start at 1979, when Islamic terrorism actually came home to America with the taking of the Tehran embassy. Concentrating solely on domestic terror incidents, a quick Google search gives me a list of 68 terror attacks that have happened on US soil since then. They break down as follows:  23 attacks were perpetrated by Muslims.  Seven were by agents of non-Muslim, foreign origin. Four remain unsolved and unknown.  One was committed by a pair of black men.  33 were perpetrated by white Americans. Of the White American attacks, nine were by the Army of God in a violent campaign against abortuaries. Three were by Ted Kaczinski, three by the Earth Liberation front, a group of environmentalist nuts, 4 were by white supremacists, and three were by some folks who were incoherently nuts and belong in an asylum. The rest were crimes committed for a variety of motivations, by lone wolf attackers who had no particular affiliation.  Most telling for Mr. LaBrant's point, only 13 of these attacks involved a gun (61% did not involve guns). Bombs and arson seem to be the preferred method for the White American terrorist.

But wait, let's examine this from a probability standpoint.  There are about 2.6 million Muslims living in America.  There are 245.5 million whites living in America.  This means there are 65 times more terror attacks by Muslims per Muslim in America than there are by Whites per White!  Let's break this down another way:  in a population of 10 million whites, 1.3 people are likely terrorists.  In a similar population of 10 million Muslims, 88.4 of them are likely terrorists, based on statistics of terror attacks.

But it doesn't stop there.  All terror attacks are ideologically driven, by definition. Of the terror attacks perpetrated by the one in ten million White American nut cases, how many of them are supported in principle by the rest of white America? Does Mr. LaBrant lose sleep at night about me, since I'm White and own a semi-automatic rifle?  The answer is that the other 99.99999% of White America don't agree with these nuts and want them behind bars.

This is not true for the Muslim community.  For whatever reason, we almost never hear the Muslim community denounce Islamic acts of terror.  As we saw at a recent soccer game in Turkey where a moment of silence for the terror attack in Paris was met with boos and jeers by the crowd, and by Palestinians dancing and cheering in the streets at the news of the Paris attacks, the majority of Muslims sympathize with the terrorists. Do we want to be like Israel, which suffered more than a thousand domestic terror attacks in the time frame we examine here?

Muslims don't integrate or assimilate when they immigrate to a new country.  The French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes and British have discovered this the hard way, as Muslims form ghetto enclaves and violently reject the host country's laws.  Their communities become no-go zones for non-Muslims, including police.  Muslims see that their devotion to Islam and Islamic law transcends loyalty to a government, unless that government is Islamic.  In a very real sense, the devout Muslim cannot take the US oath of citizenship in good faith.  By accepting refugees, we are inviting a population of people into our country who do not share our values, do not love our country, have no intention of becoming Americans like you or me, and in fact would cheer if the US flag was hauled down and the flag of the Islamic Caliphate was hoisted over the White House. Moreover, it's simply impossible to vet these people for infectious diseases and criminal background.  The enemy knows this, and will certainly use this population migration to insert agent provocateurs into the country.  We are literally inviting trained enemy combatants into our country and encouraging them to do their worst.  Would we have offered the Nazis or Japanese the same hospitality in WWII?

As many of you know there is a formal effort afoot to promote 18^th District state legislator Liz Pike as a write-in candidate for the Clark County councilor chair position. There’s been significant misinformation promoted about this by local Democrat activists, establishment Republicans, and local old media (The Columbian).  The following timeline is a record of what actually happened and why--regarding the political history that led to the Liz Pike write-in campaign. The information below comes from direct knowledge or reporting of trusted, competent sources.

Mark Engleman
ClarkCounty.info - Founding member

 -- The timeline for what led to the Liz Pike write-in campaign --

Dec 2014 - Who to run for Clark County Council chairman? Conservative activists start the informal but important process to recruit or confirm a candidate for the top Clark County councilor chair position. Considering the citizens in Clark County with the right conservative credentials and electability, two names continued to come to the surface. Jeanne Stewart and David Madore. The local Republican Party officially took no position on the matter per its rules to stay neutral until the primary election is completed in August.

Jan/Feb 2015 - Poor coordination: There was an unfortunate lack of coordination noted with the three conservative councilors (Mielke, Madore, and Stewart). Conservative activist reached out to offer ideas and help with coordination, as well as frankly discussing the lost opportunity if these three councilors continued without coordination. From Jan to April the problem only grows worse, as the self-interested political behavior from politicians and handlers ruled the day.

Feb to April 2015 - Democrats searched for a candidate:  Numerous accounts are heard about local Democrats attempting to recruit candidates from well-known and liked prior Democrat politicians. These efforts weren't successful, and it appears these candidates were reluctant to run, based somewhat on recent successes of right-of-center candidates in Clark County in the last three years.

Feb to April 2015 - Republicans continued efforts to confirm candidate:  Tom Mielke made his intentions to run clear early in 2015. Amongst nearly all conservative activists I spoke with, Tom wasn't considered a strong candidate to lead the further dismantling the self-interested big-government attitude in the county. Conservative activists continued discussions with David Madore and Jeanne Stewart about running. Madore firmly committed to run some time in April. The word among the conservative activists (who were interacting in groups and as individuals with Madore and Stewart) was that Stewart wasn't running. So many local conservatives started aligning with David Madore in late April for the run for the top Councilor position.

