Voters Cast Their Ballots For Change

Voters want change in city and county government.

Depending on the final count in one close race, all three City Council jobs that were on the Spokane ballot may have new occupants come January. In Spokane County, voters spurned a commissioner candidate backed by the two incumbent commissioners and chose newcomer John Roskelley instead. Forty-two percent - disappointing but still striking in view of the radical message embraced - supported dissolution of city and county government and creation of a “unigov.”

Meanwhile in Sandpoint, another community struggling with discord, voters installed a new mayor and four new council members. Mayor David Sawyer can be expected to end backdoor deals, open up City Hall and address the town’s tainted human-rights image. Post Falls kept its mayor, but Jim Hammond is a progressive who has changed the city from a bedroom community to a growing commercial center.

Roberta Greene, one of Spokane’s new council members, has said that when she was deciding whether to run for the job, she felt concern about the “disdain” with which many Spokane residents view local government. She and her new colleagues have few callings more important than restoring the confidence between policy-makers and those they serve.

Open doors, responsiveness and efficiency are among the qualities that will help.

But crucial as new leaders can be, structural flaws still limit the potential for local coordination and place distance between policy-makers and the public. The concerns that led to Spokane County’s defeated unification proposal have not gone away.

New proposals, from suburban incorporation plans to city charter changes, are foreseeable. Before unification moved to the front burner, some were calling for a strong-mayor form of city government, together with council members representing districts rather than being elected at large. With consolidation ruled out, Washington state’s growth management laws will apply pressure for incorporation or annexation of the Spokane Valley and the North Side to ensure adequate services on the growing fringe. The option voters pick - and the prospects for further fragmentation - may hinge on the credibility of city government.

So, all of us, who share this region and its economy, can wish our new leaders the best. And maybe, just maybe, we could join them in a search for common ground, rather than looking for battle lines and things to shout about from our respective corners.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board