It’s Politics As Usual, So Keep An Eye Out

Late one night while a square dance occupied the residents of Spokane, three wagons creaked out of a gully and launched the political traditions of county government.

It was 1890. Men with revolvers on their belts and gunny sacks covering their boots crept into the wooden courthouse at Main and Howard. They scooped up the ballots from a recent election along with the government’s other records, loaded their wagons and rattled back into the gully and off into the night. They were from Cheney, Spokane’s rival in a raucous election contest over which town would be the county seat.

One year and another election later, Spokane won the title of county seat for good - or ill, depending on how you look at it.

A few years after that, amid bank failures, anarchic mobs and a railroad strike, Spokane proclaimed its permanence and pride by erecting a county courthouse modeled after a fantastic French chateau. Scandal ensued. Ancestors of today’s Science Center foes declared the building an extravagance.

A century later, gunny sacks aren’t enough to muffle the sound of politics. Leaders meet on TV, and leap from their windows with minicams in tow. Unless you take it too seriously, government still puts on a fairly entertaining show.

Earlier this year, county chieftains chased off the award-winning county engineer whose commitment to high-quality development standards had become an annoyance. They replaced him with a politico who had given $325 to Commissioner Phil Harris’ election campaign.

More recently they put heavy pressure on Eric Skelton, director of the county Air Pollution Control Authority, who outraged grassfield burners by having the audacity to try to do his job.

Finally, some good news. Sheriff John Goldman has stunned county commissioners with a demand for $600,000 they don’t really have, to cover overtime expenditures that county leaders somehow managed to overlook. The good news is, commissioners say they’ll pay closer heed to the sheriff’s spending next year.

That’s a tolerable beginning for the courthouse’s second century. On the occasion of the building’s birthday party this week, Commissioner Steve Hasson noted the courthouse is prettier on the outside than it is inside. Exactly. Government’s never been a piece of cake. History says it’s more like a gang of power grubbers with gunny sacks on their boots, who’ll run off with democracy if the town doesn’t pay closer attention.

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