The Centralia City Council welcomed new Councilor Chris Brewer during its first meeting of the year on Tuesday night.
Brewer was sworn in alongside incumbent Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston after they both won their elections in November.
Councilor Adrianna Garibay, who also won re-election in November, was unable to attend due to a death in her family, Smith Johnston told those in attendance Tuesday.
“Our thoughts are with her and her family,” Smith Johnston said.
Centralia City Clerk Kristan McConnell swore in both Brewer and Smith Johnston. Following the ceremony, Smith Johnston was again selected by her fellow councilors to serve as mayor while Councilor Cameron McGee was again chosen as mayor pro tem.
Additionally, the council approved an ordinance on first reading with a number of amendments to Centralia City Code relating to mayoral duties, powers and changing the mayor pro tem position to deputy mayor, along with eliminating voter districts in the city and changing all Centralia City Council positions to at-large.
It was approved by a vote of 5-1, with Councilor Max Vogt voting against it after nearly half an hour of discussion and public comments about eliminating voter districts. The ordinance will receive its second and final reading at the next Centralia City Council meeting on Jan. 23.
“I’m for the housekeeping changes of deputy mayor and that kind of stuff, but I’m definitely opposed to this, and I want to tell you why,” Vogt said. “If (voter districts) had been abolished before I ran for city council, I would not be on city council.”
He explained running for a specific district within a city is a better, lower barrier for those just getting into civil service and a less daunting task to campaign in a single district as opposed to the entire city.
Vogt added it should be a decision of the voters whether to do away with districts, and throughout his time on the council, he’s been able to easily organize town hall-style meetings with voters within his district to hear directly from them.
“It stopped during COVID, but what I was planning on doing was starting again this year as soon as I find a venue,” Vogt said. “But if we do away with districts, I’m not going to do that.”
He also believes it is cheaper for a candidate to run for a specific district instead of having to campaign throughout the entire city, meaning low-income candidates may not be able to afford running.
Vogt feared if districts are done away with, it could pave the way for a particularly affluent neighborhood to back enough candidates to stack the city council in the future.
McGee originally brought forward the idea of eliminating voter districts as the majority of other cities in Washington state operate that way. He also thinks the change might reduce the number of city council candidates who run unopposed for their positions.
“We are a small community. There is not a clear poor neighborhood in any of our areas. The economic difference there, as far as our districts go and where our district lines are, it’s not there,” McGee said.
He added the council doesn’t vote on ordinances that only affect specific districts and that all Centralia residents should get the chance to vote to decide who sits on all city council positions rather than their specific district. If Centralia was a larger city such as Portland or Seattle, with very defined neighborhood districts, it would need the system, he said.
“Right now, there are three people up here that you didn’t get to vote for because you don’t live in their district,” McGee said.
As for Vogt’s fear of an affluent neighborhood stacking seats on the council, McGee said with the at-large positions that already exist, it could already happen.
“Right now, if you have your district person, and you get the three at-large positions with a group of people that decide to put money behind them and move forward with it, you have the majority on the council,” McGee said.
One public commenter who spoke up in defense of retaining the district system was Caroline Rickard, who was Centralia city clerk in the 1986 as Caroline Neely and would go on to become a Centralia City Council member.
“There were a number of areas in the city where they felt like they weren’t being represented,” Rickard said. “Honestly, I saw that change with the new city manager-council form of government.”
Former Centralia City Councilor Elizabeth Cameron added districts help generate community interest in the council. She said she heard Portland is returning to a district system due to an imbalance of power on its city council. Ultimately, Cameron said the voters themselves should decide if they want to do away with districts.
While concerned about the possibility of lower income candidates not being able to afford to run anymore, Smith Johnson said that as someone in an at-large position, she’s already had to campaign throughout the entire city.
“I’m a little concerned about the direction of the conversation that implies an at-large role would only serve their particular neighborhood,” Smith Johnson said.
Councilor Sarah Althauser saw positives to both having districts and doing away with them, and said she was conflicted.
“I love that my district people feel like they have access to me, but I do want everybody in Centralia, we’re a small community, I want everybody to feel like, ‘Hey, I can call up Councilor Althauser and she’ll hear me,’” Althauser said.
She added if switching to all at-large positions doesn’t work out, districts could still be brought back. Brewer, who was newly elected to an at-large position, believes it was a benefit for him as a candidate to campaign throughout the entire city.
“I got a good cross section of everybody, got to talk to everybody, and most everybody had the same exact concerns,” Brewer said. “The economy was number one and public safety was number two, pretty much everywhere I went, and that was regardless of socio-economic status. That’s my personal experience.”
While he did see why the district system was originally put in place, Brewer felt it was better for the democratic process to have all candidates campaign throughout the entire city.
“If money is a barrier, form a political action committee,” he added.
Vogt motioned to accept the housekeeping changes to the city’s code but not the removal of the districts, but his motion was not seconded and died.
In an email to The Chronicle on Thursday, Jan. 11, Vogt highlighted instances in Yakima and Pasco where both cities were forced to change at-large voting systems following lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In Yakima, the case Montes v. City of Yakima, filed in 2012, resulted in the city having to change its at-large system after claims that Yakima’s Hispanic community was not being fairly represented and violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In 2015, the City of Yakima adopted a seven-district system.
In 2016, the case Glatt v. City of Pasco alleged the city’s at-large system also disenfranchised the city’s Hispanic community. In 2017, the City of Pasco adopted a six-district system.
