OTHELLO CITY COUNCIL POS. 1: Kelli Camp

OTHELLO — Kelli Camp said she thinks the Othello City Council may need a different approach, and that led her to run for an open position. 

“There has not been much, if any, turnover on the city council in a decade, as far as the seats that were open. I really felt like that was somewhere I could potentially bring fresh eyes and new ideas,” she said.  

“I’m not running for council because I think anybody has done a particularly horrible job. My issue is that you cannot properly have growth if you have people in the seats for over a decade. If you don’t have fresh perspective looking at problems and new ideas, things begin to stagnate,” she said. 

Camp is running for council Position 1, challenging incumbent Genna Dorow. She was appointed to the Othello School Board in 2023, ran that November to fill the remainder of that term but was defeated by Aaron Garber. She said community service is important to her.  

“I’m extremely passionate about service in general, which is why I served on the school board when there was an opening,” she said. “Advocacy and service, I think, is our duty.” 

She was prompted to run for city council by what she said she believes are disconnections between the council and Othello residents. 

“I feel like what’s happening now (is), people are not feeling heard. They have public hearings and whatever, but I feel like the council is not accessible, and they’re not really listening,” she said. “They’re voting kind of how they want to vote on issues, but not voting how the people would want them to vote.” 

Council members should pay more attention to community opinion, she said. 

The council also needs to take the city’s history into account when making decisions, she said, but not let the past become controlling.  

“We have rich agricultural and community traditions here, lots of really good programs here. I don’t want to lose sight of that, but we have become stagnant with things not growing, where everything has been very controlled as far as growth. I think that needs fresh eyes so that we can do some things differently in the future, with housing, affordable housing and different things that have stayed really controlled within the council,” she said. 

Othello needs additional businesses, hotels and restaurants among them, Camp said.  

“I think those things can be done in a way that doesn’t lose sight (of) our small town feel and the traditions we have, but it’s not happening right now,” she said. 

Presently, Othello combines the jobs of mayor and city administrator, and Camp said in her opinion that this doesn’t provide enough oversight. 

“When you have a city administrator making decisions which are ultimately signed off on by the mayor, or a mayor wanting to do something and the city administrator working on how, (or) if that’s even feasible, and those two people are the same person, you don’t have two voices as the checks and balances that you need,” Camp said.  

She would support reviewing the decision to start a city fire department, she said. The Othello Community Pool should also be a focus, in her opinion. 

Council members voted in 2024 not to renew the city’s contract with Adams County Fire District 5, which expires in May 2026, and start a city fire department.  

“It’s a huge expense (for) a city of 8,000 people to try and have its own fire department,” she said. 

Cutting expenses was one of the reasons given for the decision, she said, but she expressed concern that a separate department might not save money after all. 

“The cost of trucks and maintenance and all those things have gone up, so of course the contract with (ACFD 5) had to go up,” she said. “The cost of all of those things is going to be high with the city doing it on their own, too. It doesn’t seem to make really good fiscal sense for us to separate, and then also have the cost of managing and maintaining and having a chief and all of those things for our own department.” 

Structural damage was discovered at the pool in spring 2024; it’s been closed since. Camp said decisions on the pool’s fate need to be made sooner rather than later. 

“It had a structural leak, and they’ve been studying and looking – is it possible to repair? It's had a commission, and they’ve paid for a company to come in and study it, and on and on and on. Meanwhile, we’re into the second summer where the community doesn’t have anywhere to cool off,” Camp said. 

The pool was built with money generated through a construction bond passed by voters in Adams County Parks and Recreation District 1, which includes Othello and some of the surrounding unincorporated area. The bond will be paid off this year. 

“We’re paying for a pool that’s not even functional, and in order to repair or replace it, it would mean another bond. Trying to pass another bond for it is going to be a challenge,” she said.