Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Western Washington gets us again

I find it disturbing that Spokane is not able to have reasonable representation on the Washington Horse Racing Commission (read, Western Washington monopoly) and that it alone can determine if we in Spokane can have horse racing.

This is another example why we need a change in governorship and party to balance the unfairness we experience in Olympia. The shameful action to not allow race dates for Spokane continue the abuse we experience from what is now an anti-Native American effort to develop a better Playfair.

Terry Lynch Spokane

Make DeYoung first woman treasurer

Voters could make history this year by electing the first woman ever to serve as Washington state treasurer. Not only that, but we could make history by electing the first person ever to hold that position who has a background in finance.

We have a competent, qualified woman candidate - the only woman running for the position.

Lucy DeYoung has over 25 years experience in finance and banking. She has a degree in business, and an MBA in finance and accounting. She has been a banker and small-business owner. She has been a fiscal analyst for the Legislature and governor’s office. And she has served as a financial adviser to many school districts.

If you should forget DeYoung’s name, remember that she’s the only woman running for treasurer. Beverly McConnell Pullman

Murphy best qualified for treasurer

The state of Washington is a complex business with sophisticated financial management needs. Mike Murphy is uniquely qualified to handle these responsibilities as Washington’s next state treasurer.

Murphy is an experienced professional, having worked in the treasurer’s office and having served as Thurston County treasurer for the last nine years. As an elected official, he has earned a reputation for providing good customer service to taxpayers. He knows how to work smarter and increase productivity in these days when more is demanded of government.

Finally, he has been widely endorsed by his fellow county treasurers, who have confidence in his ability to work with them in the best interests of our local government. Frank Malone Spokane

Gombosky will help working families

I am writing to encourage the voters of the 3rd Legislative District to elect Jeff Gombosky to the state House of Representatives, position 2. He has earned my support because of his dedication to issues that affect working families.

Gombosky is committed to promoting economic security for the hard-working people of the 3rd district. The Washington Federation of State Employees, Spokane Firefighters Local No. 29 and Communication Workers of America local 7818 have endorsed him because they, too, recognize his dedication to the economic interests of our community.

Gombosky has also received endorsements from the Washington Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club because of his respect for Washington’s natural environment. He will work to promote environmental responsibility.

Gombosky is the only candidate in this race who has received support from such prominent labor and environmental groups. This support is well deserved. Laura E. Rinehart Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Don’t underrate library’s role

In your article “Library staffers checking out,” (Region, Aug. 22), you report Budget Manager Ken Stone as saying that the library may be the only city department that can be shut down for a week without disrupting essential services.

This statement is extremely shortsighted. The library is the most essential of services, if we wish to consider ours a civilized society. The advent of free public libraries is the key to the continued technological growth of society in the areas of arts, letters and sciences. It provides a quiet haven in a bustling city. It provides access to history, literature and philosophy.

In short, while other services may be essential to physical well-being or to keeping the few who violate our laws from overwhelming us, the library is essential to the city’s spiritual and intellectual well-being. Keith M. Barber Spokane

Better to pass bond, fix streets

We sincerely hope Spokane residents will approve the bond for the repair of the city’s potholes.

Although potholes are an inevitable, ongoing expense in our climate, and adequate road maintenance should be part of the city’s budget, until that can be done, we would rather pay for a bond than continue to ruin tires and incur other expensive car repairs, as we have been doing. We urge passage of the levy. Bob and Barbara Rutherford Spokane

Road plight doesn’t compute

Our city government is asking property owners to pay millions of dollars to repair our streets.

In 1987 we approved a $15 million street bond. That’s just under $2 million per year. But add to that the interest earned on investment of those funds, state and federal grants, and the regular property tax collected, a portion of which is used for street maintenance - several millions of dollars have been collected to maintain our streets. But our city streets continue to be in disrepair. Why? The city does a lot of sniveling about why the property owner is their only source of the millions of dollars it allegedly needs. The city failed to explain why our streets are no better after we gave them millions for repairs.

