Spokane7
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May 23, 2010 in City
Valley struggles with ‘change’
Spokane Valley Councilman Dean Grafos, left, and Mayor Tom Towey listen during a meeting in January. Grafos and Towey are new to the council this year.bartr@spokesman.com
(Full-size photo)
Six months after a new majority swept into the Spokane Valley City Council promising “positive change,” there has been change – a good deal of it reversing decisions made by the previous City Council.
The change hasn’t come at the speed new members Brenda Grassel, Tom Towey, Dean Grafos and Bob McCaslin hoped. They, along with veteran council member Gary Schimmels, who was re-elected last year, campaigned together on the “Positive Change” slate.
“I think it’s going in a positive direction for the citizens of Spokane Valley,” Grafos said. “We’re getting more people speaking up.”
Holdover council member Rose Dempsey, who along with council member Bill Gothmann often finds herself at odds with the new majority, attributes the slow pace to the steep learning curve faced by the new members. But she also faults their methods, saying in particular she’s frustrated over how the council majority treats city staff.
“There’s nothing positive in the Positive Change group,” Dempsey said.
Among the actions taken by the council this year:
•The council has waffled on a Comcast franchise agreement that took five years to negotiate and may reopen it.
•They killed a comprehensive plan amendment that city staff worked on for months and said was needed to address safety issues and to bring the city into compliance with federal requirements.
•A road project scheduled to begin in June, for which the city received a nearly $750,000 grant, is in jeopardy.
•A shoreline inventory prepared as part of the city’s Shoreline Master Program stalled after Grassel expressed concerns that there wasn’t enough proof that the Spokane River is polluted by heavy metals and PCBs.
Zoning has been one of Spokane Valley’s biggest issues since the city was incorporated in 2003, and the Positive Change candidates ran opposed to a dramatic overhaul of the city’s policies and zoning for much of Sprague Avenue. But much of that plan, called the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan, is tied to the city’s comprehensive plan, which by state law can only be amended once a year, in November. The new council members discovered they couldn’t make changes to the Sprague/Appleway plan quickly.
Grassel said she thought things would go faster, but, “I’m happy to go through the process, recognizing that not everything in SARP is a bad thing.”
Dempsey, who has been on the council since 2008, said she’s frustrated with the slow progress as well – because the council seems to be focusing on revisiting already-decided issues rather than moving forward. “They want to do good,” she said of the new council majority. “But they don’t really understand that there is a process to do the right thing. You can’t just make a motion at the end of the meeting.”
That learning curve apparently led to a dust-up over the Broadway Avenue Safety Project, which would re-stripe Broadway between Pines and Park roads from four traffic lanes to two traffic lanes, a center turn lane and two bike lanes. The goal is to reduce collisions and make travel safer for pedestrians and cyclists; the changes are supported by the Central Valley School District.
The project was approved in 2007 and is in the city’s six-year Transportation Improvement Plan, which is updated annually and details every road project planned. On April 13, the council unanimously approved an amended 2010 Transportation Improvement Plan, which included the Broadway Avenue project. But at that same meeting Grassel voiced concerns about the Broadway project and whether it was really needed.
Grassel said when she voted to approve the Transportation Improvement Plan, she didn’t realize she was actually accepting the projects it includes. “That was definitely inexperience,” she said. “That is a lesson learned on my part. I will be looking at those more closely.”
Grafos offered a similar argument. “I don’t think the council at that time realized they were approving those (road projects) in their entirety,” he said. Grafos said he expected the Broadway project – for which the city has already spent nearly $50,000 in design work – to come up for approval again.
Grassel said she objects to the project because she’s not certain the changes are needed and the city can’t afford to spend the 20 percent matching funds required for the $933,000 project. She pointed to a projected budget deficit and said she believes the city needs a street-maintenance fund more urgently.
“Budgets have to be prioritized,” she said. “The minute I see my expenses exceeding my revenue, you need to cut something.”
Dempsey said she thinks discussion about a budget deficit is premature. The council was presented with the possibility that a deficit could occur by 2013 if no changes were made, but no deficit currently exists.
“This city is in the best shape of any city in the state of Washington,” Dempsey said. “Yes, our income is down, we do have to cut back on things, but we’re not broke.”
The comprehensive plan amendment that failed would have corrected some errors, changed fence heights and adjusted requirements governing line of sight at intersections. Several council members objected to the amendment because of the provision that would have limited fence height in the front yards of commercial properties to 48 inches, or 36 inches if it was sight-obstructing.
“There were too many things to that,” Grassel said of the amendment. “For me it was the way staff brought it to us. They had not brought it to any business people for input.”
Yet as a comprehensive plan amendment it was considered by the Planning Commission and went through a public hearing, at which no one commented. No one attending the City Council meetings when the amendment was discussed spoke against it, either.
At the time, city staff cautioned that some of the line-of-sight and fencing provisions were needed for safety reasons and not making the changes could make the city legally liable. Grassel said it’s the council’s job to weigh those issues against the needs of property owners, and the proposed changes would be “asking (property owners) to give up too much.”
Grassel said she believes things will go more smoothly once the new council members make their wishes clear to staff. “We’re so new, it’s going to take time for us to convey those to them,” she said.
Dempsey said she is frustrated about how city staff members are being treated by the new council members. “Somehow the council members got the idea that the staff is their enemy,” she said. To be blamed for things that are beyond the staff’s control is “demoralizing,” she added.
Said Dempsey of her new colleagues, “I keep hoping they’ll come around and work for the city instead of against the city.”
Remembering heroes 
skierdc1 on May 23 at 6:28 a.m.
