City Backers Abuse Democratic Process
Three times in the past five years, Spokane Valley voters have refused to organize their independent-minded suburbia into a city.
No wonder advocates of the latest Valley incorporation proposals want to avoid as many voters as they can.
In a democracy, though, it takes some pretty brazen shenanigans to elude voters. Consider:
First, the die-hards tried to single out neighborhoods where voters have been least hostile (but still opposed) to incorporation. The result: proposals to rope 19,000 people into one city and 15,000 people into another. This would leave most of the Valley still unincorporated - and a target for competing annexation moves by the two new cities plus the existing cities of Spokane and Millwood.
Instead of paying this spring for yet another incorporation vote, the county tried to save money by opting for an election by mail. But when you send ballots by mass mail, anyone can vote and “turnout” tends to be huge. Incorporation backers sued to kill that possibility but lost.
So, supporters tried another blocking maneuver. They appealed decisions they actually had agreed with - namely, the Boundary Review Board’s decisions setting boundaries for the two proposed cities. While this phony exercise flounders through the courts, no election can occur.
The next stop could be the September primary or the November general election. But voter turnout would be high then. And incorporation backers, who know darned well what most voters would say, don’t want to give them a chance to say it. They’re hoping for an obscure ballot date early next year when only they and their friends might go to the polls.
Good grief.
It’s silly enough to fragment the Valley, which, for practical purposes, is a single community with a common suburban culture and common concerns about governmental services and growth. But abusing the process to avoid a democratic verdict which already has been rendered three times is ridiculous.
If, indeed, the Valley should be incorporated, it ought to be done right - all at once, with broad support from Valley residents and business interests, with a campaign that explores the cost and regulatory impacts and with a straightforward push for an election in which as many voters as possible would participate.
That’s been done. But in the prior elections, many voters were holding out for a look at city-county consolidation, an alternative to incorporation. The defeat of consolidation last fall may open a door, someday, to another serious run at Valley incorporation.
The current effort, however, is a farce.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board