The city says that the Spokane Transit Authority may or may not participate in street repairs. The only option that STA should have is to help repair its bus routes.

The city is asking more than double the 1987 bond. It’s to be a seven-year program. Does that mean in seven years the city will ask us to approve another street bond double (nearly $80 million) the 1996 bond? If you feel unsure and are uncomfortable with how the city uses your taxes regarding this issue, tell the city very clearly with a no vote on this street bond. George Britton Spokane

There’s smoke and then there’s smoke

Spokane was blanketed with smoke last week from the Colville Indian Reservation and it was indeed unpleasant.

Did The Spokesman-Review report any deaths during the week as possibly caused by this smoke, as it did the previous week? Remember, it was reported that a woman may have died due to smoke caused by some greedy grass burner and that satellite surveillance will soon be used to single out these culprits.

Are we to assume now that there is “good” smoke and “bad” smoke? Again, the taxpaying farmer gets the blame for society’s woes and identifiable “bad” smoke. Isn’t there a double standard here, or at least a little hypocrisy? Keith R. Green Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Sweetser, deputies, doing good job

Before Jim Sweetser took over the Spokane County Prosecutor’s office, it was an office that plea-bargained a high percentage of its cases. It lost a high percentage of cases it took to trial and morale was low.

Sweetser has turned all that around by building professional teams, each with a particular expertise, each unit being an office of the prosecutor in and of itself. Sweetser rides herd on these units by keeping in close contact with the team leaders.

Katherine Lee is one team leader who has come under a suspicious amount of criticism lately. She should be up for commendable citation for her performance as prosecuting attorney. With nearly three times the case load, her ratio of convictions jumped from four dismissals for each conviction to three convictions for each dismissal, compared with the corresponding unit under the previous prosecutor.

Sweetser has given us much more bang for fewer bucks. Knowledge of when to go to trial is everything. Can you win your case? Sweetser and his team leaders know when they can win, and when it’s time to cut bait.

Regarding the recent robbery suspect who was let off the hook, there was no robbery and he go not money. There was no gun, only a towel around a hand. The quality of the videotape was poor and inconclusive, and there was not a shred of other collaborating evidence. The guy who was charged might very well have been innocent.

If Sweetser has evidence, he will prosecute. Lacking evidence, he cuts bait and looks for a case that is solid. W. Michael McGinty Spokane

Idaho unfair to Russells

Re: Stories about the plight of Dick Russell on his Priest Lake property (“Lake is public’s own private Idaho,” Our View, Aug. 24). Or should I say the nowstate of Idaho property?

I normally don’t mix in other peoples’ business, but in this case I can’t help myself. I have known Russell and his family for over 45 years. I can’t believe the injustice that the state has dealt to this man.

If you ever had a problem, Russell would be the first to offer his help because that is the kind of man he is. He would always leave his cabin at Priest Lake wide open, with a note written for whoever might enter that they were welcome, just to leave everything as they found it. Russell also is a fighter of injustice when he believes someone is being taken advantage of - in this case, him and his family.

The state says he had 30 years of warnings and that should have been enough time to depart the island. The bureaucrats miss the point. The point is that the Russells had a long-term, unbreakable lease and the state broke the lease.

Why is the state allowed to change the rules and then degrade a good man for trying to stand up for his rights? The clincher is that they now are sending him a bill for over $3,000 for cleaning up the mess that they created.

I have seen a lot of things in my 60 years but this is the worst case of government injustice I have witnessed. The Russell family should be compensated for its losses. D. Haffner Spokane

Landlord, heed decision’s message

I am writing to support Judge Richard White’s recent decision against a local landlord. He ruled landlords are responsible if they knowingly allow their tenants to create a nuisance, depriving others of their right to enjoy their property.

My daughter and others documented what went on at a rental house. They watched criminal and immoral activities happen almost every day. They didn’t feel safe in their own homes.

The landlords were contacted three times over several months, twice by a police officer, explaining what was going on in the neighborhood. Nothing was done.

