Still struggling to pick between Brown and Woodward for mayor? Here are their positions on 26 issues

Should building new dog parks be a priority for the city, and if so, how would you help shepherd a process that has often been beleaguered by delays?

Lisa Brown Said it is puzzling that the city hasn’t managed to site more small dog parks to meet the immediate needs of neighborhoods, noting the small one near her home in Kendall Yards. Believes these smaller parks should be a priority.
Nadine Woodward Said she was surprised by how controversial siting a large dog park had become but supports current efforts to improve an existing dog park in High Bridge Park.

Last year the City Council passed a law mandating that residents limit how often they water their lawns during drought conditions. Do you support these restrictions, and if so, should the city start enforcing them with fines?

Lisa Brown Believes water conservation is important and supports the spirit of the law, but would prefer to continue using education instead of fines to change behaviors.
Nadine Woodward Vetoed the ordinance when it was passed but was overridden by the City Council. Believes the city should have encouraged water conservation purely through educational campaigns, not create a system where “neighbors are snitching on their neighbors” for watering their lawns.

Do you support current plans to reconfigure Division Street, including by adding a protected bike lane and modifying a vehicle traffic lane to prioritize buses, after the completion of the North Spokane Corridor?

Lisa Brown Yes. Believes there are opportunities for rejuvenating Division by creating both housing and new retail options along the street, and the planned rapid bus transit route will better connect various communities in the city.
Nadine Woodward Doesn’t support so-called “road diets” that deprioritize personal vehicle traffic and believes there are other opportunities to encourage development on Division once the North Spokane Corridor is completed.

Should the city consider converting any of its one-way streets to two-way?

Lisa Brown Doesn’t have a firm position either way but is willing to hear from urban planners on the issue and can imagine potential benefits in some cases if it would encourage more pedestrian activity.
Nadine Woodward Doesn’t have an opinion either way, but is skeptical that it would be worthwhile.

What, if anything, should the city do about the controversial downtown statue of John R. Monaghan, a naval officer from Spokane who was killed in the Spanish American War?

Lisa Brown Said she hasn’t talked enough with the communities involved to make a decision but added that she believed the statue should likely either be relocated to an “appropriate location” such as a museum, or else be contextualized with educational materials such as a plaque.
Nadine Woodward Amenable to changing the language of the statue’s plaque, which refers to the Samaons who killed Monaghan as “savage” and Woodward called offensive, but opposes removing the statue itself.

Are you concerned with the growth of the City Council office in the last decade?

Lisa Brown Doesn’t think it’s been a substantive concern for the city’s budget, but also doesn’t think the City Council office would continue to grow if there was a mayoral administration “committed to transparency and cooperation.”
Nadine Woodward Yes. Believes the City Council has slowly taken more of the administration’s powers for itself in violation of the City Charter and the will of the voters, creating a “shadow government” across the hall from the mayor’s office.

In 2018, Spokane signed an exclusive contract with Lime Scooters to provide e-scooter services in the city. That contract expires at the end of November. Should the city reevaluate its partnership with Lime, particularly in light of the number of scooters dumped into the Spokane River?

Lisa Brown Would be open to reevaluating the contract, but wanted to understand the partnership better before weighing in. In any case, supports the role e-scooter services can provide to get people around.
Nadine Woodward Believes the people throwing scooters into the river are the only ones responsible. Does want to see Lime modify speed settings to slow scooters in more areas where they may pose a risk to pedestrians.

Currently, residents have the option of requesting a yard and food waste bin through the city’s solid waste collection system. Should green bins instead be mandatory to prevent organic materials from going into the garbage?

Lisa Brown Wants to see more residents use green bins, but said she isn't sure if that should be done through mandates, incentives or educational campaigns. Also wants to explore neighborhood composting programs.
Nadine Woodward Hasn’t heard of any proposals to mandate green bins.

Garbage collected by the city is sent to the Waste-To-Energy Plant, which burns the trash, generating energy and producing greenhouse gases, though city officials have argued it is more environmentally responsible than landfills. Do you support the facility’s continued existence?

