For years, the Sheriff has warned that we are dangerously understaffed with deputies. Clark County remains well below even Washington’s already-low average.
For over a decade, requests for additional deputies were largely dismissed.
Last week, the County approved funding for 21 new deputies—but only through a new sales tax, not from the existing budget—and far short of the roughly 149 positions needed just to reach state averages.
Yet in that very same meeting, the very next agenda item was a significant raise and contract extension for the County Manager.
We’re told there’s a “structural deficit.” We’re told there’s no money for deputies in the general fund. But there’s clearly room for executive raises.
The next day, at a Charter Review Commission meeting, Councilor Glen Yung strongly opposed a proposed supermajority requirement to raise property taxes, arguing that the County needs flexibility to fund priorities such as public safety. For three and a half years, Yung has voted for higher property taxes but has failed to prioritize hiring more deputies from the general budget.
Moments later, he was asked why the Council had just approved a large raise for the County Manager while claiming there wasn’t funding available for deputies.
The hypocrisy was palpable.
For more than three years, the Council has had opportunities to prioritize deputies within the existing budget—and has chosen not to. Instead, taxpayers are now being asked to fund public safety through new taxes, while overall spending continues to grow, as if it were an additional raise for the County Manager.
This isn’t about whether the County Manager deserves fair compensation. It’s about priorities.
When deputies must be funded through new taxes—but raises come from the general budget—it sends a clear message.
Clark County doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a prioritization problem.
The Charter Review Commission is considering proposals to require broader agreement before raising taxes and to prioritize public safety spending. Those reforms deserve your support.
If public safety is truly a priority, it should be reflected in how existing dollars are spent—not just in calls for higher taxes.
Clark County residents are paying attention. For a full breakdown of these decisions and the exchange that highlighted this contradiction, I cover it in the latest episode of Reformcast (https://youtu.be/YligjbkrKqA) —so you can see the details and decide for yourself.
Rob Anderson
Ridgefield
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