DID YOU KNOW? The Camas city website filters news stories and doesn't display publish dates.

When a new city update leaves the front page, readers likely won't see it again unless they know exact search terms

You may be one of many Camasonians that frequent the city of Camas home page. On average, a visitor to that page sees about five of the newest updates from the city under the heading "Latest News". This is the most critical and relevant communication that we receive from Camas directly as citizens. WATCH Camas received tips from neighbors recently with a common observation of that page;

Where does the last update in the list go when it is "bumped" or pushed off the bottom of the page by a new article posted on the top?

WATCH Camas looked into this, and found the following information that we feel is worth your attention:

For background, the city's homepage updates always include a publish date, a headline and 2-4 lines of preview text before a "Read More..." button appears. They also almost always include a custom featured image created specifically for social media sharing.

Clicking the "Read More..." button takes you to a dedicated update page with the full text of the update - There is no publish date displayed on this page, or in the URL, when it was prominently displayed when originally posted on the home page.

Back on that home page, there is a "More News" button. Clicking that button takes you to this page with the ambiguous heading "Articles".

On that "More News" page, an average reader would notice plenty of familiar story headlines, but would also notice that none of these headlines display the original date that the update was published on the city's website. If you're one of our neighbors that has decided to #WATCHCamas though, and you're paying closer attention, you'd likely notice many crucial recent updates are routinely missing from that list. Why is that?

As a relevant example, none of the recent updates about the town's controversial roundabout project, and it's $8m total project cost, that was approved during a global pandemic and with our elected mayor in another country currently appear on the "More News" page. Again, WATCH Camas wondered why?

Camas elected a mayor last November who ran on three simple promises:

Bring transparency to city government.
Be fiscally responsible for taxpayer’s money.
Be a voice for the people.

If you feel the city of Camas should not filter the chronological record of official city news in our town, and you feel that our mayor has a clear opportunity to honor his promises here - Please contact Mayor Barry McDonnell and forward the message below the line, or write your own:

You can reach the mayor at bmcdonnell@cityofcamas.us or give him a call and leave a message 360.834.6864

Mr. Mayor,

I was recently made aware of a pattern of recent news updates on cityofcamas.us being filtered on the City's website. I'd like you to please correct this oversight immediately to make the "More News" section of the City of Camas website display a complete list of city update links, in chronological order and with the date of original posting clearly displayed as it is on the city's home page.

I voted for you to be my voice in Camas Mayor Barry. You ran on transparency and this is a moment for you to deliver on that campaign promise. I need your leadership on this issue please. Thank you.

Signed,