It was well known how Marc Boldt would govern if he somehow became elected to the powerful new council chairman position. He wasn’t a strong candidate based on rational criteria, but he was successful in this political race. He and his handlers got him elected based on the specious factor of name-recognition with voters, overt sabotage by Councilor Jeanne Stewart which prevented any conservatives getting past the primary, and quite a bit of luck.
Boldt’s allegiance to the old-time Vancouver liberal establishment was well known. They took care of his emotional needs to be accepted and valued as he contemplated a run for office, heedless of his many deficiencies. The liberal establishment knew he’d cooperate with their agenda and they concluded he was the best chance to win, largely based on name recognition and after other prominent Democrats said no.
Contrast Boldt’s political friends and handlers to other Clark County citizens who opposed him and revealed how bad he was for delivering real value to the citizens. Regardless of the truth that the opposition presented, Boldt and his bureaucratic and private sector handlers weren’t happy with this heavy opposition. The retribution to conservative councilors Mielke and Madore and all who supported them started immediately. All of this was expected if he was elected.
Notwithstanding Boldt’s known problematic allegiances and issues, citizens who want wise and ethical county government guardedly hoped that councilors Julie Olson and Jeanne Stewart wouldn’t allow this rapid reinvigorating of the liberal and corrupt Vancouver establishment. After all, Olson and Stewart had conservative traits in their personal and political history. Well, the first few weeks have turned out to be about as bad as anyone could have imagined for those whose goal is responsible and uncorrupted government. Specific disappointing actions are:
- Collusion with senior bureaucrats: We have reports of inappropriate ‘coordination’ to aggressively and rapidly set back the progress of the last few years began before the new councilors were even officially seated. This included a senior bureaucrat pay raise, discussed below. This collusion is also mentioned in a recent article about problems with the current top county employee, Mark McCauley.
- Vindictive repeal of prior work: In the very first formal council meeting Boldt, Olson, and Stewart repealed various previously passed resolutions that formalized plans to build upon significant work completed in the last few years. We acknowledge that any new majority can reset and redirect policy and projects, but in our view this was done in an intentionally and overtly vindictive way. These councilors could have reached the same ends without the spiteful actions that will likely harm future collaboration of the councilors. This was a message to the conservative councilors that their input was neither wanted or relevant. The five person Clark County council under the new charter is a de facto liberal council of three. The majority of liberal establishment Freeholders achieved their desired goal.
- Pay raise for senior bureaucrats: This action was proposed right away by Boldt. This couldn’t have been an actual priority, but was instead a brazen action to solidify loyalty among senior county bureaucrats.
- Relief for rural property owners: The Growth Management Act (GMA) and other regulations have created various burdens on some rural property owners over the last 20 years. These were never addressed until last year, when Councilor David Madore created an alternate land use plan that mitigated these burdens. It was called Alt-4 and we understand that Boldt, Olson, and Steward are planning to dump the entire plan, which clearly shows their disregard for this group of rural Clark County citizens.
- 2% property tax: Boldt, Olson, and Stewart reversed a 2% property tax reduction put in place last year. Further, it appears this action was taken outside of proper public hearing rules.
- Hiring the go-forward county administrator: ClarkCounty.info understands councilors Boldt, Olson, and Stewart are planning to pass through the current temporary county administrator without conducting a formal applicant search. Worse, we understand Councilor Olson is suggesting he be given a multi-year, protected term contract. As noted in a recent article on the current County administrator, this proposed action is either gross collusion with the top administrator, gross incompetence, or both.
- CRC project being revived: Boldt and the Vancouver establishment were all for the highly incompetent and corrupted CRC Bridge and light rail project that was defeated a few years ago. As a group they never admitted their folly, and of course took it personally to have their chosen plan confronted and eventually defeated. So it’s no surprise that we’ve received numerous reports of this project—along with its incompetence, greed, and ideology—being revived. Under a new name, of course. We will watch this like a laser beam and report on any public works mischief that aren’t aligned with the citizen’s best interests.
So how to deal with this? Understandably, some citizens are dismayed and showing signs of panic and depression. This can impede plans and resolve to reverse the situation. The positive view is that the actions of these three councilors will be seen as overtly pandering to the old liberal establishment and empowering government—both of which usually have little to do with citizen benefits that could be realized if the focus wasn’t on building government and serving special interests. 90% or more of Clark County citizens will not be impressed when they have the truth. And the truth will be delivered to tens of thousands of these local citizens by ClarkCounty.info.
At ClarkCounty.info we see these actions by Boldt, Olson, and Stewart as making our mission to expose and confound big-government incompetence and corruption much easier. They would have been more effective if they’d carefully eased into their agenda, and acted like they were taking inputs and giving matters careful review—even though it would have largely been for show. Instead, their arrogance led them to aggressively and rapidly attempt to reset the recent progress to deconstruct the inefficient and corrupt machine that Clark County government had become.
Going forward, ClarkCounty.info will highlight the self-serving and incompetent actions of these politicians and their various handlers in the County bureaucracy and in the private sector.