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November 16, 2011 in City
Ex-city economic director to lead Condon transition
Verner concedes, discusses departure plan
Spokane Mayor-elect David Condon, right, speaks to the media about his transition team Tuesday at Second Space Gallery. He named three of his transition team members, including, from left, Ezra Eckhardt, Katy Bruya, and Theresa Sanders.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Spokane Mayor-elect David Condon on Tuesday announced that his transition will be led by the city’s former economic development director, and he promised to oversee an open government.
“Obviously, I am very humbled, very, very humbled at the outpouring of support that the voters have shown. I do think that it is a true honor to serve and to be expected to serve as their mayor,” Condon said at a news conference Tuesday at the Second Space Gallery in downtown Spokane. “I’m dedicated to living up to the trust the voters have put within me. The voters clearly want a City Hall that’s open, accountable and responsive.”
Theresa Sanders, who served as the city’s economic development director from 2007 until 2009, will oversee five task forces that will focus on public safety, growing jobs, the city budget, meeting “infrastructure needs without drastic increases in our utility rates,” and enhancing quality of life. Each committee will prepare recommendations for Condon’s transition to mayor of Washington’s second-largest city, as well as recruit new administrators.
“The role of the transition committee over the next several weeks is to help me find talented people that are willing to help me as the mayor serve the people of Spokane and help me to prepare the city to work effectively from day one,” Condon said.
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner conceded the race on Tuesday, and said she waited this long because she owed it to her supporters to make sure voters had their say.
“I have only a few days left in this year to make sure that I leave the city in good condition,” Verner said at her Steam Plant Square campaign headquarters in downtown Spokane. “We used to go camping when I was a kid and I was always taught that you leave your site better than when you found it, and that’s what I’m trying to do with the city.” Condon said his top goals will be working to fix the economy and getting the city’s “costs under control.”
“We need to get our economy back. How does Spokane become a jobs magnet?” Condon said. “How do we make it a great place to locate a business, and also how do we grow businesses locally?”
He said he will accept recommendations from the public for his transition at condontransition.org.
As mayor, Condon will have the authority to dismiss most department directors and assistant directors without cause. He said he plans to meet with all of them in the coming weeks.
During the campaign he only pinpointed one City Hall employee who was likely to lose his job, Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi. Treppiedi has led much of the city’s response to a lawsuit it faces from the family of Otto Zehm, who died after a police confrontation in 2006. Assistant city attorneys serve at the pleasure of the city attorney, who serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
On Tuesday, Condon said Treppiedi’s status, like all at-will employees, will be reviewed in the coming weeks.
“What I’ve been privy to is, I would have a lack of confidence in … the legal opinions of Rocky at this point, but we’ll make those decisions as we get into City Hall,” Condon said.
Standing in the audience at the news conference was Treppiedi’s boss, City Attorney Howard Delaney. Afterward, Delaney said he attended the news conference because he’s “looking forward to working on the transition and preparing the city for a new mayor.”
Asked about his future with the city, Delaney said he believes his tenure leading the city attorney’s office “has been a positive one.” Delaney said it would be inappropriate to comment about Treppiedi’s future “until I’ve had a chance to talk with the mayor-elect.”
Sanders, who was active in Condon’s campaign, was hired at City Hall by former Mayor Dennis Hession but quit after two years, citing an inability to “change the culture.”
Condon said that he will have 40 to 50 people on his transition team. The co-leaders of the team will be Ezra Eckhardt, president and chief operating officer of Sterling Savings Bank, and Katy Bruya, senior vice president of human resources at Washington Trust Bank. The only other member Condon announced Tuesday was City Council President-elect Ben Stuckart, who attended the news conference.
Condon said that he had not yet heard from Verner and scheduled the news conference Tuesday because he believed that Verner would concede Monday night.
“The reality is we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Condon said. “There’s six weeks and a couple of major holidays, so we need to get to business.”
Verner said she will move forward on working to restructure the city’s water rates. Last year’s change to lowered rates for those who use less water and higher rates for those who use more was criticized by Condon on the campaign trail, and Verner said in September that the rates should be revisited. She has submitted two rate proposals for the City Council to consider next month.
