Spokane County's three Republican county commissioners are asking Mayor-elect David Condon to strongly consider Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich's offer to be the city's interim police chief.

The three signed a letter to Condon's transition team saying that with Chief Anne Kirkpatrick retiring, it makes sense to consider consolidating the Spokane Police Department with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office. If Knezovich is selected as interim chief, it would allow the concept to be studied, they said.

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Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and state Rep. Kevin Parker will hold a town hall meeting Saturday to discuss public concerns over the bomb found along the parade route in downtown Spokane Monday.
The one-hour forum, “Understanding threats in our community”, will allow area residents to discuss their concerns and share ideas about the bomb that rerouted Spokane’s Martin Luther King Day parade as well as the Tucson shootings, Parker, R-Spokane, said.
“As a survivor of the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, I have learned it is essential we come together to talk about the safety of the community,” said Parker, who was a youth counselor talking with a student when those shootings occurred.
The town hall begins at 10 a.m. Saturday in Room 122 of the Phase 1 Building, WSU Riverpoint Campus, 412 E. Spokane Falls Blvd.

  

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich won party backing for his current reelection bid last year.

Had he waited to seek an endorsement, Knezovich may not have won that endorsement. That’s because, he says, he will not sign the party’s pledge to support the county platform.

“If you don’t agree with certain things, how can you sign it?” Knezovich said.

In March, the party began asking candidates to consider signing a promise to support the platform, though GOP leaders stress they don’t expect candidates to agree with each of the nearly 120 policy statements in the document.

“I’ve taken an oath to serve the community,” Knezovich said in an interview on Tuesday. “I can’t take an oath on top of that.”

The Republican pledge also includes a line where candidates must check yes or no next to the statement: “I will not vote in favor of a tax increase, new or increased fees, or increase spending beyond the rate of inflation or the consumer price index.”

Technically, its county commissioners, not the sheriff who would have a final say on tax increases or rising budgets. Even so, the sheriff said agreeing to that that statement would be hypocritical because he believes a property tax package will be necessary to replace the aging Geiger Corrections Center — a priority he describes as critical to the community.

(Knezovich, state Rep. Matt Shea and former state Rep. John Ahern were listed incorrectly as signers of the platform in a list of Republican candidates that ran in The Spokesman-Review on Sunday. Those candidates won party endorsements last year — before the party asked candidates to consider the platform.)

OLYMPIA – Washington state will delay plans to close the Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women to see whether it can stay open as a facility shared by Spokane County and City.

State Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail announced Thursday the Medical Lake center is getting a temporary reprieve from a list of institutions the state wants to close because of its budget problems. Gov. Chris Gregoire put Pine Lodge on a list of 10 institutions earlier this month in her most recent budget proposal.

In a prepared statement, Vail said he’d received a letter from Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Spokane Mayor Mary Verner about a “joint use” of Pine Lodge. “We need adequate time to seriously consider what might be developed,” he said.

Knezovich said he and Verner suggested using the facility as part of joint county and city community corrections operation which would include programs for electronic home monitoring of certain inmates. Folding Pine Lodge into the county’s jail system could shave as much as $20 million off current expansion plans, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said she’d had discussions with Gregoire and the corrections department about keeping Pine Lodge open.

“This is a good move if there’s a potential to use part of the facility for city and county needs,” she said.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is running for re-election next year, so it’s no surprise he was addressing a political group’s luncheon Monday afternoon.

Considering Knezovich is a Republican, some might be surprised the luncheon was sponsored by the Democrat Professional and Business Group.

Even more surprising is that several Democrats were questioning whether the sheriff’s office should even be a partisan job.

There’s no attempt that anyone knew of  to make it a nonpartisan position, and with a budget fiasco in the offing, it’s unlikely the Legislature would even look at such a proposal if it were written. But the real impact of such a comment is much more significant for Knezovich.

It means the Democrats have no one credible to run for sheriff at this point. There are many races on next year’s ballots, and, as several said, they’ll have to prioritize their recruiting efforts. The sheriff’s job is likely to remain a very low priority, based on Knezovich’s answers to the group.

This will probably come as no huge surprised to anyone watching politics in Spokane, but Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is running for re-election.

Knezovich filed paperwork with the Public Disclosure Commission at the beginning of the year, but even incumbents who don’t plan to run again do that to keep on the right side of the law for campaign finances.

On July 4th, however, Knezovich made the first public announcement of re-election, during the annual Independence Day celebration hosted by Tom Westbrook. It’s an event that involves the full reading of the Declaration of Indepedence by some of the assembled guests, and Ozzie read a section.

Not the preamble with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” but a hunk of the list of grievances against King George III for all the bad stuff the British were doing. But anyway, it was a chance to read the document.

Afterwards, people asked if he was running for re-election, and he said “Yes, I am.” It was the first non-private acknowledgement, Knezovich said. It wasn’t planned to coincide with the Fourth, he added, “it just kind of came up that way.”

And thanks to regular reader John (Gus) Olsen, who was present at the party, for the tip.