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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rodgers Wants To Stay On Council Streets High On List For Activist Serving Rest Of Anderson’s Term

It’s only been a brief affair, but Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers is enamored of public office.

“I absolutely love it,” she said Thursday morning as she kicked off a campaign to hold onto her council seat. “Even if you get out-voted, it’s nice to make a spark.”

Rodgers - chosen by other council members last January to serve the remaining year of Chris Anderson’s council term - urged the 25 people gathered for her announcement behind the Spokane Opera House to give her a full term.

If elected, her first goal is finding money to fix the city’s aging infrastructure, particularly streets, Rodgers said. She added she’s willing to borrow money for road repairs as long as there are steady revenues to repay the loan.

She wants the council to play a larger role in economic development, including efforts to help local businesses grow. “I think we’re a little weak on that,” she said. “We need to retain our existing businesses and help them expand.”

She also wants to focus on improving public health and safety.

Since joining the council six months ago, Rodgers has stayed true to her activist roots, often voting alone on controversial issues.

She voted against paying $60,000 to study building a vehicle maintenance facility in the Logan area, saying the city should find a site less intrusive to residents.

When a citizens group pushed a petition aimed at squashing the River Park Square redevelopment project, Rodgers stood apart from colleagues who voted to throw the proposed initiative out.

“You have to vote your conscience,” she said. “You have to do what’s right.”

Rodgers moved to Spokane in 1986, and her husband, an Army veteran, died of cancer two years later. Rodgers was a full-time homemaker raising three children when she tiptoed into politics in the early 1990s, joining a neighborhood fight to keep a supermarket out of the Indian Trail shopping center.

She’s since been active in issues ranging from grass burning to managing growth. She was appointed to the Plan Commission last year.

Rodgers, 48, compared making the decision to run for office to that of choosing to have another child: There are agonizing moments punctuated by joyous ones.

“My family is very important to me,” she said. “So are all of the city’s families.”