Lawmaker Misses Many Votes Spokane Rep. Silver Says Duties With Wwp Kept Her From Olympia

Rep. Jean Silver has missed at least 124 votes as of Thursday, more than nearly anyone else in the House of Representatives.

The only member to surpass her, West Side Republican John Pennington - hospitalized for a serious illness this session - missed 139 votes.

The number of votes Silver missed could be higher. House members often vote for each other when lawmakers aren’t in their seats.

The 124 votes represent only those recorded as absent or excused on roll call transcripts.

“I’m amazed,” Silver, R-Spokane, said when told last week about the number of votes she’s missed.

Silver attributed most of the absences to her attendance at two days of meetings for Washington Water Power Co. in Spokane. She is a member of the company’s board of directors.

Silver said “there has always been an understanding” in the Legislature about her work for WWP, and that her absence was with the permission of House leadership.

But House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-Wenatchee, said he didn’t give Silver permission. “I did not say ‘That’s OK.’

“I said, does she know how many votes she’s missing? That’s a lot of votes.”

Lawmakers cast hundreds of votes each session. Absences aren’t uncommon, and members usually don’t stand out until they’ve missed 30 or more votes.

Silver missed 71 votes Feb. 12 and 13, including final passage of two property tax reduction bills, a parents’ rights bill, and a welfare reform bill.

All three are core bills in the GOP’s “Commitment to the People,” the follow-up to the “Contract with Washington.”

Silver made no apology for her absence.

“Quite frankly, Washington Water Power is number one,” she said. “It’s my first priority … And it pays a certain amount of money, and as you know legislative salaries aren’t much.”

Lawmakers earn $27,100 a year, excluding per diem and benefits. Silver has been a WWP board member since 1988, and also serves on three other utility company committees.

Board members are paid a $24,000 annual stipend, plus $1,000 for every board and committee meeting they attend.

WWP spokesman Tom Paine said Silver “takes her responsibility as a board member very seriously.

“This is a $2 billion corporation, with $700 million in annual revenues and shareholders throughout the world. The board members are their principal representatives.”

Her 6th District colleague, Republican Rep. Duane Sommers, said Silver has an important obligation to her constituents, too.

“One of the main things people send us here for is to vote on bills,” said Sommers. “I think it might be good for the district if someone else ran.”

Silver, 71, said she’s not sure if she’ll run for an eighth two-year term.

“I’ve got a lot of things at home that are really fun to do. Have dinner with the kids. Come back to the real world again,” she said.

“This is a special place,” she said of Olympia, “but this has been a really difficult session.”

Many lawmakers are calling this session one of the least productive or pleasant in memory.

Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient, a close friend of Silver’s and a clergyman, said he recently visited her Olympia office “to talk about her health and mine.

“The demands, the tensions, the pressures of public service, particularly in this day and age. I expressed concern for both of us.”

Republican Sen. James West, who also represents the 6th District, defended Silver’s missed votes.

“There are some legislators that sit in their seat and vote and aren’t worth a lot. And others who miss votes but are doing other things that are a big value to the state.

“The voting record itself doesn’t say anything.”

But lawmakers obviously think voting is important.

Senators, including West, run to their seats or bellow their votes from the wings of the Senate chamber to make sure they don’t miss a vote.

House members, who usually vote electronically rather than by voice, dive to hit their roll call buttons, so as not to miss votes.

Or they leave a list of how they plan to vote with their seat mate, in case they are called away from their desk.

Missing so many votes is unusual for Silver. She has missed nearly four times as many votes so far this session as last, even though the 1995 session was more than twice as long.

Silver also had more responsibilities last year. She was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and served on the six-person conference committee negotiating a two-year budget.

Silver lost her chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee this winter.

She was appointed chairman of a new committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and given an open-ended charge by Ballard to coordinate the House fiscal committees.

The Ways and Means Committee has no members and no scheduled meetings. Silver is not a member of the conference committee crafting the supplemental budget.

Her role this year has been that of a coordinator, helping chairmen of the House Appropriations, Capital, and Finance Committees.

“It’s one thing to pay lip service to talking to each other. Jean has served the function of making sure it happens,” said Rep. Barry Sehlin, R-Oak Harbor, chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee.

“It’s not very public and glamorous. But it seems to have been a good idea.”

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