Conspicuous by their absence last Monday were leaders of Greater Spokane Inc., when the City Council voted to place the latest version of a Community Bill of Rights before voters.
That shouldn’t be taken as a sign the business community is okey-dokey with the ballot measure.
The council had no choice in the matter, as some members made clear. Envision Spokane gathered the necessary signatures to put a charter change on the ballot, and that, pretty much, was that.
Two years ago, there was a bit more in play. . .

OLYMPIA — State legislators won't spend much time on “the floor” today, but  have a full slate of hearings on everything from foreclosures to college efficiencies to smoking in cars with kids.

Meanwhile, members of the Greater Spokane Inc. delegation is scheduled to hit town around noon, where they will meet with key legislators on health care, transportation and spending issues over the next two and a half days.

What do they want most? Some movement forward on a medical school in Spokane. What are their chances? Remains to be seen. But they'll have a chance to lobby legislative leaders and the governor at various points.

Republican leaders have their weekly press conference at noon.

Among the bills up for committee discussion this afternoon is SB 5016, which would allow law enforcemenet officers to ticket anyone for smoking in a car with a person under 18. It would be a secondary infraction, meaning that police couldn't stop you just for smoking with kids in the car. It's up for discussion in the Senate Transportation Committee at 3:30 p.m.

The Senate Higher Education Committee is looking at SB 5107, which would consolidate all the boards of regents for the state universities and colleges, and make one Board of Regents of 19 people for all baccalaureate granting public schools. It would abolish the Higher Education Coordinating Board, the governor's Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board and the Council of Presidents.

If you were planning to get up early to catch a candidate forum between Bonnie Mager and Al French on Tuesday morning, you can sleep in.

The Greater Spokane Inc., which was sponsoring the forum at Family Home Care in Liberty Lake, said today that forum is cancelled. Mager had to bow out because of a family obligation, GSI said.

OLYMPIA – A Spokane-area delegation on its annual pilgrimage to the state capital got a consistently downbeat message this week: Don’t expect money for new programs or projects.

“The message is being reinforced: There is no money,” Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said. It’s a message that comes as no surprise, but may good for some people to hear it repeated, she said..

With Washington state’s well-publicized budget woes, the message was expected, said Rich Hadley, president of the Greater Spokane Inc. which organized the trip.

“We’re trying to protect (what we have), to prevent damage from being done,” Hadley said during a break between presentations from leaders of both parties and both legislative houses.

City and county elected officials will discuss the potential impact of I-1033 at a forum Thursday morning sponsored by Greater Spokane Inc. It starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Service Station, 9315 N. Nevada; tickets are $20.

On the agenda are Spokane Mayor Mary Verner, Spokane Valley Mayor Rich Munson, Airway Heights Mayor Matthew Pederson and all three county commissioners.

The impacts they predict will most likely be bad. There’s no pro I-1033 people on the program, although it’s almost certain that sponsor Tim Eyman will have some rejoinder afterwards.

Politicians and local business persons are gathering Thursday morning in an effort to convince the Shiners to keep their Spokane hospital open.

It will be bipartisan, with Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, in front of the hospital building on the lower South Hill. They’ll be joined by members of Greater Spokane Inc., which put out a “Save Shriners” announcement Wednesday.

Press conference is 4:30 p.m. Thursday, 5th and Lincoln.

Greater Spokane Inc. is on its annual “mission to Washington, D.C.” where it will have a first-ever audience with the two top Air Force honchos, AF Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and AF Secretary Michael Donley.

The mission is a yearly opportunity for local government and business types — many of whom deplore federal spending and the size of the federal deficit — to lobby members of Congress for some money for programs in the Inland Northwest. One of the things they desperately want is for the Air Force to build a new aerial refueling tanker to replace the KC-135 … and stick the first couple dozen of them at Fairchild Air Force base.

They’ll get no argument from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who will be escorting them to the Pentagon, her staff reports in a press release. The Eastern Washington Republican notes that Fairchild crews are flying tankers that are more than 50 years old and “we wouldn’t get on a passenger plane that old. Our military shouldn’t have to rely on planes that old, either.”

Or, as GSI President Rich Hadley put it: “We thought about driving a ‘57 Ford to D.C. to make the point that the KC-135 refueling tankers must be replaced and that Fairchild AFB is ready to be the first operational base to accept them.”

Which suggests a number of questions…