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July 25, 2011 in City
Varied views spice up council race
Longtime experience meets new outlook in battle for president
Clockwise, from top left: Ben Stuckart, Dennis Hession, Steve Corker, Victor Noder
(Full-size photo)
A late entry in the race for Spokane City Council president turned what otherwise would have been a sleepy primary into a campaign with interest.
Voters can chose among a newcomer to city politics, two of the most experienced political leaders in Spokane, and a long-shot candidate. The two who finish with the most votes will face each other in the November election. Ballots for the Aug. 16 primary will be mailed this week.
Former Mayor Dennis Hession entered the race for the nonpartisan position only last month, and he’s nearly caught up with City Councilman Steve Corker with about $11,000 in financial contributions. Ben Stuckart, who started and leads a nonprofit group focused on education, has raised three times as much as either of them.
Hession and Corker have name recognition and long histories in city government. Hession’s history includes two years as City Council president.
“I came to the position at a time of great turmoil. The council was treating each other poorly and the public poorly,” Hession said at a League of Women Voters debate last month. “I restored order to the council and recaptured an atmosphere of civility and respect.”
Corker, who is finishing his eighth year on the City Council, says experience is essential in a time of hard economic choices. He also is running on a pledge to improve civility in the council chambers, a not-so-hidden jab at retiring council President Joe Shogan, who has a reputation for frankness and outbursts.
“I plan to bring a more civil leadership to the City Council, one that respects the audience, people who testify, as well as my fellow council members,” he said.
Stuckart is using Corker’s and Hession’s experience to his advantage.
Spokane residents “can vote for people who have been part of government for eight out of the last 12 years,” Stuckart said. “Or they can vote for a fresh, new perspective that will bring the same success that I had in the nonprofit world and in the business world.”
Also running is Victor Noder, a long-shot candidate and handyman who refers to himself as VTG for “Victor the Green.” He came in sixth in a six-way primary for a City Council seat in 2009, capturing less than 3 percent of the vote.
All of the candidates reject tax and fee increases as ways to balance the budget. But Corker is the most direct in his willingness to cut programs that aren’t related to police, fire or streets to deal with the city’s shortfall, estimated at $7 million for 2012. It’s a reality the city needs to come to terms with, he says.
“We can’t have across-the-board cuts,” Corker said at the debate last month. “We’re undermining the ability of programs to fulfill their purposes. We’re going to have to cut departments.”
Hession said he’d be willing to cut programs, but only after other options, including partnerships with other governments, nonprofits or businesses, are explored. Of the programs suggested for possible elimination by Mayor Mary Verner, Hession said he would not support cutting the youth department.
“I don’t want to adopt a ‘let’s get rid of people’ platform to balance the budget,” he said. Departments like arts, youth, and weights and measures are so small that eliminating them would provide little relief to the city’s budget, he said.
Stuckart says no departments should be eliminated and that if the city focused more attention on economic development for small businesses and in neighborhood centers, the city’s financial woes could be solved.
“This will give us the revenue to keep our streets maintained and keep police officers and firefighters employed and keep our libraries open,” Stuckart said. “We need to look forward, not look forward to cutting services.”
Stuckart became known on Spokane’s political scene last year as a leader of the campaign for the Children’s Investment Fund initiative, which was rejected by voters. The proposed tax increase would have funded programs aimed at lowering the high school dropout rate in Spokane.
He had an early start in his campaign, gathering key endorsements and getting a big fundraising lead. He has the endorsement of the Spokane County Democratic Party even though Corker is a former chairman of the group.
Corker has a long history in Spokane politics and business, and he often takes a professorial tone when speaking at City Council meetings. As he considers issues facing the council, it’s not unusual for him to ask what the country’s forefathers would think. He was first elected to the Spokane City Council in 1999 and served in a tumultuous period when leaders grappled with the city’s controversial partnership with the Cowles Co. over the River Park Square garage. Cowles Co. also owns The Spokesman-Review. Corker was a critic of that deal, though after he left the council he voiced support for settling a series of lawsuits surrounding the case in 2004.
In his current term, he’s sometimes been a swing vote. He was on the winning side of a 4-3 vote, for instance, that allowed the Spokane Park Board to purchase and demolish the former YMCA in Riverfront Park.
He opposed the $20-per-vehicle tab tax and impact fees – taxes on development to pay for street and traffic upgrades. Last week, he said he would oppose a 13 percent increase in the sewer fee that administrators say is needed to pay for state-required sewer upgrades. In 2009, he voted for a 15 percent increase in the sewer fee and argued that the city could not shrink from its responsibility to help clean up the river and should move forward on required projects to improve treatment and prevent the dumping of raw sewage into the river.
Corker said this week that his position on sewer rates was affected by the economic downturn.
“Two years ago we were hoping that things would change and we would get better,” Corker said, adding that the state needs to “give us a chance to get out of this mess.”
Past election opponents have criticized Corker for his links to Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc., a $2.1 billion conglomerate that collapsed in 2004. Corker says his biggest involvement in the firm was as a board member of Western United Life Assurance Co., a part of Metropolitan that stayed afloat even after Metropolitan failed. Last year, he married Helen Sandifur, the ex-wife of Metropolitan’s former CEO.
