Cowlitz County commissioners elect Dahl chair, Raider vice chair for 2025

The Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners on the first regular meeting of 2025 conducted its annual election of the board chair and vice chair, unanimously electing Commissioner Dahl as chair and Commissioner Raider as vice chair.

The board read election procedures referencing RCW 75.05.040 before opening nominations. A commissioner nominated Commissioner Dahl for chair; with no further nominations, the board took a voice vote. “The ayes have it, and Commissioner Dahl is elected as chair,” the presiding officer announced after three affirmative votes.

After the chair election, the newly elected chair presided over nominations for vice chair. Commissioner Raider was nominated and, after no other nominations, elected by voice vote. The presiding officer again announced the ayes had it and the motion carried.

Commissioner Dahl, after being elected, said he sees the role as running meetings rather than exercising different authority than other commissioners: “I just see it as I'm the person that they're asked to run the meetings. I don't have there's no authority here that's any different than any of the other commissioners.”

The board’s reading of the election procedure cited RCW 75.05.040. The clerk of the board served as the presiding officer for the election process until the chair vote was completed and the meeting was handed to the new chair.

No formal roll-call tally with individual yes/no names beyond the announced three ayes was recorded in the public portions of the transcript; the presiding officer stated there were three yes votes and declared both elections carried.

The board moved on to the rest of the agenda after the election.