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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Panel: Hold Off Valley Vote Freeholders Say Delay Vote On Incorporation Until Fall

Some freeholders want the Valley incorporation vote delayed until voters get a look at their own proposal to consolidate Spokane city and county government.

Freeholders, who were elected in November 1992, haven’t completed their work. The best guess is they’ll finish writing their proposal in time for a fall vote.

Valley residents could decide on May 16 whether to form their own city. That vote may be delayed because Spokane is requesting changes in the boundaries for the proposed city.

The freeholders’ proposal would eliminate the city of Spokane, as well as a Spokane Valley city if one is formed. For that reason alone, it would be best to delay the incorporation vote until after consolidation is decided, some freeholders said.

“They’d have five months work into (organizing the new city), then they’d just have to tear it down again,” said Ed Sharman.

Freeholder Judi Williams worries that in the euphoria of having their own city, Valley residents would vote against consolidation without giving it a fair reading.

Better to have the two issues on the same ballot, Williams said.

“A lot of attention would be concentrated on government in a short amount of time,” she said. “People would become educated.”

The sentiment isn’t unanimous.

“Because incorporation has been such an ongoing issue, I’d like to see it on the ballot first, without the conflict of the whole county voting for consolidation,” said freeholder Sue Kaun. “They might work against each other.”

Steve Hasson, who opposes consolidation and supports incorporation, thinks Kaun is right.

“As a county commissioner, there’s no way I’m going to put them on the same ballot,” said Hasson.

Under state law, commissioners have little discretion over the timing of incorporation votes. But the law gives them wide latitude for placing a consolidation proposal on the ballot.

If freeholders wanted their vote first, Hasson said, they should have finished their work sooner. The group originally predicted they’d be done in a year, Hasson noted, “not in half a century.”