“Positive Change”?? Hardly, judging by the poor decision making mentioned above it is clear that the new comers don’t know a thing about governing. It is more then just meeting in a coffee shop and deciding what should be done. Remarkably stupid statements such as Grassel’s questioning of the pollution in the Spokane river makes one wonder how she got elected. Has she never picked up the paper in, oh say, the last 20 years?!? Unbelievable. Being “new” is no excuse for being unprepared, uneducated and incompetent.
Ninch on May 23 at 7:42 a.m.
Giving too many excuses to new council members based on the “learning curve.” If they were truly looking out for the best interests of their city they would have attended planning and city council meetings and studied up before and during running for election. Were they lazy or just disinterested? Whatever, their stumbling makes them look really bad. As Obama has proved with his own stumbling…. “change” is more than a word. It requires hard work and specific knowledge of how government works as well as “competence” in the policy/subject area.
eagleproducer on May 23 at 8:26 a.m.
Grassel states: “Budgets have to be prioritized,” she said. “The minute I see my expenses exceeding my revenue, you need to cut something.”
Or get a job?
eagleproducer on May 23 at 8:31 a.m.
Bob McCaslin is “new” to government? If by “new” you really mean career politician then I agree.
Hikerboy: You shouldn’t be surprised by anything Valley voters decide. Take a trip to the Winco on Sprague and Farr and you’ll see what I mean. It’s a hybrid of 1986 and the set for the film “Idiocracy.” Oh, and add gun racks in pick ups.
eagleproducer on May 23 at 8:35 a.m.
Cal: Why don’t you let the Valley council members speak for themselves. Are you their elected internet mouthpiece?
After reading your post concerning the Spokane River’s state of pollution I expect you’ll be holding a fish fry at your place soon. I’ll bring a batch of home brew made with the discharge effluent released from the Cowle’s paper mill in MIllwood. The nose isn’t great but the finish is galvanizing!
effrepublicans on May 23 at 9:29 a.m.
CalJones,
Like Ms. Grassel you also have not picked up the newspaper in the last 20 years. If you are unaware, the Dept. of Ecology has spent the last two decades studying, monitoring and reporting on the amount of heavy metals and PCBs that are in the Spokane River. In case you need to know, the Spokane River is the most polluted river in the State for PCBs. Why do you think there are fish advisories on the Spokane River? Would you or Ms. Grassel eat any of the fish from the Spokane River? I didn’t think so unless you want some retarded children. The River has already been well studied and who in the world would let a person like Ms. Grassel determine if the Spokane River is polluted or not. She has a zero environmental, biological and toxicological background. I sure as hell don’t want someone like that, or yourself to make determinations about the waterway that very much supports and defines our community.
DeeDee_Loberg on May 23 at 11:16 a.m.
I have to agree that I have not heard of many positives coming from the “Positive Change” group. I don’t believe their agenda really includes any positive things. The first thing they do is to fire our city manager (ya, that’s positive). CalJones’ comment that our past city manager was corrupt is defamatory.They want to do away with recommendations that have already been invested in. They rail against past decisions and frankly disrupt moving things forward. As soon as I realized that our 4th district Senator was part of the “positive change” group my heart sank. His voting record in the senate is abysmal (400+) missed votes last year. I hate paying(taxes) someone twice to do nothing. The new members who welcomed him with open arms to help lead our city makes me suspect of them.
bdr on May 23 at 1:37 p.m.
Wow spokesman Picking on the council 2 times in the same week. Brenda G isn’t going to like you much.!
Bob McCaslin apparently has taken over for Dick Cheney for politicians past due for retirement. Running government from a wheel chair bound in oxy tubes and nitro patches .
Brenda G was just having a bad hair day with river quality data
asking any youngster the triangulation of multi layered river data would make anyone short of a mathematician’s hair messy.
Grafos gets upset he cant bully the council behind closed doors
like (Russell on survivor show).
Grafos is learning quick he just cant hatchet anything he wants.
Hes probably nibbling his fingernails to the bone by now.
Tom Towey is still learning the ropes as mayor hes even accused himself as being green behind the ears even thou his hair is white.
The new members should thank Bill Gothmann and Rose Dempsey for their courage and knowledge of parliamentary process.Otherwise the new councils Tuesdays meetings would look like an episode from gun smoke.
Everything is going as I predicted (the Positive Change) is running on short change. Basically nothing will happen for the next 2 years.
skierdc1 on May 23 at 6:16 p.m.
Cal Jones you have me busting up laughing! You offer some exceptionally lame rationalization for needing to “study” river clean up when it has been done to death. If Grassel wants to govern then she should educate herself, not stand in the way of progress. And by the way, the Dept of Ecology is not a bunch of environmentalists-they are the government body who’s responsibility it is to keep our waterways clean. Do you have a family member or friend on the new council? You seem to lack objectivity here….
WFaulkner on May 24 at 6:27 a.m.
Hurrah for the New City Council! Make those bureaucrats prove their case instead of just throwing money at a perceived problem like the old City Council. It’s our money, not theirs, so spend it wisely.
Heck, probably all you guys posting here except Cal Jones work for DOE. Every Spring the Spokane River flushes everything out to the ocean, so where are all the PCB’s coming from? They’re already seeping out from various time release locations deposited a long time ago that we can’t do anything about, except throw money down a rat hole for almost return.
Socialists never see a problem they don’t try to cash in on.
DeeDee_Loberg on May 24 at 9:26 a.m.
Socialists never see a problem they don’t try to cash in on.
Spoken like a true Hannity fan.
eagleproducer on May 25 at 11:57 a.m.
WFaulkner: Re-read “As I Lay Dying.” Then become Addy.
addyh on May 28 at 9:58 a.m.
I deleted the comment from CalJones that other comments are referencing. It was brought to my attention that it contained a defamatory statement.
Addy Hatch, city editor