C-Tran turns to court over small cities

Faced with an impasse over what the state requires and what its own advisory group has suggested, C-Tran’s board of directors has agreed to seek a court-ordered solution.

On Tuesday, after meeting privately in executive session for nearly an hour, the board voted unanimously to seek an injunction blocking the state’s requirement that C-Tran’s board substantially reduce its representation of Clark County’s small cities.

C-Tran’s current board includes three seats representing the city of Vancouver, two seats for unincorporated Clark County and four seats for the county’s smaller cities and towns, including Battle Ground, Camas, La Center, Ridgefield, Washougal and Yacolt. The board also includes a nonvoting seat for a labor representative.

The Washington State Department of Transportation has warned C-Tran that its current board configuration is lopsided, giving the small cities — which make up about 18 percent of the transit agency’s service area population — an excessive number of board seats. The transportation agency has said a true population-based board would have four seats for the city of Vancouver, three for unincorporated Clark County and two for the small cities.

The state has given C-Tran until Oct. 1 to come into compliance with its board composition requirements. If the agency does not comply, the state could withhold more than $10 million in annual state funding.

On Sept. 3, C-Tran’s board composition review committee — which included representatives from each of Clark County’s cities, as well as the town of Yacolt, and three members of the Clark County Council — voted to push for a different board composition that would grant an equal number of seats to the city of Vancouver, unincorporated Clark County and the small cities.

That board configuration, known as the 3-3-3 plan, already had failed to win over state officials.

On Aug. 28, in a letter sent to C-Tran board Chair Molly Coston, the state’s interim public transportation director, Molly Hughes, said the 3-3-3 plan doesn’t comply with the requirement for proportional representation based on population.

During the C-Tran board meeting Tuesday, LaDonna Kirkpatrick, who chairs the 18th Legislative District Democrats group, spoke in favor of the board finding a way to come into compliance with the state.

“Let’s stop the political games and start protecting the financial interest of Clark County residents,” Kirkpatrick said. “The Oct. 1 deadline is quickly approaching. Please act decisively to secure funding and ensure that all vital transportation services will continue.”

Following the C-Tran board’s executive session, board member and Vancouver City Councilor Erik Paulsen said he appreciated the “lively, thorough and respectful discussion” the board had conducted in private and that the board was relying on its legal counsel to help it solve what Paulsen described as “a thorny legal issue.”

“We need somebody to come in and say, ‘Based on a reading of RCW, I judge this the definitive way proportionality should be adopted,’” Paulsen said. “What we have here is a situation where, absent a definitive legal opinion, we could wind up in just a circular conversation until the end of time.”

Kelly Moyer: 360-735-4674; kelly.moyer@columbian.com