Holmes Runs Again For Council
Her work at City Hall isn’t done, so Phyllis Holmes wants another four years on the Spokane City Council.
“We have unfinished business,” she said Wednesday, kicking off her campaign before a cheering crowd of about 40 people.
Holmes has seen several advances since taking office more than three years ago, but she said the changes are fragile.
The city’s neighborhood councils started last year, but they need nurturing, she said. She wants every neighborhood to have a council within the next four years.
The city is in the throes of planning required under the state’s Growth Management Act, and as an active GMA board member, she’s not ready to walk away before the work is done.
Holmes said she wants to stay involved with citizen groups like Spokane Horizons, which is rewriting the city’s land-use plan, and Community Partners, which has worked on the city’s budget and plans to take up street funding next.
Holmes admitted she initially resisted running for a second term. Her first three years were tough, mostly due to the difficulties she had with then-Councilman Chris Anderson. But Anderson is gone, and Cherie Rodgers has taken his place.
“We have a civil setting,” she said. “I began to realize this wasn’t as awful as it had been before.”
Holmes made her announcement in the shade of the Franklin Park picnic shelter, as neighborhood activists, developers and downtown leaders ate hot dogs and chips. Before Holmes’ speedy speech, she and her husband, Bob Voris, danced in perfect sync to the mellow sounds of a band called “Serenade.”
No one has announced plans to run against Holmes.
Council seats held by Mike Brewer and Rodgers, as well as the mayor’s seat, are up for election this fall.
Holmes, 58, is an insurance agent and planner for Principal Financial Group.
She began her foray into Spokane politics in 1993, when she was a leading contender to replace Katie Reikofski, who had left for a job in Europe. Lois Stratton later was chosen for the post.
Holmes narrowly won the election that fall to fill Reikofski’s spot, defeating insurance agent Dave Altmeyer by 722 votes.
, DataTimes