Most Spokane County voters will get cards in the mail updating their voter information.

County elections officials said they've mailed out 195,000 cards listing new precinct information, which is roughly three out of four voters in the county.

The changes were prompted by the redistricting, which happens once very 10 years after a national census. Spokane County remains in the 5th Congressional District, but the lines for all of the legislative districts locate completely or partially in the county were redrawn.

In an effort to save some money, the county is sending cards only to voters whose precinct information changed. The Valley's 4th Legislative District saw the least change, and many precincts in that district remain the same, so those voters won't be getting new cards. But the 3rd, 6th, 7th and 9th districts all had significant changes that effect of their voters.

A bit of voting info trivia of the political geeks: Precincts in Spokane County have a four-digit number that helps explain where that voting sector is. The first digit is the legislative district, so all county precincts start with either 3, 4, 6, 7 or 9.

The second digit tells whether the voter lives inside or outside an incorporated area like a city or town. A zero for the second digit means the precinct is in an unincorporated area; another digit means its a city or town. Most of the cities and towns are in a single legislative district, so a precinct that starts 44 is the City of Spokane Valley and one that starts 43 is Liberty Lake. Airway Heights precincts start 64 and Cheney precincts 67. Spokane city precincts are a bit trickier because there are three Lege districts that have pieces of the city, and the second digit is either 1, 2 or 3, to tell you which City Council district the precinct is in. Northeast is 1, South is 2 and Northwest is 3.

Spokane County Elections Office says it has received slighly more than 89,500 ballots, or 33.66 percent of all the ballots it sent out a couple weeks ago.

That's counting nearly 10,000 that came in today's mail or the pickup of weekend deposits in drop boxes.

For those who think a hot candidate race will definitely spur turnout, the numbers so far would suggest otherwise.

For example, the city of Spokane has a hotly contested mayor's race, a council president race and three contested city council races. It's turnout is 33.4 percent. The City of Spokane Valley has some contested council seats, turnout there is 33.24 percent.

The 4th Legislative District has one of the state's few off-year senate races. Turnout is 33.76 percent.

Town of Spangle, which has five council races on the ballot, but only one that's contested, turnout 45.8 percent. Orchard Prairie School District, three board seats on the ballot, none contested, 40.4 percent turnout.

Of course, one could note that Spangle and O.P. School District  registration numbers are so small that a handful of ballots boosts the turnout numbers. That's true, but the top part or the ballot is the same for everyone, with five statewide ballot measures and one county-wide proposal. And the process is the same for everyone: Fill out the ballot, put it in an envelope and mail it in or drop it off. For info on where to drop them, go here.

Women in Spokane County can expect to live about a year longer than women a quarter century ago, and Kootenai County women about two years longer.

Those averages are contained in a new study by the University of Washington which shows that while women in some parts of the United States have slightly lower life expectancy, those in Washington, Idaho and most of the Northwest have slightly higher life expectancy.

After studying data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the UW developed a county-by-county map that shows the change in life expectancy across the nation between 1987 and 2007. It shows a decline in life expectancy for women in 313 counties, mostly in the South, Southern Midwest and Appalachia.That's the largest decline since the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.

 Declines in life expectancy for men went down in only six counties.

To see the map, or read the analysis, click here.

Data from Spokane County Elections Office/Computer analysis by Spin Control

Spokane County Elections Office reported collecting 10,745 ballots this morning, bringing the total to 87,854 for the general election. Turn-in stands at 33.65 percent countywide, although a bit  lower in the city of Spokane and significantly lower in the 3rd Legislative District, a Democratic stronghold.

The overall total means turn-in is running slightly stronger in this second week of voting than in 2006 mid-term election, although nowhere near the levels of the presidential election year in 2008.

Here’s a numbers geek factoid: In both of those years, half the folks who were going to vote had turned in or mailed their ballots by the Thursday before election day. Projecting that trend onto this year (admittedly a somewhat shaky hypothesis) Spokane County would be on track for a turnout of about 67 percent.

As suggested yesterday, Tuesday was likely the high-water mark for ballots being received in Spokane County for the next two weeks.

Today’s count was 7,650, down about 4,500 from Tuesday’s 12,104.

