After 37 years residing in District 1 of Clark County, I am proud to offer to serve as Charter Review Commissioner, a non-partisan elective position to be voted on in the 2025 General Election on November 5, 2025.

I am running for District 1, Position 2, one of three positions representing our district. I will serve as one of 15 commissioners to review the County’s Home Rule Charter.

After three decades taking part in a range of community affairs with many of Clark County’s most impactful citizens, I am confident I can contribute positively to the Charter Review Commission.

Three factors: broad-based community service, educational / professional background, and a positive, collegial approach.

• My family, including my geologist husband and our two children, moved to Vancouver in 1988. For 37 years, I have joined in community activities including education, public safety, mental health, service to those in need, and the arts.
• I currently serve on the County Law and Justice Council, the Children’s Justice Center Friends, and the Salvation Army Advisory Board.
• Past boards include NAMI Southwest Washington, Columbia River Mental Health Services, Center for the Arts of SW Washington, the Clark College Foundation, and the Ft. Vancouver Regional Library. I chaired the Southcliff Neighborhood Association, and the Heritage Place Condominium Association.
• In 2021, I co-founded the Clark County Public Saftey Alliance, and in 2023 I originated the unique Angels with Badges awards recognizing heroic law enforcement personnel.

My educational background includes a Bachelor Science (Honors) in Geology from Stanford University, an M.A. from University of California – Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of California – Santa Barbara.

I have worked as an exploration geologist and energy consultant for more than three decades, throughout North America including Alaska. This work, involving large multi-disciplinary teams developing large long-term projects for energy users, prepared me well to analyze the needs, costs, and best solutions for Clark County’s charter.

Ann and Mike on a geological visit to Santa Fe New Mexico

As one of 15 commissioners, I will promote collegial discussions and balanced solutions. I will guard rights guaranteed under the federal and state constitutions, respecting minority and majority viewpoints. I will promote pragmatic efficiency in council operations. My priorities will be public safety, mental health and budgetary restraint and discipline.

Approaching the process, my chief concerns, backed up with my deep experience, will be public safety and mental health.

Years ago, soon after mental illness impacted my family, I committed myself to finding solutions for all those individuals and families needing help. Since 2009, I have been a leader in the region‘s mental health field through non-profit National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwest Washington (NAMI SW WA), serving as Treasurer, Vice President, and President. My family have sponsored the Donnelly Walk for NAMI SW WA for 14 years.

I have also served on the boards of directors of Columbia River Mental Health Services and its Foundation.

Ann Donnelly has sponsored a walk benefiting NAMI SW WA for 14 years. Here she shares the event with community leaders Donna Sinclair and Michelle Bart.

Ann speaking on mental health at the 14th Annual Donnelly Walks ~ May 17, 2025

Over the years, Ann’s priorities and principles have been clear in her columns on The Columbian’s op-ed pages (some excerpts below).

She thanks The Columbian for the privilege of sharing her views with its readership (paused during this campaign).

Supporting the unique and threatened Larch correctional facility (Aug.5.2023):

Larch firefighters found inspiration as the heroes they became, saving homes,
communities and forests from fires. Hope plus training led to restored lives…

Over the years, Larch crews have added incalculable value to our region, planting trees,
restoring stream banks, monitoring water quality, and thinning forests. …Larch
graduates more GED-degreed inmates than all other similar facilities in the state
combined…

Challenges can be overcome. If money is the problem, Larch is worth scouring the
budget. If more inmates are needed, find the inmates. Inmates needing to have their
lives turned around are not in short supply.

Announcing her “Angels with Badges” Awards for Law Enforcement (11/4/2023):

I (co-) founded CC Public Safety Alliance in 2021 in response to an intolerable level of
brazen crime in our streets, homes, and businesses… we have pursued multiple paths,
influencing crime-related legislation, advocating for the planned local Police Academy,
and … providing permanent funding for public safety.

We believe in the growing need to confirm moral clarity in our community. Too often, the
mistakes and rare misdeeds of law enforcement are magnified in our public discourse,
while the good deeds go unheralded.

Enter the “Angels with Badges” awards… The existence of angels has never been
disproven, and I surmised that when they do appear on earth, a number of them will
wear law enforcement badges.

Supporting the City of Vancouver’s Prop 4 for more police (10/5/2024):

Passage of Proposition 4 is of vital concern locally… Other future County needs – the
jail, more deputy sheriffs, a permanent home for the sheriff’s administration, more
facilities for mental health and homelessness, more prosecutors, more public defenders
– are also essential. A multi-faceted plan to counter the devastation of drugs is also
needed, starting in the schools. No single measure is sufficient without the others.

Opposing the liberalizing of pot laws, and pointing out its mental health impacts (June 1,
2024):

A common assertion is that pot is no more dangerous than alcohol… Steadfastly ignored
by liberalization proponents is the scientific evidence that increased pot consumption
exacerbates the mental health crisis….

In Washington, traffic fatalities are at a 33-year high, of which roughly 50% involve drug
or alcohol impairment…

Liberalization measures would likely expand pot use. Oregon’s recently failed
experiment with decriminalization underscores the unintended impacts …Legalization
itself has exponentially expanded pot consumption, according to research at Carnegie
Mellon University.

Supporting Local Control of Homelessness Policy and Supreme Court “Grants Pass”
Decision (7/6/2024):

One of the towering advances of our nation’s original formation was the concept of
divided powers…In deciding for Grants Pass, the Supreme Court restored that power to
municipalities, state legislatures, and ultimately the voters.

Local advocates for the homeless and for the communities at large will henceforth have
greater latitude to adjust the balance between accountability and accommodation of the
choices of the unhoused to camp on public property.

Reflecting community values, Vancouver’s homelessness experts, starting with Michael
Lynch of the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Vancouver’s Jamie Spinelli, Tyler Chavers, and
their team are more qualified than judges to identify solutions to our homelessness
crisis.

Supporting the La Center School District and parental rights versus the State of
Washington (April 5, 2025):

This is the State of Washington at its most authoritarian, imposing its will on the District’s
staff, superintendent, school board and community…

The District asserts that under the law it can “adopt or amend” the State’s pronoun
model, and that it has done so “to take into consideration the fundamental constitutional
rights of parents in child rearing.”

The Pronouns controversy intrudes into areas of students’ lifetime emotional and
physical health. Inevitably, families are responsible, including for financial impacts.

Ann’s email: adonnelly7@comcast.net

Total expenditures not to exceed $7000 and $500 per individual.

Donations by mail:

Ann Donnelly for Charter Review Commission
P.O. Box 2421
Vancouver, WA 98668

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