Letters to the Editor, Opinion Camas Council should heed voters’ wishes, appoint most-experienced applicant to fill Roberts’ seat
Camas Mayor Steve Hogan and Camas City Council members: Since we are depending on you right now, as you will be appointing someone to fill former Councilwoman Shannon Roberts’ Council position through next year’s election when we the people, us voters can weigh in, I wanted to remind you about three messages that the majority of Camas voters said resoundingly when we voted for Mayor Hogan last year:
- We were acutely aware of the instability and dysfunction that affected our City’s governance from early 2020 on.
- The only way to get us out of that hole was to focus on the fact that EXPERIENCE MATTERS most. Hence, we voted for the candidate who could hit the ground running and do the job with aplomb on day 1. The one who had the best resume for the job. Given our challenges, we couldn’t afford a steep learning curve and months to just learn basics about a City that’s now so complicated, no longer a small town of 5,000.
- We also said that one line item on the 2019 ballot did not matter to us anymore. Why? By last year, the majority of us understood the nuances of that situation a lot better, what it was, what it was not. And we the people, the majority of us, said that we didn’t care.
Fast forward to the task you have to appoint someone to the seat vacated by a fully functional experienced Councilor. We are still digging out from under the issues that started early 2020. We currently have three councilors who just started earlier this year and are still learning. To alleviate the pain of now losing a fully functional councilor on top of these facts, you must appoint the applicant with the best resume, who can seamlessly pick up where Shannon stopped and do the job with aplomb from day one for this one year until elections arrive.
Sure, voter outcomes are not predictable but when you are doing the placement, nothing less than the standards the majority of us used in the mayoral race last year will do, what mattered most, what didn’t matter at all from sheer knowing more now. Thank you for your time.
Swati Wilson,
Camas