Highest turnout right now is in central Spokane’s 3rd Legislative District, which is at about 11.2%, compared to 10.4% for the 4th District, 9.6% for the 6th District. 9.1% for the 7th District and 8.7% for the 9th District.

The 3rd District typically leads in turnout at the beginning of the turn-in, but drops to the bottom by election day.

Spokane County turnout — OK, turn-in if you prefer — is nearing 16 percent after this morning’s ballot sort.

The county had its heaviest day last Tuesday, when it got more than 11,000 ballots in the mail. The Tuesday after the first weekend ballots are in voters’ hands is a fairly typical peak day because folks usually get the ballots just before or on the weekend. That’s probably because the most dilligent and those who have already made up their minds on candidates and issues mark their ballots and send them back. Since last Tuesday, the daily count has totaled about 6,000 ballots per day.

Ballots must be postmarked or dropped in a pickup box by 8 p.m. Aug. 17 (next Tuesday). For a list of boxes, go inside the blog.

 Early numbers aren’t looking good for Spokane and other local governments hoping to avoid more budget gloom.

Sales tax distributions for the first two months of 2010 were the lowest since 2005 for Spokane, Spokane County, Spokane Valley and the Spokane Transit Authority.

Because of the increased cost of doing business, largely from of salary increases and the spiking costs of health insurance, local governments usually need rising tax revenue to maintain services with the same number of employees.

Sales taxes are only one source of revenue, but they are a signficant one, especially for STA, which doesn’t have property or utility taxes.

Another Republican Spokane County officeholder will face a challenge within the party and within his office. But it appears this time the incumbent won’t discipline his challenger.

Vicki Horton, a residential appraiser in the county assessor’s office, filed paperwork this week with the state Public Disclosure Commission indicating that she will challenge her boss, Assessor Ralph Baker, in the August primary.

Last week, Deputy Prosecutor Dave Stevens, a Republican, announced he was challenging his boss, GOP Prosecutor Steve Tucker. Stevens criticized Tucker’s leadership and referred to Tucker as “an absent administrator.” Tucker placed Stevens on paid leave the next day.

Baker confirmed on Tuesday that he plans to run for reelection. When told by a reporter that Horton was running, Baker said: “That’s great.” He added that he was surprised she decided to pursue the office but that he had no reason to discipline her for running. Baker called Horton “a very good employee.”

Horton, who is the union shop steward for the office, said Baker is “a very nice person,” but added: “I have a few things I would like to see different.”

When 84-year-old Kay Mita got a jury summons, he regarded it as a sign the government was acknowledging a six-decades-old injustice. His first day of jury service, however, turned out to be the last day of his life.
Now the widow and son of a juror who died of exposure on the courthouse steps have filed a $5 million claim with the county, a possible prelude to a federal lawsuit against the county and Guardsmark LLC, which provides security at the courthouse.
Steve Bartel, the county’s risk manager, said his office is reviewing the claim to determine whether the county has any liability in what he acknowledged is “a terrible event.”
Mita reported for jury duty the morning of Nov. 26, 2007, left the jury room for the lunch break, but didn’t return at the scheduled time. He apparently became confused and disoriented, and was unable to find his car parked less than a block away. He wandered around the courthouse and its grounds for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Although his family reported him missing about 7 p.m., neither Spokane police who are in the adjoining building nor courthouse security guards who allowed him to stay in the building until it closed knew of the missing person report.
Mita stayed near the courthouse in snow and sub-freezing weather overnight until he died of hypothermia. His body was found the next morning, sitting near the steps of the courthouse’s south entrance.
“There’s some pretty confusing details I’m trying to figure out,” Bartel said. “Could we have done something different?”

To read the rest of the story, click on Continue reading below

.Spokane County is looking for a new operator of its racetrack who will have to have something the last operator did not – experience running a track.

A request for qualifications to bid on the contract for the Spokane County Raceway Park was released Wednesday and the lease could be awarded by mid February, County Parks Director Doug Chase said. Any bidder must provide significantly more information on finances than the county requested last year, and expect increased oversight of track operations by the county.

“I think it’s safe to say” the county learned from problems it had with Bucky Austin, who received the operator’s lease for the track early this year, Chase said.

