Consolidation Vote Will Be All-Or-Nothing Affair Freeholders Recommend Proposal To Merge City And County Into One

Spokane County voters will get an all-or-nothing shot this November at consolidating city and county government.

County commissioners Tuesday voted to send the charter proposal to the ballot as recommended by a majority of freeholders.

On the advice of several attorneys, commissioners rejected a motion by a minority faction of freeholders to give voters charter options.

If voters approve the charter measure Nov. 7, the Spokane City Council and County Commission would be dissolved and replaced by a super government.

Spokane city boundaries would disappear, but small towns would remain independent.

The consolidated government would be run by 13 part-time council members elected by districts of about 30,000 residents each.

Voters countywide would elect an executive with the power to appoint department heads and veto council decisions. The council could override a veto if nine of its members voted to do so.

All elections would be non-partisan.

There is no similar government in Washington and only 28 “unigovs” among the 3,000 counties in the United States.

While one government probably would cost more than the two existing ones initially, most freeholders say it would be more accountable and efficient in the long run.

The change is just too radical, too fast, said Sue Kaun, one of 25 freeholders elected in 1992 to study consolidation. The freeholders disbanded May 25 after recommending consolidation 15-4 (six were absent).

“That’s why I think this big charter is going to go down in resounding defeat,” Kaun said.

She said a consolidated government would cost an additional $20 million a year to improve services to county residents in urban areas. The charter initiative also does not limit spending or freeze salaries and will be a “big turnoff” to voters, she said.

She and a few other freeholders prefer a charter proposal that stops short of merging the two governments but makes Spokane County a charter county. The county then could write its own constitution instead of answering to the state Legislature.

“Spokane County would become autonomous, a real local government with local control for the first time in a hundred years,” she said.

Spokane attorney and civic activist Steve Eugster joined two of the county’s civil attorneys in recommending against a proposal to give voters a choice.

Private attorney Stan Schultz opined that county commissioners could put options on the ballot.

But Eugster said commissioners would be “basically inviting litigation.” He said the commissioners’ obligation was to forward to the ballot the freeholders’ exact recommendation.

Eugster, a prior supporter of consolidation, said freeholders waited too long to reach a final recommendation and that consolidation will be defeated.

“The freeholders wasted a million dollars and three years,” he said.

Actually, the unpaid freeholders used $210,000 of county money for their work.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = J. Todd Foster Staff writer Staff writer Dan Hansen contributed to this report.