Post Falls Candidates Talk Growth, Better Jobs, Library

Candidates for mayor and City Council agree that Post Falls needs more high-paying jobs and a new library, but they don’t always agree on how to go about getting them.

In a public forum that drew about 50 people Monday night, the candidates fielded questions that centered around jobs and growth.

A real estate salesman asked how the candidates would bring in better-paying jobs, after he pointed out the average salary of a worker in Post Falls is $18,200.

Mayor Jim Hammond and incumbent Councilman Scott Grant said they would continue to support Jobs Plus’ current practice of recruiting business and industry. About half of the new jobs have been in manufacturing, Hammond said.

Council candidate Clay Larkin generally agreed, but suggested the city might want to steer away from large industrial employers and focus on recruiting more smaller employers who pay better.

“I don’t know if we want large industry,” said Don Kline, a sheriff’s deputy who is challenging the mayor. “I don’t think people want a generating plant in their back yard.”

Kline also said he does not support taxincrement financing, a means of subsidizing the cost of services to new development with the tax dollars generated by that development.

Another council candidate and sheriff’s deputy, Joe Bodman, said people need higher-paying jobs, because, “you can’t survive in Post Falls at $5 to $7 an hour.”

But Bodman is not enthused about recruiting business such as the proposed Expo shopping mall, in part because he fears it will attract crime.

The fourth council candidate, Robert Hunt, did not attend the candidates forum.

School board member Ed Adamchak asked the candidates what their priorities were for new facilities, and most named schools and a new library.

“I want a new high school,” Hammond said.

“You’re too old to go to high school,” Kline teased him.

The city needs to continue to put away money for new buildings so it won’t have to compete with the school district for bond levies, Hammond said.

Grant listed a new police station as a high priority, while Bodman said a community center is needed to keep kids busy.

When a public works employee complained to the candidates about higher than average wages for city management and low wages for its hourly employees, Bodman agreed city workers are paid too little.

Grant and Hammond defended the city’s near-freeze on wages.

“We have to weigh not only what is good for the employee, but what’s good for the whole of the city,” Grant said.

, DataTimes