Spokane County will have to come up with a new plan to give money to the renovated Fox Theater. The old plan, to take about $21,000 a year from the county’s share of the hotel-motel tax, isn’t legal, Board Chairman Todd Mielke was told Monday.
The county’s Hotel Motel Tax Advisory Board balked Monday at the budget for an estimated $405,000 the county expects to collect from the lodging tax. Collections are projected to be down, and the Spokane Convention and Visitor’s Bureau was told it would see its payment cut from $275,000 to $250,000, and the Spokane Regional Sport Commission would be frozen at $75,000.
Even with those reductions, the budget is expected to be almost $33,000 in the red if tax collections are down, as projected.
Representatives of the visitors bureau and the sports commission said they could deal with their allotments, but questioned the county’s plan to send $20,625 of the lodging tax collected in the unincorporated county to the Fox Theater, which is in the City of Spokane.
Dave Pier, a vice president of Brett Sports and member of the advisory board, said the county’s hotel tax money has to be spent on projects or events that generate business in the county lodging facilities.
“I love the Fox Theater,” Pier said. “But it doesn’t meet the fund’s requirements.”

Spokane voters seemed to spend a bit more time weighing their options this year. The two biggest days for ballots showing up at the elections office were yesterday and today.

The current ballot count stands at 98,968, which is 38.5 percent of all registered voters in the county. More than 39,000 of those ballots showed up in the last two days — and that doesn’t count the final pickups from drop boxes all over the county.

Could it be that some voters regretted voting too early in previous years, and held on to their ballots until closer to the deadline, to see how the campaigns played out? Hard to say, but it does seem to undercut the argument of some campaign operatives that so many resources should be targeted at the week the ballots get mailed out.

If tradition holds, biggest day for turnout will be tomorrow, when most ballots mailed yesterday and today get delivered.

For more on how the ballot turn-in count stands, go inside the blog.

Spokane County Commissioners have an executive session at 2 p.m. to talk about cancelling the contract to run the Raceway Park.

They had already given Bucky Austin, the embattled operator, a 60-day deadline, that’s set to run out next week. They may cancel today.

Unanswered questions include what will they do if Austin doesn’t pay the contractors who did the work this summer at the raceway? What will they do with the track, which the county bought last year — find a new operator or have the county Parks run it themselves?

Stay tuned.

Spokane County jail lieutenants agreed to contract concessions that will wipe out their cost-of-living raises, overtime and comp time in 2010.

The agreement with the county, which comes as most departments are expecting to start next year with a budget that is 11 percent smaller than the one the had at the end of last year, would reduced the Sheriff’s budget by about $57,000.

“It wasn’t a hard sell at all,” Lt. Jay Hughes, the head of the seven member unit said Wednesday. “We all knew the budget was suffering.”

Under their existing contract, members of Local 492CL were scheduled to get a 1 percent cost-of-living raise on Jan. 1, and another 1 percent on July 1. They are also entitled to overtime or compensatory time when working more than 40 hours a week. Under the agreement, proposed by the unit members themselves, they will remain at this year’s pay, and become salaried employees not eligible for overtime or comp time. In return, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich guaranteed that none of them would be demoted to close the gap in the budget.

Jail lieutenants, who work at either the County Jail or the Geiger Corrections Center, earn between $64,990 and $87,695 a year. Their three-year contract, which ends Dec. 31, 2010, had a 1 percent cost of living increase in 2008, plus 1 percent increases this year on Jan. 1 and July 1.

The operator of the county’s West Plains racetrack owes $20,000 in back payments to the county and more than $1 million to contractors who have been refurbishing the facility, county officials said

County Executive Marshall Farnell confirmed Monday that Bucky Austin, the track’s operator, has missed two monthly payments of $10,000 each, which are required under the terms of the lease announced last fall.

“He is two months behind,” Farnell said. “We don’t know why.”

The county asked Austin “resolve” the lease payment problem – that is, make the payments he owes – last week, Parks Director Doug Chase said. If he doesn’t make the payments, Austin could be served notice that he’s in breach of contract, and his lease eventually terminated.