“It will be good for the city if we revisit those water rates and have a different rate structure in place before Jan. 1,” Verner said.
Condon said unless the council goes back to the old rate structure, it should wait until next year with new leadership in place to determine rates.
Verner posted two messages on her Facebook page Tuesday morning. One was a typical concession statement that thanked the voters for allowing her to serve on the City Council and as mayor. The other criticized the Condon campaign for a “partisan domination strategy with out-of-town consultants, push polls, and shrewd positioning of issues in collaboration with media mouthpieces.”
Verner said she plans to remain in Spokane and did not rule out running for office again.
“I will continue to serve this community in some other capacity,” Verner said. “I am a single mom and I will of course have to have a paycheck and I will be looking for a job.”
On Monday, Verner announced that she will request that the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation into the city’s Police Department. Some of her supporters speculated that had she announced the decision earlier, she might still be in office, but Verner said doing so before the completion of the criminal trial of Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr., who was convicted less than a week before the election, could have jeopardized Thompson’s right to a fair trial.
“Had I done those for political purposes I would have abandoned my commitment to make the decisions that are always in the best long-term interests of the city of Spokane,” Verner said. “So, I certainly reached a point where I had to weigh Mary Verner’s interest versus the city of Spokane’s interest. Ultimately, I certainly regret losing the election, but I will never regret putting the city of Spokane first.”
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
Dazzeetrader11 on November 16 at 2:17 a.m.
Verner should NOT be doing anything in the coming weeks. She’s already trying to cover her tracks in her invite to D of J. OAnd the water rates? She caused them to be so high…and for eveything else, obvious this vindictive twerp should leave quietly and not mess anything else up. Same with Rush….vindictive liberal who can’t count. I hope he returns to his home and manages it like he did before he snagged a public job.
Her time was destructive. She spent too much and now in her last six weeks, you can bet she’ll be pulling as many stunts as she can…”its’ Legal though” wil lbe the cry. She is a disgrace. Guard the evidence please!
I’d remove her immediately as she has access to areas she herself will be questioned on. 6 weeks is a lot of time to do some bad things so Condon has to clean up more of her mess.
Beware of this dismissed mayor. Treachery is her game. No bombs dropped Verner. Just go! I think you’ve done about enough!
Justin_Galloway on November 16 at 2:29 a.m.
Hey Daisy,
Council “raised” water rates, even though they went down for 53% of customers. Verner was against the change. Please fact check before you start ranting about people you just plain don’t like.
wh5ca8gc on November 16 at 5:31 a.m.
Bankers are leading the transition thats all you need to know. The GOP money bought the election so get ready Spokane.
Truthhurts on November 16 at 6:24 a.m.
wh5ca8gc: We have to give Condon a chance. The people who most wanted action on Zehm over the last two years were Verner’s natural constituency, and she refused to act — and her excuses are perhaps parroting the rhetoric by which she was manipulated, but Verner lost because not all of us could be like Mr. Beggs and support her despite such massive disappointment about Verner’s response to Zehm and the SPD generally.
So, until he proves himself a liar, I am giving Mr. Condon every chance to prove himself sincere.
DickAdams on November 16 at 9:45 a.m.
“Spokane Mayor Mary Verner conceded the race on Tuesday, and said she waited this long because she owed it to her supporters to make sure voters had their say.” Really (no sour grapes)? And re Justin, maybe you should get your facts straight. At the outset Verner backed her financial guru, Gavin Cooley who drafted the increase in water costs that she agreed to when the wind changed direction. Verner even had the audacity to hold a press conference saying there were no tax increases when just a short time before that Comcast had increased the user rates which automatically increase the city utility tax that they pass though. Cooley should have been fired years ago after he was one of the architects drafting the agreement between the city and the owners of the Spokesman Review (a debt taxpayers are paying through 2030 re parking garage), an agreement that Verner condoned and signed it. Do some real homework, Justin.
Dazzeetrader11 on November 16 at 10:57 a.m.
