Voters Making Their Points While Candidates Gear Up
A South Hill woman thinks Spokane Valley residents should be able to incorporate their own city.
A Valley man, who opposed incorporation, likes the Spokane County freeholders’ proposal for city-county unification.
A Spokane woman has misgivings about law enforcement priorities.
And a Colbert retiree has a whole list of reasons why “government at the local level needs some real shaking up.”
It will be months before these and other Spokane County voters make their decisions in a handful of city, county and legislative elections. But candidates already are preparing for the 1995 campaigns. Why shouldn’t the voters?
Wayne Lythgoe of Colbert is. He says he’s looking for candidates who will cut government 10 percent, reduce salaries and benefits of public workers making more than $50,000 a year, trim government pensions, privatize as many functions as possible and reduce taxes and fees.
“The cost of government is going up two to three times the rate of inflation and population growth,” he said. “Why?”
Larry Valadez lives in the part of the Spokane Valley that recently rejected incorporation. He voted no, largely because county Commissioner Steve Hasson might have become the new city’s mayor.
Valadez says he prefers the freeholders’ approach of rolling city and county governments into one.
“We’re doubling up on services that could more easily be combined under one controlling authority,” he said.
Melody Thompson of Spokane says she wants candidates with honesty, integrity, ability and leadership experience and who will participate responsibly (she sees too much buffoonery now) in meetings.
She also says she would like to see police handle juvenile crime more effectively.
“As far as drugs and gangs go, I don’t think they’re doing enough. We have police giving out jaywalking tickets and gang members walking up and down the halls of the high schools and junior high schools.”
“I see a lot of money being spent that I don’t think is spent wisely,” said Dorothy Thorpe of Spokane. For example, she says, the library and Coliseum could have been renovated rather than being replaced. She also says she has doubts about the brick-paving work being done on Wall Street in downtown Spokane.
Valley incorporation was a good idea, and candidates should allow that to happen, she said.
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