Spokane County commissioners put a planned sewer rate increase on hold Tuesday evening, giving residents another week to offer written comments, and a week beyond that for them to chew on it. They’re now talking about voting on the increase at their 2 p.m. meeting on July 7.

Sewer rate increases were on the agenda of the public hearing Tuesday, but despite the prospect of a jump of about $11.50 over the next three years, the villagers did not show up with torches and pitchforks.

Commissioners were inclined to hold off anyway, citing the need to review interest rates for 20- and 25-year bonds to pay for the new wastewater treatment plant.

Estimates from a month ago showed a 25-year bond issue could lower residential rates by $2 per month compared to a 20-year bond, but cost an extra $47 million over the life of the bonds, Commission Chairman Todd Mielke said.

“It’s in the county’s and the Valley’s interest to get the lowest possible interest rates,” he said.

The county is also negotiating an interlocal agreement with the city of Spokane Valley that shows the city’s support for the project and the county’s guarantee of service for the length of the bonds, and to create an advisory committee on rates. The two governments agree on the concepts, Mielke said.

Spokane Valley Mayor Rich Munson said the city and county are still discussing some aspects of the agreement, such as the agreement not to use any other source of wastewater treatment for the life of the bonds. It has discussed the possibility of using the city of Spokane’s treatment facility but believes that option “is not a good one.”

It is also concerned that the county cannot yet guarantee it will get a permit from the state to discharge treated water into the Spokane River. But city still believes the county is the best option and expects to reach an agreement.

“I don’t anticipate problems. I do anticipate discussions,” Munson said.

So there’s still time for residents of the county and the city of Spokane Valley to tell commissioners what they think of paying more for sewer (hopefully without using potty mouth terms).

Got something to say? Go inside the blog for addresses.

On the heels of a state auditor’s report that they owe money for law enforcement services, the City of Spokane Valley City Council is holding a special meeting Thursday morning “to discuss dispute resolution regarding billing.”

The city and the county have been arguing over who owes what to whom for deputies and jail time for several years. The city claimed it was being double billed for some services, for an amount that added up over time to more than $2 million.

On Monday, assistant audit manager Gary Cavendar said the city and its Portland accounting firm was using the wrong assumptions to come up with its double-billing claim. Read staff writer John Craig’s report here.

The city isn’t necessarily caving. But the announcement for the 8:30 a.m. special meeting includes the following comment from Mayor Rich Munson:  “It is our intent that the negotiations over this issue move quickly toward a mutually beneficial resolution in a minimum amount of time.” 

 

Clock is ticking down to the deadline to file for political office.

5 p.m. is it. Finito. end of story.

In the meantime, the race for Spokane City Council’s District 2 in south Spokane grew to four Friday afternoon with the entry of Kristina Sabestinas, an aide to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. She joins former councilman Steve Eugster, magazine publisher Jon Snyder, incumbent Mike Allen for that seat.

Northeast Spokane’s District 1 still has two candidates, Amber Waldref and Mike Fagan.

Northwest Spokane’s District 3 has still six: John Waite, Nancy McLaughlin, Karen Kearney, Barbara Lampert, Victor Noder and Christopher Stevens.

In the Spokane Valley, only one council race had two candidates as of lunchtime: the Position 1 seat with incumbent Diana Wilhite and challenger Brenad Grassel.

For the full list for races totally or partially in Spokane County , go inside the blog.

One of the largest public works projects in Spokane County history — one that has been nearly 30 years in the making — got its official start Thursday as local officials held a dirt turner for the $140 million wastewater treatment facility.

For those unfamiliar with such events, a dirt turner is news media terminology for a standard arrow in the public officials’ quiver of events. A bunch of people who have little or no business on a construction site go out to a piece of land that’s been cleared for some big construction project, stand around near heavy equipment, and at the appropriate time stick shovels in the ground and hoist up what is often a pitiful amount of earth to signal the beginning of the project.

Standing on land off Freya Street once occupied by stockyards — any allusion to the by-product of so many cows standing around for so many years is strictly the fault of the county here — elected and appointed government leaders from the county, the city of Spokane Valley and the city of Spokane stuck shovels into the pre-softened soil and complimented each other for their cooperation.

Really. They were extremely nice to each other. Dirt turners bring out the best in public officials.