What’s Next For City, County? Voters Reject The Fix, But Many Say Government’s Still Broken

Tuesday’s rejection of Spokane city-county consolidation doesn’t mean all’s well with local government, said people on both sides of the issue.

Nor does it put an end to challenges to the way government operates.

In fact, the failure of consolidation clears the way for a vote to change Spokane city government and for a fourth vote on Valley incorporation.

In addition, business leaders say they’ll work for more cooperation between city and county government, including some of the changes proposed in the unified charter that voters rejected.

And there’s a new crop of would-be political leaders, fresh from three years of intensive education about local government. They are the 25 freeholders who wrote the charter, and some of their unfamiliar names are bound to appear on ballots in the future.

If elected, those former freeholders undoubtedly would try to implement some of the changes their charter proposed.

“I’ll never be uninvolved again. I just can’t be,” said Ann Prideaux, whose political activity prior to becoming a freeholder was limited to behind-the-scenes work.

“I’ll run for City Council,” said Eileen Thomas.

The job could change greatly by the time Thomas gets her chance to run.

With consolidation out of the way, attorney Steve Eugster said he will resume his petition drive to give Spokane a strong-mayor form of government.

The proposal, which Eugster hopes to put on the ballot next fall, would mean council elections by district and a mayor with the authority to make political decisions and veto council members. There would be no city manager.

Eugster’s proposal for the city is remarkably similar to the plan freeholders had for the entire county. The charter, although it failed countywide, was approved by city voters.

“That’s been my sense all along, that the people inside the city of Spokane … would like to have some strong leadership making decisions about urban services,” Eugster said.

In the Valley, where consolidation failed by a wide margin, incorporation proponents say their cause has been given a boost.

“You won’t have this hanging over your head, (with opponents) saying wait to see about consolidation,” said Joe McKinnon, a leader in the drive to form a Valley city.

Valley residents already rejected incorporation three times, most recently in May. Two of the three efforts gained more support from Valley residents than did the consolidation proposal Tuesday.

Incorporation boosters are circulating petitions calling for elections to divide the Valley into four small cities.

It never was clear whether those votes could take place if consolidation passed.

The prospect of more incorporation votes is not welcome news to consolidation backers, who contend the city and Valley are one community, and should be linked.

“It means more of the same,” said Tom Agnew, a Liberty Lake businessman. “We’ll waste more time and energy to decide whether to further divide our community into more governmental units, which takes away from the discussion of how we coordinate our efforts … to move forward as a community.”

Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, said his organization plans to set up teams of business leaders to meet with city and county officials and recommend ways the two entities can better work together.

That may mean “incremental consolidation” a department at a time, he said.

That gradual consolidation is something most freeholders - including the seven who opposed the charter - agree would make government better.

“I wish we could have convinced the whole group to go a little slower,” said former freeholder and charter opponent Kathleen Nuffer, who thinks the separate city and county planning departments would be a good place to start consolidating.

County Commissioner Steve Hasson agreed some provisions of the charter should be enacted. He plans to ask state legislators to give county residents the right to put initiatives and referendums on the ballot.

But Hasson is less inclined to consolidate city and county departments.

Rather, he wants to pull some regional agencies, like the Spokane County Health District, under the county wing, as a way “to eliminate government duplicity.” And he wants to look at consolidating more county departments, as commissioners did with the planning and building departments earlier this year.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo Graphic: Voter turnoff?