u 2011 Washington General Election

A historic building slated for the wrecking ball could get a friend in the Spokane City Council. Late last year, Washington State University-Spokane announced it would sell a 102-year-old warehouse called the Jensen-Byrd building so a development company could tear down the brick building and erect student housing. Last month, the city-county Historic Landmarks Commission determined the building is eligible to be placed on historic registries. … Read more

Spokane city leaders are readying for a showdown with the Spokane Firefighters Union over a three-year contract negotiated between the firefighters and former Mayor Mary Verner in the final days of her administration. But challenging the deal could prove risky for the City Council and force the city to give the union a more generous contract than the one now before them. Read more

Spokane Mayor David Condon will hold his salary at $100,000 this year as promised, despite the recent controversy over his predecessor’s pay. But he said he will review his options and the city’s legal opinions and may take more next year. Read more

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said she expects only one count of votes tonight. Results should be released about 8:15 p.m. She said including today's mail, the county has received about 100,000 ballots. About 90,000 of those will be counted in the numbers released tonight. Dalton said once all the ballots are returned, the county expects to receive between 130,000 and 140,000 ballots. … Read more

The Spokane County Republican Party, which has previously declined to endorse candidates running as Republicans against Democrats when they declined to sign the county party's platform, has sent out recommendations for how to vote in Tuesday's nonparitsan city elections. The picks include: David Condon for mayor, Mike Fagan, Steve Salvatori and Mike Allen for City Council and Dennis Hession for City Council president. … Read more

Only one of the 10 candidates on the ballot next week for Spokane city office agreed to sign a pledge promising to oppose any Spokane Police Guild contract unless the union agrees to stronger police oversight, the Center for Justice reported this week. A coalition of groups including the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane asked the candidates as well as four City Council members not running in elections this fall if they would sign a pledge promising not to vote for a guild contract unless the union agrees to the provisions of the ombudsman ordinance that recently was repealed. The city's 2010 police ombudsman law was thrown out by the City Council last month after an arbitrator ruled that the rules needed to be agreed to by the guild. Only Donna McKereghan, who is running for the City Council seat in Northeast Spokane signed the pledge. … Read more

Spokane City Council hopefuls Steve Salvatori and Joy Jones explain why they think they would be the best next council member to serve District 3, which covers Northwest Spokane. Read more

Residents of northwest Spokane have two appealing choices for the District 3 City Council position: Steve Salvatori and Joy Jones. The Spokesman-Review endorses Salvatori based on his experience as a small businessman concerned about the cumulative effect of recent fee and rate increases passed by the council. Read more

The race to represent Northwest Spokane has turned into one about priorities. Is the top priority jobs, as Steve Salvatori argues, or is jobs one of many priorities, as Joy Jones says? Read more

Candidates for Spokane City Council responded to 20 questions from The Spokesman-Review soon after filing to run for office. Because only two candidates filed to run for the Northwest seat, there wasn’t a primary and none of the responses given by Steve Salvatori and Joy Jones ran in the print edition until today. To read more questions and responses, go to The Spokesman-Review’s Election Center at spokesman.com/elections. Read more

Much is different and much is the same in Envision Spokane’s second attempt to get voters to approve a version of its Community Bill of Rights. Its proposal on the November ballot is significantly scaled down. Instead of the nine rights the group floated in its failed 2009 citizen initiative, this list only includes four. Read more

Joy Jones gives her positions on taxes, libraries, streets and other issues facing the city in The Spokesman-Review’s Spokane City Council candidate questionnaire. Jones faces Steve Salvatori in the race for a seat representing Northwest Spokane. Read more

Steve Salvatori gives his positions on taxes, libraries, streets and other issues facing the city in The Spokesman-Review’s Spokane City Council candidate questionnaire. Salvatori faces Joy Jones in the race for a seat representing Northwest Spokane. Read more

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has won the seal of approval from the Spokane County Democratic Party for a new term. The party's endorsement committee voted Monday to endorse Verner for mayor, Ben Stuckart for City Council president, Joy Jones for the City Council seat representing Northwest Spokane and incumbent Richard Rush for the seat representing South Spokane, said David Smith, chairman of the party. Smith said Verner and Rush also won the party's support in 2007. “She's even more popular among Democrats than she was four years ago,” Smith said. None of the picks are that surprising, though the decision to endorse Stuckart is somewhat of a snub to City Councilman Steve Corker, a former chairman of the party who is vying for council president. Smith said Stuckart was the only council president candidate who requested an endorsement. … Read more

The race for Spokane mayor is getting more interesting. The Spokane Regional Labor Council has released the list of candidates it supports for the August primary and Spokane Mayor Mary Verner isn't on the list. That's a bit of a surprise given her recent support for a labor-backed change to contracting rules giving the city wider lattitude to pass over low bidders on contracts when a low bidder has had recent problems following labor, environmental or other laws. … Read more

The race for a City Council seat representing Northwest Spokane already is down to two. Karen Kearney, chairwoman of the Balboa South Indian Trail Neighborhood Council, late last week withdrew her candidacy for the seat currently held by Councilman Steve Corker, who is running for City Council president. The remaining candidates are Steve Salvatori, owner of the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center; and Joy Jones, program manager of Mentoring Children of Promise, a youth program run by Goodwill Industries. Kearney said she decided to withdraw because of “family health issues.” “Due to increases in demands upon my time outside of the electoral process, I cannot devote the time required for a successful campaign,” she said. Read more

Two candidates who previously said they would run for Spokane City Council formally took the plunge on Thursday morning. Donna McKereghan, former chairwoman of the Logan Neighborhood Council, and Steve Salvatori, owner of the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center, filed paperwork to officially become candidates. McKereghan joins a crowded field for the chance to take the seat representing Northeast Spokane. … Read more

Karen Kearney will return to ballot in August in hopes of landing a seat representing Northwest Spokane on City Council. Kearney pledges to be more visible in the district than the current council members who serve Northwest Spokane, Nancy McLaughlin and Steve Corker. “When I go into businesses and multiple businesses and they say they have never met their councilperson, and they don't even know who they are, I have issues with that,” Kearney said. Read more

Downtown businessman Steve Salvatori filed paperwork this month to launch a bid for Spokane City Council. Salvatori, a Republican who run unsuccessfully for the Spokane County Commission last year, hopes to win the seat representing Northwest Spokane that will be vacated by Councilman Steve Corker. Corker announced late last year that he will run for City Council president. Salvatori has been meeting with various city leaders in the last few months to explore bids for City Council, City Council president or mayor. His paperwork announcing his run was filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission on Jan. … Read more