Council May Go For Partially Strong Mayor, Greene Says

The Spokane City Council might push for two of the changes in the proposed strong mayor initiative if that plan fails at the ballot box, Councilwoman Roberta Greene said Tuesday.

Some council members could be elected by district and be removed from the council if absent for four consecutive meetings, Greene said during a forum at City Hall.

But Steve Eugster, the Spokane attorney who drafted the proposed charter change, doubted the council would initiate such changes.

“There’s a complete failure of leadership in the city of Spokane,” he said at the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. “The bureaucracy and the bond lawyers are in charge.”

Greene and Eugster argued over the cost of the proposed change. With an $80,000 salary for the mayor and $30,000 each for seven council members, it would cost more, Greene said. The mayor currently makes $36,000, and council members $18,000.

But the mayor could control spending with a line-item veto and the city would save the money it spends on consultants, Eugster said.

The initiative would sharply limit the time a council member can be absent from meetings. The current city charter sets the limit at six months, a span that has been criticized recently with the extended absence by Councilman Chris Anderson.

At times, Tuesday’s forum degenerated into bickering. Eugster said council meetings had become a charade in which council members don’t listen to the people who testify. Greene called that comment offensive.

Eugster said the change to a full-time strong mayor who could hire and fire department heads would be a natural evolution of city government. Greene called it “a huge jump into a void.”

The council would have no control over the budget because the mayor would propose it, Greene argued. The council has no control over the budget now because the city staff proposes it, Eugster said.

The initiative, on the Sept. 17 ballot, attempts to do too much at once, said Greene. She likened it to the proposed consolidation of city and county governments that was soundly defeated last year.

The absence of other council members from the debate - Greene is the only one to challenge the proposal publicly - is “a classic example of their inability to take a stand,” Eugster said.

The debate will be televised on Cox Cable Channel 5 on Sept. 13 and 15 at 8 p.m.

, DataTimes