Justin…read what Dick wrote. It was HER proposal. When Rush forwarded it, she faded into the background but it was hers! Further though, she could have vetoed the proposal if she wanted to. My facts are correct.
GaryP on November 16 at 1:41 p.m.
The current number 2 in the city is Ted Danek. Anyone know what’s happening to him? Can’t imagine Condon would keep him around….
RSGraf on November 16 at 7:27 p.m.
Dear Mayor Condon and Transition Team,
I’ve been pondering the upcoming vacancy of SPD Chief and I have a radical proposal. Some might think it absurd and I doubt they’ll delay in expressing their negative opinion.
First, I don’t think the Chief needs to be a cop. In fact, I think it might be best that they aren’t. The Chief’s job has less to do with policing than it does with managing. Weakness in this area has been pronounced in several past chiefs being a probable contributor to the aggravating problems within the department.
Dealing with the union, dealing with the press, dealing with the budget, dealing with discipline of errant police officers, successfully introducing unpopular but necessary innovations, etc. are some of the main tasks of the SPD Chief.
Are there any local people resources that you can think of that have experience performing those tasks? Not many initially come to mind, huh? Who has held local political office and reduced a budget while improving quality of service? Who has introduced several innovative technical changes that were initially highly unpopular but have since been warmly embraced? Who has locked horns with the press, often being accused of unethical and possibly criminal behavior while being innocent? Who has successfully dealt with the public workers union in tough bargaining sessions and retained their respect? Who hasn’t been afraid to fire people that need to be fired?
On a personal level, I don’t like the guy. In his last campaign I voted against him but only because of Republican Party infighting. He sometimes comes across as a hard-nosed pretentious, narcissistic bully. Plus, I think he’s kinda ugly. But the fact remains, before he arrived, the Office of Spokane County Assessor was a mess and he fixed it. I’ve heard he beat liver cancer and that’s no small victory. It’s probable that the website built under his regime gives the average citizen today a better understanding of property taxes than even past assessors had.
If he’s healthy, I’m wondering if Ralph Baker might be the right person to be the next Spokane Chief of Police. If there are bad cops or fossils resistant to change still in the department, I doubt they’d think it good news that he got the job.
Something to knaw on; spit it out if you don’t like it.
90soccer92 on November 16 at 7:36 p.m.
Being new here, I don’t understand why the #2 attorney is tagged “likely to lose his job” while the #1 attorney is conspicuously “looking forward to working on the transition and preparing the city for a new mayor.” MAYBE I really don’t understand the politics… or maybe it’s the political pull #1 has?
Truthhurts on November 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Barbieri gave Verner horrid advice.
Cooley and Danek represented the same old thing.
Verner lacked the ability to think for herself, and she chose the wrong people to rely upon.
If Condon really has “it,” he will take out everyone and have the balls to rely upon the mainline staff to keep doing their jobs while there is total change in the administration.
misjustice on November 16 at 8:31 p.m.
90soccer, because # 2, Rocco, was deeply involved in the Zehm homicide coverup and Condon essentially ran on the inept way that the Zehm homicide investigation was conducted.
If Condon really wants to have that open door open he’ll can Rocco. And then make some comment to the press about Rocco wanting to “spend time with his family”.
brianrbreen on November 16 at 8:38 p.m.
@misjustice
When you get a chance go back in the filings and read the emails between Delaney and Durkin. Then tell me he doesn’t have some splainin to do.
I would suggest that perhaps Mr. Delaney has just now become a Republican for some reason.
misjustice on November 16 at 9:05 p.m.
I’m sure he does, Brian. Frankly, I think that Condon needs to clean house; completely clean house. Otherwise he’ll just get dragged into the cesspool with all the other turds…
liveinfearoftheSPD on November 16 at 9:11 p.m.
@RSGraf
You just might be on to something here. A non-police person just may be what the position needs.
misjustice on November 16 at 11:05 p.m.
Brian, I don’t think that Delaney’s sudden “conversion” will make a whit of a difference with the Feds; he’s in just as deep as Rocco. Didn’t he lie on the “FAQs” debacle?