Council Tries To Get Along Colleagues Air Differences, Aim For Teamwork

A retreat that began with fiery accusations cooled to a friendly exchange of ideas as Spokane City Council members agreed they need to work as a team.

Council members spent nearly six hours Monday hashing out topics that ranged from hiring an internal auditor to cutting back on the number of meetings.

But before they talked about issues, they discussed how they relate to one another and the city staff.

Councilman Jeff Colliton fired the first shot, taking unnamed colleagues to task for airing criticisms of city employees on radio talk shows.

Last week, Mayor John Talbott and Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers discussed their concerns about the Lincoln Street bridge project on talk radio. Both Rodgers and Talbott have criticized city managers over the recently denied state shoreline permit, saying the city should have reviewed that issue more carefully before spending $9 million on the project.

The state Department of Ecology denied a shoreline permit for the bridge last month, and the city is appealing the decision.

“We need to come up with some kind of agreement as to how we’re going to relate to each other” and the public, Colliton said.

“If we’re going to throw one another under the bus, what kind of a relationship is that?” said Councilwoman Roberta Greene. “If we’re going to go on talk radio and lambast staff, … we’re the ones pushing morale into the toilet.”

Colliton, Greene and Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes urged their colleagues to be careful about what they say to the public and the media. That prompted responses from both Talbott and Rodgers.

“I’m not going to not talk to the press,” Rodgers said. “You have to be honest. … We should be able to disagree and not take it personally.”

“If we’ve got divisiveness and polarization in this community, it didn’t start in the last two months. It’s been building up for years,” Talbott said.

The mayor used the discussion as a launching point to discuss an internal auditor and independent council staff, saying council members need their own evaluations of city issues.

“We’ve only got one side to look at - the side presented by city staff,” Talbott said.

The topic was tabled until later in the day, when council members agreed to compile information on other city councils that have their own staffs.

When talk about how council members communicate came to a close, they turned their attention to an agenda that included the council’s public forum, the initiative process and two-year spending plans.

The council informally agreed to:

Keep the weekly forum session to 30 minutes, limiting all speakers to five minutes each. If more than six people sign up to speak, they will be limited to three minutes each.

Study ways to get more neighborhoods involved in town hall meetings.

Consider putting a charter amendment before city residents that would give the council more flexibility in how often it meets. The current charter says the council must meet weekly.

Consider putting a charter amendment before residents that would limit to 180 days the length of time a person has to gather signatures on an initiative petition. There is no time limit now.

Study ways to make City Hall more user-friendly by moving departments that directly serve residents closer together, such as neighborhood services and historic preservation.

Devote several workshop sessions to next year’s budget, as well as continue changing to a two-year budget cycle.

At Councilman Rob Higgins’ urging, the council agreed to another retreat in April to focus on priorities such as economic development and street improvements.

As the retreat came to a close, Greene pressed her colleagues to work on becoming a better team, which prompted vigorous nods from other council members.

“It’s easy to articulate differences, … but we need to start working on team-building around positive things,” she said. “It’s up to us.”

After the meeting, Colliton said that while it wasn’t exactly a love-in, council members had a chance to voice a few concerns and reach some consensus.

“It was necessary that some of those remarks got aired. … In that regard, it was pretty constructive,” he said.

Talbott agreed. “We started out a little tense, but we mellowed out and made some headway,” he said.

, DataTimes