Hession won a seat on the council in 2001 after serving for more than a decade on the Spokane Park Board. Two years later, he won a citywide election to lead the council. He voted for the River Park Square settlement and sponsored the change to allow city workers to get benefits for domestic partners, winning enough votes to prevent a veto from then-Mayor Jim West.
He was elevated to mayor in late 2005 when voters recalled West. He endorsed a vigorous police ombudsman system modeled after Boise’s that has not been implemented here, and he successfully pursued the annexation of land along North Division Street, including sales tax revenue sponge Costco.
He allowed the two-year property tax boost approved by voters under West to expire as promised. Hession won praise for bringing stability back to the office of mayor, but his relations with City Council were sometimes shaky and his relations with unions were worse. His decision to fire the community development director and his plan to end trash pickup in alleys to save money caused some neighborhood leaders to rally against him during his unsuccessful bid to win a full term in 2007.
MAC faces angry crowd 
drywitt99 on July 25 at 2:45 a.m.
Boy I hate non-partisan elections!
Make ‘em put a (D) or an (R) after their name so I’ll know who to vote for…..and who to scorn and ridicule!!
Lulubelle on July 25 at 7:41 a.m.
Well if work ethic has anything to do with it, Stuckart wins hands down. He’s been out pounding the pavement meeting voters and listening to small business folks’ concerns. The other two appear to be sitting on their backsides hoping the old boy name recognition will be enough……too bad for them, that name recognition carries some substantial baggage.
I want a Council President that isn’t afraid of some hard work, that listens to people and has the leadership ability to move disparate groups and issues toward resolution.
My vote is for Ben Stuckart.
Fetch on July 25 at 7:46 a.m.
Verner - D She is also part of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Stuckart - D
Brothers Noder - I
Corker - D
Hession - D Note, I believe Dennis is the one who signed Spokane into the un-Constitutional UN mandated Agenda 21. We are now paying the UN $20,000+ per year to the UN.
Condon - R
DickAdams on July 25 at 7:50 a.m.
Remember Corker endorsed the agreement between the Cowles Dynasty and the city of Spokane, where the taxpayers are paying full price, $26 million, until the year 2030, for the River Park Square garage and then the Lilac City gave it back to the Cowles family free and clear. Corker, also loves to hear himself talk and is always available for photo ops.
indiethinker on July 25 at 8:16 a.m.
I think the voters of this town have already spoken on what they think about the ‘experience’ of Hession and Corker. Q: How many times have these two been on the ballot in previous years? A: Too many.
Time for some reliable, solid, practical experience on the council. Time for Ben Stuckart…
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on July 25 at 8:20 a.m.
As soon as Hawken and Dazzee tell me which one is the worst, I will know who to vote for.
soccermomsusie on July 25 at 9:10 a.m.
I can’t believe that there is not one Tea-Party-certified candidate running for city council president. Luckily, David Condon (our Tea Party candidate for mayor) will be able to override any of these Demoncrats running for president.
Considering the least of all evils, I will be voting for Dennis Hession. He used to sleep a lot during city council meetings. If he is asleep, he can only dream about promoting the United Nations takeover of Spokane. I think I heard him talking in his sleep once when his microphone was on. I swear he was talking Russian or Mexican.
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!
Lulubelle on July 25 at 9:43 a.m.
Astute observation Susie…….Hession, the snoozer in dreamland and Corker, the windbag putting him (and the rest of us at council meetings) to sleep.
Either way, and seriously, they’rd be a whole lotta lost opportunities to move this city forward if either of these guys elected.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on July 25 at 9:56 a.m.
Srsly though, Hession used to belong to my gym. I’ve seen him naked. He’s got my vote ;)
Dazzeetrader11 on July 25 at 1:20 p.m.
Verner and Shogan engineered the buyout of RPS Dick. Corker signed under duress…as they all did.
Corker is a diplomat and it’s been made hard with the new leftwing members of this crazy overboard green movement.
He has experience. Ben Stuckart has none.
COndon can get the city moving again…if for no other reason than his connections to DC…like Tom Foley (D) did in the 80s and 90s. This is NOT to be underestimated. The city needs a big turnaround. Verner put the city in worse shape by far than when she began spending money with no hope of paying it back without higher fees and taxes. Above all, this woman needs to go!
Corker, Condon, Allen and Salvatori..mix of D’s and R’s will do the best job. ALL with business backgrounds and all competent.
riverlaw on July 25 at 2:21 p.m.
It strikes me that two of the candidates are doing it for the job and one is doing it for his community.
greenlibertarian on July 25 at 6:19 p.m.
None of them will save us when the Blue Helmeted goons take over.
WOLVERINES!
brianrbreen on July 29 at 8:39 a.m.
Here is an interesting SR investigative piece from 2006. Even though it doesn’t tell the whole sordid story it does provide some insight concerning how a candidate might view oversight of the SPD, and transparency in local government.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/aug/27/city-paid-cop-who-kicked-suspect/