Rodgers Rocks The Boat, Keeps Fellow Politicians Guessing
Once again, Cherie Rodgers was in the news, speaking her mind last week while other Spokane City Council members showed caution.
The majority agreed with the decision to put Engineering Director Phil Williams on paid leave until they know whether his affair with a researcher undermined a $300,000 study of the trash incinerator.
Rodgers said Williams should be fired. His behavior was “inexcusable,” she told a reporter.
Breaking with the crowd and speaking bluntly have been standard for Rodgers since she was appointed to the council in February. Now, she’s seeking election to her Position 1 post, against challenger Barbara Lampert.
Rodgers is the most likely of the seven council members to cast a dissenting vote.
She alone voted against renewing a SpokAnimal CARE contract after federal agents accused an employee at the non-profit agency of illegally obtaining prescription drugs.
She alone wanted to put the city’s participation in a downtown redevelopment project on the ballot. Then she cast the lone vote against a pre-construction agreement, saying the project needed more studies.
She alone voted against a traffic study for a city maintenance complex in the Logan neighborhood. Rodgers thinks the complex should go elsewhere. In fact, the council now is considering other sites.
She disagreed with her colleagues again when they decided to allow the temporary storage of hazardous waste in light-industrial areas.
Rodgers also breaks with City Hall by saying it’s time to either pay Steve and Leslie Ronald $2.18 million for 1.34 acres or give up on acquiring the land between the downtown library and the Spokane falls. A jury set the price; now the city is fighting for a lower price and faces a lawsuit over its handling of the matter.
And Rodgers was the first and loudest on the council to oppose construction of the Lincoln Street bridge. She would rebuild the Post Street bridge.
Rodgers’ predecessor, Chris Anderson, was also a dissenter. But the similarities end there, said fellow council member Jeff Colliton.
“What we used to have was Chris Anderson doing that just for spite,” Colliton said. “I certainly don’t see Cherie doing that. She’s an obvious independent thinker.”
Colliton said Rodgers sometimes speaks too freely, without considering the consequences. Her comments about Williams were “irresponsible,” he said, chalking it up to inexperience.
“I do weigh the consequences, I do look at both sides of the issue and I vote my conscience,” Rodgers said, adding that her call to fire Williams came only after questioning his judgment on other matters.
A member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe, Rodgers was raised in the reservation town of Hot Springs, Mont. She attended the University of Montana for two years but quit to get married. She worked full time supporting her student husband, Steve Rodgers.
That was followed by 16 moves in 14 years as an Air Force wife. Rodgers volunteered at the school, at church and teaching English to the foreign wives of other airmen.
In 1986, Steve Rodgers slipped into a coma during surgery for brain cancer. When he awoke, he was blind and suffered other health problems.
That year, the family moved to Spokane’s Indian Trail neighborhood, and Cherie Rodgers nursed her husband for the final two years of his life. Then, she concentrated on raising their three children and a foster son.
Rodgers stumbled into community activism in the early 1990s, fighting a supermarket in Indian Trail.
Soon, she was working with developers and neighbors on the Indian Trail Specific Plan, a four-year effort that guides development in the neighborhood. She became a regular at land-use hearings, even if they involved other neighborhoods.
Neophyte activists began seeking her advice.
“She taught us how to read traffic studies,” said Sandee Buss, who turned to Rodgers when Walgreens RXpress wanted to put a pharmacy in the North Hill neighborhood. Buss lost that battle but was impressed with Rodgers, and is her campaign co-chairwoman.
Developer Rod Plese, who worked on the Indian Trail plan, said Rodgers showed a willingness to see the developers’ point of view.
“We didn’t always agree, but I felt she was very fair,” Plese said.
In 1995, the City Council appointed Rodgers to the Plan Commission, a volunteer position. Two years later, the council selected her from 41 applicants to fulfill the final 11 months of Anderson’s term.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
MEMO: See candidate profile by name