Real Democracy Begins At Home

It’s just about time for the voters to speak. So we ought to do it well, since the lineup on Tuesday’s ballot matters, to all of us.

There are city and county officials to elect, judges to choose, school buildings to improve, several major laws to approve or reject, and in Spokane County there’s a hugely important plan, born from years of frustration, to redesign local government.

As always, The Spokesman-Review’s editorial board has interviewed candidates and researched ballot issues. A recap of our conclusions, announced over the last few weeks, appears below. We hope you’ll add these recommendations to the other information available - in news reports, the state voter’s guide and the avalanche of campaign materials.

Sure, all of us who advocate - and vote - have differing opinions. But we have more in common than today’s heated rhetoric implies. The first thing we have in common is a desire for safe and attractive communities, and a healthy economy. The second thing we have in common is democracy, which depends on everyone’s participation.

The governments that affect us most are the local governments at issue in Tuesday’s election. They maintain our streets and parks, arrest and prosecute criminals, operate libraries and public schools, set property taxes, and enforce many of the laws we have created, over the years, to protect local quality of life.

Here in Spokane County, local government just isn’t working very well. Believing we can do better, voters elected 25 freeholders to design a new, unified government. The undertaking was a smallerscale version of the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution. That Constitution wasn’t perfect, as subsequent amendments showed, but it was designed for responsiveness and continual refinement. The same is true of Spokane’s unified charter proposal. It’s a needed tool to make government work again.

Among the other items on Tuesday’s ballot, none is more significant than Referendum 48. Written by a narrow band of development interests, it would require that taxpayers compensate developers whenever laws such as zoning limit their ambitions. But why should we pay developers for not doing things they shouldn’t do in the first place - things we’ve outlawed in order to protect the whole community and its quality of life? A chorus of responsible voices, from the League of Women Voters to former Republican Governor and U.S. Senator Dan Evans, urges that Referendum 48 be rejected.

So do your homework, voters. And stand up for your community’s best interests. If you don’t, who will?

, DataTimes MEMO: Spokesman-Review endorsements The Spokesman-Review editorial board feels these candidates and ballot issues deserve your support on Tuesday.

Spokane City-County Charter To unify local government Yes

Washington state Initiative 640 Fishing Regulations Yes

Washington state Referendum 45 Fish and wildlife commission Yes

Spokane County sales tax increase For jail funding No

Washington state Representative 4th District Mark Sterk

Spokane City Council Position 1 Roberta Greene

Position 2 Orville Barnes

Position 3 Bev Numbers

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley

Spokane School District 81 Board of Trustees Christie Querna

Washington state Referendum 48 Compensation for land-use rules Reject

Washington state Initiative 651 Indian gambling No

SSJR 8210 Changes in Washington state Supreme Court Yes

Washington state Supreme Court Justice Rosselle Pekelis

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Neal Q. Rielly

Post Falls Mayor Jim Hammond

City Council Scott Grant Clay Larkin

Coeur d’Alene City Council Ron Edinger Dixie Reed Chris Copstead

Sandpoint Mayor David Sawyer

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the Editorial Board