Lisa Brown Notes that the facility is the city’s single-largest source of carbon emissions, and though she believes it may be better than trucking garbage to a landfill, she said she wants to prioritize studying and mitigating those emissions.
Nadine Woodward Yes. The facility is cleaner than landfills and creates energy. Said it may become prohibitively expensive, however, due to the state’s cap-and-trade program, which will penalize the facility’s emissions but not those of landfills.

Do you believe that the city’s taxing structure is regressive, and if so, how would you prefer for it to be structured?

Lisa Brown Believes the city’s reliance on sales, utility and property taxes is regressive, but said the city has little ability to change that without action at the state level.
Nadine Woodward Says she has advocated against raising property taxes when possible and worked to update fee schedules, including development fees, to better reflect the cost to provide services where they are most expensive or for the biggest users.

Brown has previously stated she would replace people in two cabinet positions, Chief Financial Officer Tanya Wallace and city spokesman Brian Coddington, if she’s elected. Would you retain Police Chief Craig Meidl or Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer?

Lisa Brown Said she would decide after the election. Only made comments on Wallace and Coddington because she didn’t feel they would work well with her.
Nadine Woodward Believes this is not an appropriate conversation to have before the election, placing additional burdens on staff that have to continue to work knowing their jobs are being threatened.

Given the resignation of former City Administrator Johnnie Perkins earlier this year, should cabinet members be allowed to be romantically involved with subordinates?

Lisa Brown No. There are accommodations that could be made, such as moving people around the organization, but direct supervision of a romantic partner is not acceptable.
Nadine Woodward Believes there should be stronger policies in place to prevent impropriety and said the city is working to implement those, but does not disapprove in principle, noting that Police Chief Craig Meidl is married to Spokane police Cpt. Tracie Meidl.

Councilman Michael Cathcart has proposed creating an Inspector General office to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in city departments, as well as misconduct allegations involving department heads. Do you support creating this office?

Lisa Brown Said she was not sure, but probably not. Believes there are already audits and processes that can be used, and the city needs to adequately staff the Human Resources Department, not create another office.
Nadine Woodward Yes.

Do you support expanding the city’s use of red light and speeding cameras, the revenue from which goes into the city’s Traffic Calming Fund?

Lisa Brown Said she wasn’t sure and hadn’t studied the cost-benefit of this.
Nadine Woodward No. The Traffic Calming Fund has turned into a slush fund for the City Council to use as they wish, a function which should rest solely with the mayoral administration.

Woodward has proposed dipping into the Traffic Calming Fund, which is traditionally used on physical infrastructure like speed bumps or stop signs, to backfill the police department’s budget within the city’s general fund. Is this broadly an appropriate use of those funds?

Lisa Brown Believes it is not appropriate in principle and sets a dangerous principle, but given the current budget situation it may be necessary.
Nadine Woodward Believes the money shouldn’t be separate from the general fund in the first place, and the way it’s set up has overloaded the city’s Public Works Department with projects they can’t maintain.

Do you support Measure 1, which would raise sales taxes by 0.2% and generate an estimated $1.7 billion over 30 years, including to pay for two new jails at an estimated cost of $540 million?

Lisa Brown No. Believes investments in the criminal justice system are needed but there isn’t enough of a plan for how this money should be spent beyond the jails.
Nadine Woodward Yes. Believes new jail capacity is needed and supports asking voters to raise taxes if they agree the investments are necessary.

Should the Office of the Police Ombudsman be granted the authority to subpoena an officer during a misconduct investigation, forcing them to participate in an interview?

Lisa Brown Believes the office should have the power to question people. Says that at the very least, she would want leadership in the department to encourage officers to cooperate. Failing that, the legal power to compel participation is necessary.
Nadine Woodward No. Believes it would lead to officers leaving the Spokane Police Department.

Do you support Proposition 1, which would make it illegal for the homeless to camp within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds or licensed daycare facilities?

