Two Vie For Numbers’ City Council Seat

A retired U.S. Army colonel and an energy management specialist are hoping to take Bev Numbers’ seat on the Spokane City Council.

The three candidates running for the four-year term in Position 3 will face off in Tuesday’s primary. The two top vote-getters advance to the Nov. 7 general election.

The race is non-partisan and citywide.

Jeff Colliton, a retired colonel, took a real estate class from Numbers at Spokane Community College several years ago.

He refuses to make any campaign promises, saying he “needs to look at how the city functions” from the inside before he suggests changes.

Colliton said he believes in surrounding himself with good people and not “micro-managing.” He points to his Army years during downsizing as proof he can manage a budget.

“We did save money,” he said. “We did make things more efficient.”

Colliton said he’s read the city’s budget twice and “it makes no more sense to me now than it did then.” He said he refuses to second-guess the current council’s decisions until he’s been through the process.

He supports improving the streets, overhauling the Spokane Transit Authority and building a north-south freeway.

Incumbent Numbers, a semi-retired real estate agent, was appointed to the council in 1990 and ran unopposed in 1991.

Numbers said she recently put her real estate career on hold because she couldn’t divide herself between that and her council seat.

“The pressure was just too much,” she said, adding that she wants to be a full-time council member.

Numbers says the answers to the city’s budget woes lie in the work of the Community Partners, a council-appointed committee charged with finding out what services residents want.

“The answer is prioritization,” Numbers said.

Numbers brushes off critics such as challenger Ken Withey who say she and other council members don’t listen to residents’ concerns.

“I have to look at the overall picture and how it affects the total, not the very singular, very ‘I’ oriented” view, she said.

Numbers considers her top issues improved public safety, traffic flow and economic development.

Withey, an energy-management specialist for the Central Valley School District, describes himself in campaign literature as a member of the “group of nine.”

The informal citizens watchdog group frequently criticizes council actions, especially its spending practices.

Withey helped organize a petition drive to put a proposal for the Pacific Science Center to a public vote.

He said he thinks the city’s budget is filled with “dead weight.”

“Everything needs to be on the table, no sacred cows,” Withey said. “You can start with my salary. That could be reduced.”

Council members are paid $18,000 a year.

Withey said his top priorities are improving the process by which the council makes decisions and expanding the powers of community policing substations.

“You’ve got to get the people involved, let them make decisions,” he said.

, DataTimes MEMO: See candidate profiles by name