Finally, the neighborhood group sent a certified letter detailing the problem and asking for the landlords’ assistance. The only response? They called the Neighborhood Resource Officer and threatened to sue every neighbor for defaming their tenants’ character.

Is it any wonder this case went to court? This case has nothing to do with poverty-stricken tenants in need of help. It’s about responsibility. They turned a blind eye and continued to profit at the expense of an entire neighborhood.

They run a business and have a duty to a neighborhood, just like any other business operating within a neighborhood. My daughter and her neighbors did not want to go to court. They wanted only to feel safe in their homes again.

Thank goodness for Judge White’s decision. Let it send a message to all landlords: You cannot knowingly ignore nuisance and problem tenants at the expense of others. Ina Redd Spokane

Best reward not a money thing

This is in response to Valorie White’s letter regarding the “injustice” of a small reward a child received for giving a woman the $1,800 he found on her property.

Sentiments such as White’s teach our children to always ask “What’s in it for me?” before they do anything for anyone else. What the woman gave as a reward is irrelevant. The important thing is that the boy did the right thing in returning to her what was rightfully hers.

White says, “Teaching kids to be honest is not shorting them on something they deserve.” What exactly does he deserve? Is a large reward for doing the right thing proper compensation, or is the feeling you get when you do something honest payment enough? I think it is the latter.

If her idea of teaching kids to be honest is paying them every time they do good, then this amounts to nothing short of a bribe. Our children will associate honesty with greed, and by doing so, will defeat the idea behind the good act.

This makes me wonder where the true injustice lies; in a boy who is upset because he didn’t get what he felt he deserved or in the words of people like White, who perpetuate the idea that honesty should be financially rewarding. Brad Hallock Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Bring back the New Deal approach

Dick Hopp’s Aug. 16 letter regarding how the poor are being treated brought to mind the Great Depression.

I recall even as a youngster that right after Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, within months, the Works Progress Administration was functioning and the Civilian Conservation Corps was implemented. This was done because we had a crisis and something had to be done at once.

Our present situation is not quite the same, but the need to get welfare people working is a necessary part of the welfare reform effort. Wouldn’t it be better to revisit the days of the WPA and use the same idea for putting welfare recipients to work? A work requirement for able-bodied welfare recipients should be mandatory. Welfare was set up as temporary help for the needy, not a way of life.

I recall the work done in my hometown and area, building parks and recreation fields, etc., and maintaining them. Projects such as those can be called make-work, but they make possible improvements for which there is no money in current budgets. They can also provide training for people with no work experience, giving them the chance for a constructive future.

There would be problems, of course. But this approach could provide people another opportunity to get off the welfare rolls - something many many want to do. Anthony W. Som Spokane

Kaun campaign one to be proud of

It is very refreshing to see a candidate run a genuine grass-roots campaign. Sue Kaun, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress, has assembled an army of some 400 spirited volunteers who have helped her knock on more than 10,000 doors in the last three months.

Kaun has met with and listened to voters throughout the 5th District. A lot of shoe leather is being utilized in a campaign that is being conducted on a virtual shoestring. There is very little political action committee (PAC) money. Most contributors are individuals from the district.

Kaun wants to reform the way campaigns are financed in order to minimize the impact of special interests. She is setting a wonderful example in her own campaign.

Kaun plans to continue this direct contact with the voters. This is an example of traditional American grassroots campaigning at its best, reaching out to average people and listening to their concerns. Kaun deserves to win. Bill First Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

So, not being nosy is all that counts?

According to Jennifer Lindsley (“Nosiness is our way - and it’s wrong, Letters, Aug. 24), minding our own business is all we are called to do. It doesn’t matter how many people are addicted to drugs and alcohol, how many children or wives are abused. And most of all, it doesn’t matter how many children are killed in the womb for convenience’s sake (97 percent of 1.6 million per year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood).

Is this the ideal society, where no one cares? Walt and Velda Weid Spokane