Many Governments, Many Problems

First in a series

In November 1992, Spokane County’s voters showed vision worthy of their future. They elected 25 freeholders to design a unified local government. The freeholders have done it. On Nov. 7, the voters will decide whether to adopt their proposal and replace the mess we have now.

It’s a radical solution. One is needed. After a century on the road, Spokane’s existing governments are wheezing to a stop like a couple of broken-down old cars.

Both city and county government face severe budget problems. Their redundant, union-dominated bureaucracies resist innovation and cost more than the local economy can support.

The economy itself suffers from our current governmental structure. County officials and city officials fight over tax base. They pit suburbs against the core for small-minded political gain. While the core declines, the suburbs lack adequate roads, sewers and fire protection. Spokane’s internal bickering repels would-be employers; industry looks for communities that have their act together.

To make matters worse, the structure of both governments contributes to Spokane’s No. 1 problem: a lack of credible, unifying leadership.

The city manager is unelected, shielded from accountability. This breeds arrogance at City Hall. The City Council, dependent on the manager and his bureaucracy, can find little leadership in the mayor’s ceremonial powers. Elected at large rather than by district, council members lack accountability to the neighborhoods.

On county government’s three-commissioner board, it only takes two to make a bad decision. Further, three individuals cannot adequately represent a population of 390,000.

Compounding that problem, the partisan campaigns for commissioner and other county posts tend to attract more two-bit politicians than competent administrators. Slip-ups by the assessor, an untrained party loyalist, recently caused a revenue crisis for local governments and slammed homeowners with staggering tax hikes. The coroner’s job is a 19th-century political appendage; another hired professional must perform the autopsies, and the coroner simply gets in the way.

Space does not allow a full enumeration of the squabbling and inconsistencies among the crazy quilt of agencies that provides this county’s fire protection, libraries, transit, snow plowing, law enforcement and all the rest.

But it’s time to turn from our past, toward our future. How might unified government’s design improve on the current cat fight? What would it cost? We will examine those questions, in this space, in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

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