Three vie to represent South Side on council

Winning an appointment to the Spokane City Council last year out of a field of 27 applicants was a big accomplishment for Mary Verner.

Now she must defend her March 2004 appointment during this year’s primary election on Sept. 20. Voters in the South Side’s council District 2 will narrow the three-way race to the top two finalists for the citywide general election ballot in November.

Verner’s two challengers – Jeffrey D. Bierman and Dallas Hawkins – also were applicants for the council appointment to fill the seat left open when Dennis Hession won election as council president in 2003.

All three candidates are accomplished professionals with strong backgrounds in public affairs, and they share similar views on some issues. Definable differences exist.

Verner, 49, is the executive director of Upper Columbia United Tribes, with lengthy experience in tribal, community and environmental affairs. She spent two years working in environmental protection in the Virgin Islands. Verner is a pilot and descendant of the Muskogee.

She moved to the Spokane area in 1992 to take a job with the Spokane Indian Tribe, and moved into the city of Spokane in 2002.

Bierman, 37, is a physics professor at Gonzaga University with a resume of community participation. Most notably, he has served on the city Plan Commission starting in 2001. He earned his doctoral degree with a dissertation on the distribution of nuclear fusion barriers.

Bierman worked in the nuclear physics lab at the University of Washington before moving to Spokane in 1996 to take a teaching job at GU. In his spare time, he loves to run.

Hawkins, 53, is an insurance agency owner and chairman of the city’s Citizens’ Streets Commission. He was part of a citizen committee that helped develop a successful street bond issue last year. His father, Dallas E. Hawkins, was a Texas oil wildcatter who moved the family to Calgary, Alberta, where Hawkins attended high school. He came to Spokane in 1975 to attend Gonzaga University.

Under the city charter, the primary election is decided by voters in each of the city’s three geographic council districts. The finalists from each district then appear on the citywide ballot in the general election.

Neighborhood issues such as streets, planning and growth have added significance in a primary election because of the narrower district-only voting base.

Verner is calling for sustainable economic development that brings environmentally friendly businesses to the city. “We don’t want to pave paradise,” she said.

Bierman wants a strategic expansion of neighborhood commercial areas, including a stronger retail presence in the area of 44th Avenue and Regal Street. “As a city, I think we need to find ways to get commercial development back into the city,” he said.

Hawkins said he wants the city to encourage healthy business areas in neighborhoods. He has worked on a controversial proposal to allow modest commercial expansion in the area near 29th Avenue and Grand Boulevard and along Grand south to 38th Avenue.

“We have to do proper planning at our centers and corridors if we are going to overcome the bigger problem of urban sprawl,” he said.

While neighborhood issues are getting attention in the campaign, problems at City Hall have permeated political debate this year.

The city budget is facing a $6 million shortfall in 2006, and the city could be forced into a second round of cuts involving police, fire, libraries, streets and other tax-funded services.

All three candidates are talking about ways to get costs under control, and at the same time finding new revenue.

Verner wants a strategic plan for economic growth. Bierman agrees with the need for new revenue, and is calling for more annexations. Hawkins said businesses must be nurtured and encouraged.

Another part of the campaign debate revolves around allegations of sexual impropriety and abuse of power against Mayor Jim West.

Verner has become an outspoken critic of the mayor, and was a vocal supporter of a resolution last spring in which the council unanimously called for West to resign, as have other community leaders.

She said the mayor violated workplace ethics through inappropriate communication with young men, including offers of City Hall positions to young men he hoped to date.

Hawkins said he supports the council’s move to undertake an internal investigation of possible violations of employee policies by West, as well as creation of an impeachment process for mayors. But he was against the call for the mayor to resign.

“I think it was premature,” Hawkins said.

Bierman said it was appropriate for individual council members to call for the mayor’s resignation. He also said he would support an impeachment provision.

But on the resolution calling for resignation, Bierman said, “I think that was a mistake by the council.”

Verner said she has studied transcripts of an investigation by The Spokesman-Review into the mayor’s activities, and the text of the FBI’s affidavit requesting a search warrant for the mayor’s home, a search that was approved by a judge and conducted on July 27.

“Perhaps they haven’t had as much information as I have,” Verner said of her opponents’ views of the mayor’s problems.

On other issues, Verner and Bierman said they would keep Joe Albi Stadium. Hawkins said he would like to keep it, but not if it is too big of a drain on the city budget. The mayor and his staff said it costs $300,000 to $400,000 a year to keep Albi open. The City Council on Aug. 29 voted against selling it.