April/May 2015 - Marc Boldt:  Marc Boldt had made his intentions to run known earlier in the year, but it wasn't until Spring that more and more prominent Democrats started showing support for him. It appears that many Democrats eventually concluded that Boldt was their best shot and reclaiming power and control in County politics as their earlier preferred candidates declined.

May 2015 - Filing week:  Madore, Mielke, and Boldt all filed for the Clark County Council Chair, as expected. Boldt files 'no party preference' appeared to indicate that he was to be heavily promoted to Democrats in the general election, if he made it past the primary. On the last day or two of the filing week there were two surprise filers -- liberal Democrat Mike Dalesandro, and Jeanne Stewart.

May to Aug 2015 - Primary campaign for Dalesandro:  The Dalesandro campaign team conducted a very modest effort in the primary, raising a little over $6000 from 38 donors. This low level of interest in Dalesandro's campaign supports the earlier comment in this report that Dalesandro's entry into the race was unexpected and unappreciated by the Clark County establishment politicians and special interest handlers who presumed Boldt was their path to reclaimed power--and Dalesandro's entry was reasonably projected to make this more difficult. Since getting though the primary, Dalesandro donations have significantly increased, with 74 separate donations totaling over $18,000 as of the last PDC reporting date. There are very few of the known Clark County establishment power players on the donation list, unlike Boldt, whose current $43,673 has many large donations from known establishment or special interest entities in the county

May to Aug 2015 - Primary campaign for Jeanne Stewart:  The entry of Stewart at the last minute made it considerably harder to eventually elect a conservative council chair. Three conservatives were now competing for the same demographic.  Jeanne Stewart's campaign was nearly dormant during the primary time frame, as it raised little money (PDC reports $2400 from seven donors) and conducted little campaigning. Considering this 'no show' campaign and the dysfunction between her and Madore (an article for another day) most conservative activists concluded that Stewart's last-minute entry was mainly to sabotage Madore.

Aug 6th, 2015 - Primary night:  Boldt and Dalesandro won the top two positions. All three Republicans were eliminated after a few days of counting the remaining votes.

Aug 7-10th, 2015 - No good choices:  Right-of-center voters (not just conservative activists) were rightly unhappy with the dysfunction of the three conservative councilors in producing this unfortunate situation. These voters understandably also had little interest in the liberal Democrat Dalesandro or Boldt who is a known operative of the Clark County liberal establishment.  So conservative activists started a discussion about how to recover from this situation. The only real option that surfaced was a well-orchestrated write-in campaign. One of the key concerns was, "the most likely result would be to take votes from Boldt and get the Democrat elected." I was one (of many) that argued it would be preferable to have the Democrat rather than Boldt be the County Chair, because Boldt is expected to rapidly re-invigorate the local establishment's special interests power and projects, and help the bureaucrats re-establish their big-government-knows-best culture. Dalesandro is a liberal and will likely lead with liberal influence in clear view. However, most of the matters that come before the County councilors are not classic 'left vs. right' matters. The reason and weight of the other conservative councilors (should be 4 if Julie Olson wins) should have significant sway over the single liberal, especially if Dalesandro is a reasonable person, which he appears to be. Even though this sounds like a containment exercise for four years, it would be manageable and could be productive. Containing Boldt's predicted and more insidious agenda would be harder, based on multiple layers of political self-interest involved from various participants. 

Aug 2015 - Select the write-in candidate: The write-in campaign organizers selected Liz Pike as the most attractive candidate to promote for their effort.  Liz recognized the problem of right-of-center citizens having no good options for the County Chair race. So she approved her name being promoted, said she would serve if elected, was honored, but made it clear she did not have time for any formal campaigning.

Aug to Oct 2015 - Write-in campaign progresses: The write-in campaign raised sufficient funds to be credible. Most of the funds came from David Madore, who is already heavily invested in continuing the reset of the local 'Big Government' attitude of prior Clark County politicians and bureaucrats (a problem that brought me and many of my friends to our feet a few years ago as the CRC bridge project boondoggle was being forced upon us by Boldt and the special interest friends referenced in this report). 

August 26, 2015 - Local Republicans endorse Liz Pike write-in:  The Clark County Republican party precinct committee officers (PCOs) voted to endorse the 'Write-in Liz Pike campaign and to specifically oppose both Boldt and Dalesandro. Marc Boldt actually showed up to this meeting to make the case that he should be endorsed, but PCOs were not impressed with his comments. Boldt and his supporters walked out of meeting in protest when it was obvious the vote would go against them. The history is that Boldt operated under the Republican Party for years, but as he became more controlled by the Vancouver liberal establishment, he had increasing run-ins with the local Republican Party. This culminated in 2012 when he was formally sanctioned by the local Republican Party. Remember, Boldt signed up as 'no party preference' when filing for this position in May.

Aug to Oct. 2015 - Apparent Republican party dysfunction:  There's a small (less than 20 people) but vocal group of Republican moderates who are quite upset that the local party is supporting the Liz Pike write-in campaign. Through social media and the local old media (which takes every opportunity to demean local conservatives) this dysfunction is falsely made to appear significant, but in truth it is not.

In summary, the political self-interest of the three current councilors and their handlers created a situation that resulted in no right-of-center candidates making it to the general election under normal means. Conservative activists took action to resolve the situation--or at least be able to say they were able to fight another day to keep up the constant resistance to the Clark County liberal political machine--including the special interest handlers. This constant pressure is critical for better results over time.

If you found this information helpful, please forward it to your Clark County friends. 

Coming November 2015