Critics See Precinct Idea As Divisive, Counterproductive

Tue., Aug. 18, 1998

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Like a motorist who steps out of a parked car and becomes a pedestrian, City Council members’ perceptions change once they’ve been elected, according to David Bray of Spokane.

And in Spokane, says Bray, elected officials have no reason to perform any other way. Once they have the political support with which to get elected, they can ignore large sections of the city, he said.

That’s why Bray and others have proposed that Spokane City Council members run in geographical districts rather than citywide. Then, they believe, every section of the city would have a decision maker to hold accountable.

But Cal Modisett of Spokane thinks the idea is “silly.” Modisett wants to stick with the present system in which all six council members and the mayor run at large.

“We’ll simply have competing councilmen,” said Modisett. “Instead of doing good for the city of Spokane, they’ll be trying to get the road paved in their district.”

After pondering the council-district idea, Harv Clark of Spokane also found it wanting.

“When you’re dealing with this level of government, I feel the representatives should be accountable to the city as a whole, not just one little area. I feel it would create a divisiveness that we cannot afford in Spokane. Progress would be stifled and we would see our city begin a decline. Keep the present representation form elected by the entire city please.”

A clash of symbols

From the wife of a Vietnam vet comes one more vote against sending the Congressional Medal of Honor to St. Louis along with Lt. Michael J. Blassie, a former occupant of the Tomb of the Unknowns.

“If his family covets a merit which was awarded for symbolic purposes only,” says Mrs. Thomas M. Larson of Spokane, “they should have let Lt. Blassie remain as an unknown - the symbolic status for which that particular medal was given.”

Now that Blassie is identified and reinterred under his own headstone, any decorations awarded to him should depend on his own record, Larson said.

“The medal of honor for the position of ‘Unknown Soldier’ belongs to an unknown, not the known,” she said.

Gallop poll continues

“The Omak Suicide Race should be ended,” insists Kerry Masters of Liberty Lake. “Horses should not have to suffer because of stupid, macho cowboy idiots wanting to show off,” she said.

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