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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Race For Council Seat Downright Low-Key Bev Numbers, Jeff Colliton Campaign Quietly For Position 3

Jeff Colliton and Bev Numbers are quietly going about the job of running for Spokane City Council.

Like candidates in two other council races, Colliton and Numbers attend neighborhood meetings, social events and forums. They’ve posted signs in yards and run newspaper advertisements.

But there’s not the finger-pointing found in the Orville Barnes-John Talbott competition. There’s not the “two-brand-new candidates” excitement generated by the Jim Kolva-Roberta Greene race.

In fact, the race for Council Position 3 is downright low-key.

Colliton refuses to make any campaign promises, saying he’s tired of hearing candidates offer the world and deliver an island.

“The only promise I’m making is to look at the issues, analyze and make decisions,” said Colliton, a marketing representative for Spokane Pull Tabs and Bingo Supply Co.

“If someone makes a promise, you’d better be suspicious.”

Numbers hawks herself as the only council member who devotes nearly all her attention to city business.

“It’s a monumental job,” said Numbers, who stopped selling real estate earlier this year. “I’m not a part-time council person.”

Colliton and incumbent Numbers came away winners in a three-way September primary race. The top vote-getter Nov. 7 walks away with the $18,000-a-year council seat.

On the campaign trail, the two spend a lot of time talking about public safety, transportation and privatization.

Colliton, a retired U.S. Army colonel, thinks the police and fire departments have gotten too “top heavy” - too many administrators, too few troops. He’d like to see that changed.

He’s pushing for a crackdown on the core group of teenage criminals who keep police hopping.

“How do you make that core group accountable?” Colliton said. “You incarcerate them.”

Numbers said she thinks both fire and police services could be “reconfigured,” but doesn’t want to see cutbacks, especially on supervisors.

“Twenty-five percent of our officers have been on for a year or less,” she said. “They don’t have adequate supervision.”

She wants to find new ways to pay for prevention programs that keep teenagers out of trouble, possibly by enlisting the help of private, nonprofit groups.

Colliton wants a north-south freeway or beltway to ease traffic congestion.

“We need to do what we can to relieve that gridlock,” he said.

Numbers is pushing for a permanent way to pay for street repair.

“We have to have a stabilized way to deal with streets,” she said.

They both talk about streamlining government.

Colliton thinks the council should consider privatizing several areas, such as snow removal and the DARE program. Numbers thinks each department needs to be analyzed to “make sure it’s the right size.”

If he wins the election, Colliton wants a seat on the Spokane Transit Authority Board. He thinks the board “needs a complete overhaul.” He also thinks STA should pitch in money to keep city and county streets maintained.

Numbers, an STA board member, has taken heat for problems with the downtown bus plaza. At times, she said, she felt like “walking away” from the board.

“The building’s not perfect,” she said. “But I think the building will be responsive to our needs for the next 20 years.”

Numbers said she has made a difference on the board, cutting money from the budget and forcing STA to use equipment longer than in the past.

Friends call Colliton the perfect candidate because he’s reliable.

“If he says he’s going to be someplace or do something, he follows through,” said Jerry Geraghty, a childhood friend.

Vicki McNeil, former Spokane mayor, applauds Numbers’ passion for her council post.

“She does her homework,” McNeil said. “She has a lot of common sense and dedication to getting a job done.”

Colliton grew up in the Logan neighborhood. His father, a police officer, and his mother, a grocery store checkout clerk, taught Colliton and his five siblings “accountability and responsibility.”

He graduated from Gonzaga University and went into the Army, where he spent the next 26 years. The decorated Vietnam veteran returned to Spokane eight years ago and bought the Park Inn Tavern.

Colliton’s gambling license was temporarily suspended by the state Gambling Commission in 1991 for violating state laws that prohibit selling pull tabs and distributing them at the same time.

He sold the tavern in 1993. This spring, he received a new license as one of five distributors for Spokane Pull Tabs and Bingo Supply Co.

Numbers’ parents divorced six weeks after she was born in Klamath Falls, Ore. She and her mother moved to Waterville, Wash., where they settled on a farm with relatives.

Nine years later, her mother divorced again and moved Numbers and her three siblings to Spokane.

A childhood troubled by divorce and her mother’s drinking taught Numbers that “problems can be overcome, but only by having some positive influences.”

For Numbers, that was her husband of 37 years, Jerry. “He’s my stabilizer.”

Jerry Numbers, a teacher and landlord, convinced his wife to go into real estate, where she worked for 18 years.

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