Lisa Brown Says the law would be ineffective and may be unconstitutional, but believes voters likely will pass it due to frustrations with a lack of results from the Woodward administration.
Nadine Woodward Supports it "wholeheartedly" and believes the City Council should have passed it without having to ask voters. Notes that Camp Hope was located within 1,000 feet of a middle school and parents were concerned for their child’s safety.

The Trent Avenue homeless shelter, started by the Woodward administration, currently houses between 300 and 350 people per night. However, the city has not identified a sustainable funding source, and there is criticism that few move out of the facility into long term housing. Should the city keep the facility?

Lisa Brown No. Argues that the facility is the “central failure” of the Woodward administration and that it’s a bad idea to warehouse hundreds in the same location. Says the shelter should be replaced with smaller, decentralized facilities.
Nadine Woodward Possibly, but says it’s not clear where the funding will come from to keep the doors open past next summer.

Would your administration maintain more, fewer or the same number of homeless shelter beds?

Lisa Brown Says the city has to create more. Creating new facilities, even tiny home shelters like exist in Walla Walla, take time, so stop gap measures will be needed in the interim.
Nadine Woodward It depends. Says if the Supreme Court strikes down Martin v. Boise, that could allow the city to spend less on night-by-night shelter beds. Says she doesn't want to spend more on low barrier shelters.

Are you willing to ask voters to raise their taxes to pay for improved homeless services in the area?

Lisa Brown Says local leaders first must establish a regional homeless authority and see how much progress is made. More money is likely needed, but how much and whether a tax increase is necessary is not clear.
Nadine Woodward No. Promises that if she asks voters to raise their taxes, it would only be for public safety, such as through Measure 1. Says the state should carry more of the financial burden.

Do you support creating a safe, legal place for the homeless living in their cars to park at night?

Lisa Brown Probably. Says officials need to prevent people from getting to a place where they’re sleeping on the streets, and usually the last step before that is sleeping in a car. Says a site for them to sleep and connect with services may be pragmatic.
Nadine Woodward No. Argues that no neighborhood would want that in their area and that so-called “safe parking lots” have not been successful elsewhere.

Tim Archer, another challenger for mayor who lost in the primary, argued that the city should be leading the legal fight to get Martin v. Boise overturned, allowing cities in the West to criminalize homelessness without offering a shelter bed. Do you agree?

Lisa Brown No. Says the city should be focused on getting people inside and off the streets, not trying to get out of that obligation.
Nadine Woodward No. Agrees that city should support other jurisdictions leading that charge, but says city learned during the Monsanto pollution case that it is costly and painful for Spokane to lead a major legal battle.

Some residents in the Latah Valley are calling for a pause on new residential development because of concerns that improvements to roads and firefighting infrastructure are buckling under population growth. Do you support a moratorium?

Lisa Brown Says that residents who are asking for a moratorium are trying to find leverage to force the city to do its job and come up with a plan to fix the infrastructure problems. Promises that creating that plan a top priority.
Nadine Woodward No. We do need to address those concerns, but we can't do that unless there's development in the area to pay for those improvements. This problem got kicked down the road for 20 years and we're trying to address it, but can't do so quickly.

Will you guarantee that the majority of the infrastructure needs and related safety concerns in the Latah Valley will be addressed within your term?

Lisa Brown Says it would not be reasonable to promise that a 20-year backlog in infrastructure investments will be fixed in four years.
Nadine Woodward Yes.

Do you believe that the Building Opportunities and Choices for All pilot program, which essentially eliminated single family zoning in the city and allowed triplexes and townhomes to be built anywhere, should be permanent? Do you have any concerns?

Lisa Brown Believes it’s needed and helpful to address the housing crisis, but is sympathetic to the concerns of residents who want to see residential development fit the character of their neighborhoods. Says making sure that happens is probably deep in the weeds of design standards written into the city’s comprehensive plan.
Nadine Woodward Says she proud of the work her administration did to see this pilot program passed and believes it has helped put a dent in the housing crisis. Supports making this program permanent. Says most the concerns people had, like that historic buildings would be demolished, didn't happen.