During a March 17 Battle Ground City Council meeting, former mayor Philip Johnson returned to voice concerns during public comment about ongoing housing developments, code enforcement and a financial payout to police officers following the implementation of body-worn cameras.
Johnson served as Battle Ground’s mayor from 2016 to 2017 and again from 2022 to 2023. He was a city council member for 12 years before deciding not to seek reelection in 2023. Despite stepping away from public office, Johnson has remained vocal about city matters.
He criticized the city’s current approach to housing developments during last week’s meeting, calling the city’s latest residential developments “cookie cutter housing” that would please “a Portland planner.”
“It’s row-on-row duplexes, soulless, really doesn’t meet in with the neighborhood,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of sad.”
He pointed to River Bend, a housing development south of Northeast 249th Street, saying that while it meets code requirements, it does so in a way that avoids monotonous design by spacing out identical homes across the street from each other.
“They are following the code. They’re not building their houses continuously for the code, they’re building them across the street. They have four plans and they build them across the street,” he said.
However, Johnson claimed the Beverly Subdivision on Northeast Onsdorff Boulevard failed to follow best practices and criticized the city for allowing it to proceed.
“Beverly was messed up by the city,” he said. “If they’re building houses the same plan, side by side by side. Same color, same everything, private road, no streetlights. It’s an East German planner’s dream, of what 1980 East Berlin should look like.”
He urged the council to place a moratorium on current housing development and adopt an improved plan from another city.
“You can stop this, you can order a moratorium and have the city steal someone else’s plan … put your name on it,” Johnson said. “Let’s have 2025 housing instead of 1995 housing.”
Shifting focus, Johnson expressed concerns over the city’s code enforcement, saying its absence had led to an increase in disorderly properties.
“I’m also here this evening to wonder what happened to the code department,” he said. “It must have gotten closed. Because as I walk the city, there are yards full of wrecked cars, travel trailers, trash and everything else.”
He called on the city to reinstate code enforcement efforts.
“I’m hoping at some point that you can reinstate the COD so that we don’t have to live amongst that,” he said.
Johnson also criticized the city council’s recent approval of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that resulted in a financial payout to Battle Ground police officers following the implementation of body-worn cameras.
The agreement, which was passed unanimously as part of the consent agenda on March 3, provided a one-time lump sum payment of $5,000 to each commissioned officer employed at the time of ratification. The city and the Battle Ground Police Officers Association (BGPOA) negotiated the MOU as a full resolution of all bargaining obligations related to the implementation of body-worn cameras in the department.
“$125 [to] $130,000 given to the cops for the body cam bonus,” Johnson said. “That’s hard-earned money from our citizens.”
He argued that the cameras were purchased to benefit both officers and the community and questioned why additional compensation was necessary.
“We bought the body cams for their safety, for the people they come in contact with, their safety, and for the citizens’ safety, to keep us safe from lawyers,” he said. “And so I’m a little disappointed that we had to buy their use.”
He closed by emphasizing the financial burden on residents.
“It’s tough times and you missed the vote on that,” Johnson said.
