Supporters Say City Status Would Enhance Clout

People who want to bring municipal government to the Spokane Valley say adding more targets to their game of hit-and-miss will give them a better chance to win.

The latest incorporation proposal would form five small cities in the Valley rather than one big one.

Local government experts say the new strategy has both benefits and pitfalls.

Pat Mason of the Municipal Research & Services Center in Kirkland, Wash., said the tactic might help during the campaign.

Some residents may be more receptive to a smaller city that encompasses little more than their own neighborhood, he said, and may identify more closely with the area and its problems.

In addition, many people may feel a small city would be more responsive to their concerns and comments than a larger one, Mason said. It’s a lot easier to call the mayor’s office to gripe when the mayor is your neighbor, he said.

But would five new cities lead to better local government for the Valley as a whole?

Incorporation supporters, of course, say yes. They say the new cities would give Valley residents better representation, better services and lower taxes.

But Bob Herold, a professor of government at Eastern Washington University, doesn’t think forming a pack of cities in the Valley will help anything.

Herold said fracturing the Valley will only make it more difficult to address the regional problems that plague the area - like traffic congestion, lack of sewer facilities and poor land-use planning

“It’s counter-productive, and it strikes me as leading to an exacerbation of the social and political problems that beset the Valley right now,” he said.

The Valley has grown into a mass of poorly-planned urban sprawl that can’t be split into meaningful chunks because the lines are all blurred now, he said.

“It became an automobile culture out there, and nothing was left in isolation,” Herold said.

Even if one of the cities forms and is able to solve some problems, the rest of the Valley will still be a mess, he said.

While Herold said he dislikes the city-county consolidation proposal being put forth by the freeholders, he does promote some kind of regional government.

“A coordinated effort is what’s needed,” he said.

, DataTimes