Roskelley, Howe Views On Record They Say More Than Sound Bites Can Reveal

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley calls himself a fiscal conservative who’s not about to let developers run amok in Spokane County.

Lila Howe, the Republican who’s challenging Democrat Roskelley in Tuesday’s election, says she would protect the environment while guarding against overregulation.

Skeptical voters don’t have to take the candidates at their word. Both have records that say more than sound bites can reveal.

Howe

Although she’s never run for elected office, Howe was a member of the Stevens County Planning Commission from 1989 until May 1994. Minutes of commission meetings reveal Howe’s conviction that government should not infringe on private property rights.

Government should only adopt regulations if there is “a problem or evil to correct” and the fix isn’t “unduly oppressive” to landowners, she said at one meeting.

Among the proposals Howe found oppressive was an unbendable minimum buffer between lake shores and new houses or additions to existing ones. She and her husband had already built their own home on fill they dumped into Deer Lake, violating Stevens County ordinances.

Howe asked that several “shalls” be changed to “shoulds” in the shoreline management regulations, and said restrictions on shoreline retaining walls, like the one supporting her deck over the lake, were too restrictive.

She supported a resort owner’s plans to expand his business, even though some commission members worried Deer Lake was being overrun. Howe said the lake was at its best when most crowded, and that there are plenty of quiet days in the off-season.

“Ms. Howe said her fun pastime was to sit on her deck and watch the boats,” according to the minutes.

She worried that Firestorm ‘91, which burned 120 houses in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, had created a “paranoia” that would lead to more regulations governing where houses could be built and how they would be protected.

At other times, Howe argued that:

Charging a developer an impact fee to help build classrooms amounted to “double taxation.”

The county should not require business owners to landscape around the base of roadside signs.

Traffic studies should not be required for a new housing development along U.S. Highway 395.

The county should not require a developer in southern Stevens County to help pay for a traffic signal at a Spokane intersection. Most of the development’s residents would cross the intersection while commuting to their jobs in the city, state traffic engineers argued.

“Mrs. Howe said she could not understand denying growth to the economy based on a signal light which will (eventually) be provided for by city funds,” according to the meeting minutes.

Howe touts her leadership in the movement to build sewers around Deer Lake as proof of her environmental concern. But that concern is tempered by her hands-off philosophy.

As a planning commissioner she asked that a developer carving 27 lots out of 20 acres at Loon Lake consider using the public sewer, rather than build a community drain field. The developer said the sewer connections would be too costly, and Howe did not push the matter.

Even before the state adopted the Growth Management Act, Howe seconded a Planning Commission motion stating that Stevens County shouldn’t voluntarily comply with the law. It was a unanimous vote.

Fellow board members often shared Howe’s conservative views. They gave her high marks for doing homework.

In one case, when a staff member reported that all other counties had minimum shoreline buffers, Howe produced a list of several that did not. She said she had called each of the planners herself.

“I can’t recall when she wasn’t prepared with information pertinent to the topic on the agenda,” said Planning Commission member Glenn Biddle. “She was one of the more conscientious members on the commission.”

Howe’s attendance record was sterling through much of her time on the commission. But she missed nearly as many meetings as she made from January 1993 until she resigned in May 1994.

Roskelley

Elected last November to serve the final year of Skip Chilberg’s unexpired term, Roskelley started his political career by angering golfers with a proposal to raise greens fees to help improve shoddy parks.

Then he angered Bobby Brett, owner of the Spokane Indians, by suggesting the minor league baseball team wasn’t paying enough to use SeaFirst Stadium.

Next, he angered bluegrass growers with a proposal to phase out field burning within seven years.

Later, he proposed a compromise that would allow burning to continue in southern Spokane County while paying a subsidy to farmers who would agree to end the practice in the north end of the county and in Idaho. That suggestion - which became moot when the state announced it would phase out field burning in three years - riled environmentalists, as well as farmers on both sides of the state line.

“We aren’t interested in Roskelley. Washington isn’t going to tell Idaho what to do,” responded Wayne Meyer, an Idaho state legislator and Rathdrum Prairie grass grower.

Roskelley fought passionately for 250-foot minimum buffers between streams and new houses. The Spokane Home Builders Association opposed the setbacks, as did Howe, who questioned during a public hearing whether it was an illegal “taking” of property.

Commissioners compromised with a 200-foot buffer, but Roskelley was unable to convince his colleagues not to strip penalties from the law. Nor did commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson agree with Roskelley that landowners should hire biologists to review plans for building near wetlands.

Roskelley voted against hiring former state Rep. Bill Day as a lobbyist for the county. Harris and Hasson voted to hire Day, but Hasson changed his vote, saying he wanted a unanimous decision or none at all.

The move saved the county $10,000, but may have cost it more in the long run, said Hasson, noting that county commissioners from Western Washington can easily get to Olympia to sway legislative hearings.

“Phil (Harris) took valuable time from being a commissioner to be a lobbyist,” said Hasson. “He spent a lot of time on the phone and going back and forth.”

On other fiscal issues, Roskelley:

Voted against joining efforts to build a regional juvenile detention facility on the West Plains, saying he wasn’t convinced the project was cost-effective. Harris and Hasson approved the project, which has seen cost increases of more than $1 million.

Argued to give the prosecutor less money than he asked for, and to give the public defender nearly as much as he wanted. All three commissioners agreed Thursday to add an 11th Superior Court judge in July, an addition that could cost $1 million.

Voted with Harris to charge youth groups for using the fairgrounds. Although state attorneys disagreed, commissioners said state law forbids letting some groups use the fairgrounds for free when others pay a fee.

The change angered parents and cost the Junior Livestock Show $9,000 this year. The show will have to pay $18,000 in 1997.

Hasson said Roskelley shows little thought of political consequences when adopting a position, and often is surprised at criticism, like the golf-fee furor.

“His greatest strength and his greatest weakness is how naive he is,” said Hasson. “He’s just a very innocent kind of a guy. A real straight-shooter, squeaky clean.” , DataTimes MEMO: See individual profiles by name of candidate