‘One of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had’ 

Karen Bowerman and Gary Medvigy reflect on their years as Clark County Council members, the reasons they’re leaving and the work still to be done

Columbian, June 10, 2024

Excerpt:

"County charter cited: Both Bowerman and Medvigy said they chose not to run for reelection because of the way the county charter is written: It separates the powers of the legislative branch (the elected county council) from the executive (the appointed county manager).

 “If you look at the way the charter was constructed … the separation of the legislative and executive branches was key,” Bowerman said, adding that the charter places strict limits on what the council can do.

“All the capacity is with the executive,” Medvigy said.

 “It means that for us, as individual councilors, when we come upon an issue that needs resolution through the county bureaucracy, we have one path.

 That is through the county manager. Otherwise, we are ‘interfering,’” Bowerman said.

 While Bowerman said she is completely supportive of County Manager Kathleen Otto, she said the charter language creates a bottleneck.

 Medvigy did have suggestions for whomever wins his seat.

 “In order for us to fulfill our role as county councilors, we need to sit down with the manager at the beginning of the year and say, ‘Here are our priorities. Here’s what’s going well. Here’s where we would like to see improvement, and we would like to measure that improvement in a few months.’ Then, at the end of the year, do an evaluation,” he said.

 That kind of end-of-year evaluation is common practice elsewhere but isn’t in the charter or the county manager’s contract, Medvigy noted."