Neighborhood Councils Agree Code Of Ethics Needed

Representatives of Spokane’s neighborhood councils voted last week to develop and uphold a code of ethics for the fledgling organization.

The action came after the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood group agreed to take money from a businessman looking to vacate a street in the area.

Beacon Dry Cleaner owner, Hi Bum Kim, trying to rally support for a street vacation, offered $10,500 to the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood council, which was opposing the request.

Neighborhood council members agreed to accept the money. Later, the council dropped its opposition to the street vacation on Adams Street, between Mansfield and Northwest Boulevard.

No money has been exchanged yet. All agreements were made during neighborhood meetings and recorded.

Jay Cousins, chairman of the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood council, said this situation is no different than any other neighborhood asking a developer to build a park or plant street trees to offset the impacts of a project.

Members of other neighborhood councils disagreed. Friday, they said no matter what the intentions, the situation gives the appearance of taking a bribe.

“It was simply a gesture, but the gesture could be interpreted as consideration of a vote,” said Al French, chairman of the assembly of neighborhood councils.

“We are reacting more to the appearance of this,” said French. “We’re saying get rid of the appearance that anything is wrong.”

The issue was brought to the assembly of neighborhood councils Friday afternoon; the assembly dealt with it swiftly.

“I wish other organizations would deal out in the open as much as we did,” said French.

Molly Myers, director of the city’s office of Neighborhood Services, said the Emerson-Garfield situation is probably the first in a number of missteps the young program will encounter.

“We’ve never been down this road before. How do we know where all the stumbling blocks are?” Myers said. “We are constantly defining what the roles are.

“I’m consistently amazed by the level of support that the neighborhoods show for each other, and this was a real test,” she said. “This isn’t fun, but it has to happen.”

Cousins said without some sort of mitigation, the Emerson-Garfield council wouldn’t have supported the street vacation. He still wasn’t convinced his group had made a poor decision.

“I think the rest of the councils needs to take a good long look at what they are doing in their own neighborhoods,” said Cousins. “I think they are confusing gut-level moral outrage with ethics.

“This is a handshake deal between ourselves and Mr. Kim.”

Kim said he donated the money to help the neighborhood.

“I tried to make it fair to everybody,” said Kim.

Lois M. Snider, who lives near the proposed street vacation, was surprised by the deal between the neighborhood group and Kim. She said she wasn’t invited or told about the neighborhood meeting.

Snider wrote a letter to the City Council outlining her concerns. She also presented a petition with 30 names to City Council opposing the street vacation.

“This just got out of hand,” said Snider. “I thought the neighborhood association was supposed to represent the people who are involved. But they didn’t even notify us of meetings. That got us upset.

“None of us believe this was the right way to go about this situation,” she said.

The street vacation issue is scheduled to come back before City Council Feb. 2.

Kim has since become a member of the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood council.

, DataTimes