Verner and Hawkins supported a recently approved ordinance limiting the demolition of historic buildings in the downtown area and in historic districts. Older buildings under the ordinance cannot be demolished without plans for another building.

Bierman, who lives in a historic home on North Altamont Boulevard, spoke against the measure. “I think that ordinance crossed the line of private property rights,” he said.

As a council member, Verner voted in favor of an ordinance extending city benefits to unmarried domestic partners of employees. She said she wants the extension to become part of a cafeteria-style menu of benefit options that would be negotiated with unions. As of now, it has no cost to the city, she said.

Both Bierman and Hawkins questioned the measure for its potential cost to the city, although Bierman said he likes the idea of allowing it under a menu of benefit options.

The three candidates each said they support environmental protections in Spokane. In addition, Bierman said he supports a compromise with state ecology officials over the amount of phosphorus that can be released into the Spokane River.

Mary Verner

Personal: 49, single, two children

Education: Houston Academy, Dothan, Ala.; bachelor’s degree, Davidson College, 1988; master’s degree, Yale University, 1992; law degree, Gonzaga University, 1999.

Professional/job history: coordinator of enforcement for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, 1988-1990; part-time employment during graduate school; director of natural resources for Spokane Indian Tribe, 1992-2001; executive director of Upper Columbia United Tribes, 2002 to present.

Political experience: lifelong grassroots activist in environmental and youth affairs, plus job experience.

Key issues: Get citizens involved in decision making; make informed decisions through study and public comment; seek sustainable economic growth.

Money: $4,235 raised; top donors, Robert E. Harless, $2,000, Kootenai Tribe, $500, John and Sally Verner, $500, Chris Marr, $300, Rocky Rothrock, $250.

Quote: “We don’t want to pave paradise.”

Person who influenced most: son, Daniel, 7, daughter, Diane Rice, 23.

Favorite U.S. president: Theodore Roosevelt.

First priority if elected: knuckle down with economic development partners to create a five-year strategy for growth in the economy.

Jeffrey D. Bierman

Personal: 37, married, three children.

Education: Hastings Senior High School, Hastings, Neb., 1986; bachelor’s degree, Hastings College; master’s degree, University of Washington; doctoral degree, University of Washington.

Professional/job history: assistant at nuclear physics lab and physics department at University of Washington, 1993-1996; physics instructor, Green River College, 1995-1996; physics professor, Gonzaga University, 1996-present (full professor in 2004).

Political experience: Spokane Plan Commission starting in 2001; Spokane Design Review Committee, 2000-2003; Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation to SRTC, 2000-2001; Spokane Housing Advisory and Appeals Board, 1997-1999.

Key issues: aggressively seek long-term sources of city revenue; push for new commercial growth through strategic expansion of business areas; update city zoning code and land-use plan.

Money: Low-budget campaign, no reported contributions so far.

Quote: “I think we need to find ways to get that commercial growth back into the city.”

Person who influenced you most: mother, Sharon Sprague.

Favorite U.S. president: Thomas Jefferson.

First priority if elected: push annexation and revision of land-use plan.

Dallas Hawkins

Personal: 53, married, five children.

Education: Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, 1970; Alberta; bachelor’s degree, Gonzaga University, 1981.

Professional/job history: U.S. Air Force, 1972 to 1976; general manager, Northwest Electronics, 1979 to 1987; insurance agent, 1987 to 1997; owner, Spokane Falls Insurance, 1997 to present.

Political experience: served last year on citizen’s committee that helped plan city street bond; chair of Citizen’s Street Commission, 2005; helped found All-City Traffic and Transportation Committee, late 1990s; Rockwood Neighborhood Council chair, 2001 to 2004.

Key issues: getting control of city budget to stop cuts in basic services; promoting economic development; making sure neighborhoods are strong.

Money: $3,660 raised, including $1,850 in loans from Hawkins and Hawkins Family LLC; top donors, Mary Ann Hawkins, $500, Charles Caneer, $300, Joseph K. Nichols Sr., $300, Paul Fitzpatrick, $200.

Quote: “We need to take advantage of all the wonderful volunteers we have in our neighborhoods.”

Person who influenced you most: father, Dallas E. Hawkins II.

Favorite U.S. president: Ronald Reagan.