Letters

Spokane Valley council arrogant

I read the response of the Spokane Valley City Council to the measure suggestion by The Spokesman-Review Editorial Board that they consider adopting a code of ethics with great disappointment. The editorial was addressing the possibility of the perception of wrongdoing, not making accusations.

I am glad the council believes they can decide any issue without regard to personal gain. This is the least we should be able to expect of our elected officials. However, instead of responding with minds open to the possibility of the appearance of impropriety, they immediately became defensive and angry.  

The disingenuousness of this council in saying that Mr. Pring is only one of the 11,000 voters that elected them assumes the voters are naive. Donors to political campaigns are counting on their contribution “buying” more votes by giving the campaign the ability to spread its message. Yes, Mr. Pring and other donors each have only one vote, but they surely count on influencing hundreds of others. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it is perfectly legal. However, when the council dares us to find any appearance of favoritism when making a deal benefiting one of their biggest donors their arrogance is showing.

I would urge the council to take the chips off their shoulders, step out of their insular inner circle, and try to see their actions from the perspective of an ordinary citizen. A code of ethics is not a punishment, but rather a safeguard all well-intentioned public servants welcome.

Susan Manfred

Spokane Valley

Add a dorm and train police locally

I recently had a physical ability test at our local Police Academy. During this test I became aware of a serious problem within our academy.

Due to a lack of dormitory facilities all of our recruits are being sent to the Washington State Patrol academy over on the coast. I find this to be a deplorable situation for the largest city in Eastern Washington. This is a sad situation indeed.

Somehow there needs to be something done about this horrible situation. With proper facilities, our city could be the training hub for all of the outlying law enforcement of Eastern Washington. This would be a great boon to the city in revenue coming in from outlying communities for training of their law enforcement personnel. All we need are adequate dormitory facilities on the site and possibly upgrades to the existing facilities.

Clayton Blackwell

Spokane