Small cities in Clark County pushed through a proposal Wednesday night about who gets to serve on the board of the county’s transit agency, C-TRAN. The vote came after acknowledging that it could cost the local transit district millions of dollars in grant funds if Washington State Department of Transportation officials reject their request.

The lead-up to the vote created rifts between representatives from Vancouver, unincorporated Clark County and the region’s smaller cities about how many votes each should get over transportation decisions in Southwest Washington, including funding for light rail on a new Interstate Bridge.

Paying for future light rail on the planned Interstate Bridge replacement is generally supported by C-TRAN board members representing the city of Vancouver and Clark County. It’s generally opposed by smaller cities that argue they’re already paying too much for bus transit without getting enough services back. They fear those costs will significantly increase with light rail service on the new I-5 bridge.

Last month, WSDOT officials said C-TRAN’s board was out of compliance for not having proportional representation on the board based on population in Clark County, putting it at risk of losing state grant funds. They said two votes should be shifted from a group of small cities to Vancouver and unincorporated Clark County, where the majority of residents served by C-TRAN live.

The change would allow the two to overpower the combined votes of Ridgefield, Camas, Washougal, La Center, Battle Ground and Yacolt. Together, those small cities comprise about 20% of the county’s population but they currently have four out of nine votes.

On Wednesday, the committee tasked with choosing who is on the C-TRAN board ultimately voted to send an amended request back to WSDOT officials. For a second time, the C-TRAN board composition committee requested that Vancouver, Clark County and the smaller cities should evenly share the votes on the nine-member board, three for each.

“It’s not without risk,” said Ridgefield Mayor Matt Cole, who led the coalition of small cities and representatives from Clark County to send the proposal back to the state, while requesting a stay on any funding cuts.

In a letter, Cole argued that the small cities’ votes were being diminished when C-TRAN representatives from the Clark County Council vote alongside the city of Vancouver. He disagreed with the state, saying that the small cities should get a share of the county councilors’ votes so they have equal power to the more populated areas.

Vancouver City Councilor and committee member Erik Paulsen did not support the revised motion, noting that if Washington again rejects their proposal, an untold amount of transit grant funding could be cut.

“If those aren’t successful there’s just a tremendous amount of money that would be lost,” Paulsen said.

C-TRAN gets a variety of grants from WSDOT. C-TRAN representative Eric Florip said it’s unclear exactly how much money the transit agency could lose if the board was again found to be out of compliance. In an interview with OPB, Camas City Councilor and C-TRAN board member Tim Hein previously estimated it to be about $10 million per year.

In anticipation of losing influence, last month the Camas City Council discussed exiting C-TRAN altogether and creating its own city-based transit service.

Tensions around light rail funding reached a high point in March when Clark County Councilor Michelle Belkot was removed from the C-TRAN board over her split from fellow councilors on a light rail funding vote.

Cole called that incident out on Wednesday.

“When decisions don’t go your way, you don’t change the rules of the game and change the makeup of the board to get it more favorable to your decision in the future,” he said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/04/ctran-board-vancouver-ridgefield-camas-washougal/