Public Periscope

Never mind

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley has decided not to move from his minifarm in the foothills of Mount Spokane. But that decision apparently won’t keep more than 6,000 voters from being moved into a new commissioner district … Roskelley’s plan to buy and move to a house outside his district led the three commissioners to redraw boundaries for that district and the one represented by Phil Harris. About 4,700 who had been represented by Roskelley were put inside Harris’ district, while some 1,600 were placed in Roskelley’s district. Commissioners could rescind last week’s decision without public notice, but Roskelley says they won’t.

The adjustments were needed anyway to balance populations between the two districts, he said.

Public works cut out for him

County corrections Director Gary Oberg is taking on new and unlikely responsibilities. Commissioners appointed him to oversee the Public Works Department and its $150 million budget until they hire a replacement for the recently fired Dennis Scott, which may take six months … Public works directors usually are engineers. But with department morale lower than a grassy swale, commissioners wanted a proven problem-solver for the temporary job … “I think he knows what “public” means and “works” means, but not the two of them together,” Harris said of Oberg.

Through planner-colored glasses

The experts assigned to help the regular folks visualize various planning options showed off their art to commissioners recently. Their color drawings show the difference between “conventional” planning - read: sprawl - and “focused” planning, which would preserve green space … The planners from Washington State University said they tried hard to make the drawings “Spokane-like,” without any bias that might lead people to prefer one approach over another. Commissioner Kate McCaslin didn’t think so … “Goll, it seems a little biased to me,” she said, noting the drawings of “conventional” neighborhoods had relatively few trees. Drawings showing focused growth give Spokane more trees than ever … The drawings also suggest Spokane won’t need overhead utility lines if it goes the focused route. Utilities only show up on the drawings depicting sprawl.

Keep those cards and ballots coming

If you’re a city voter who has moved recently, this would be a good time to update your address with the Spokane County elections department. Why now? Because some 120,000 city voters will be sent ballots with two city issues in mid-January … The city expects to save at least $25,000 by conducting the Feb. 2 election by mail. Two issues will be on the ballot: One asks if the city should take over operation of its Municipal Court, now run jointly with Spokane County. The other asks about selling 30 acres of undeveloped park property in order to develop a sports complex next to Joe Albi Stadium … The last mail-in ballot was in June 1997, on the Seahawks stadium.

A stocking un-stuffer

We here at Periscope get lots of faxes - too many, in fact - but were very glad to get one in particular last week from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that is more than generous with its opinions on federal topics … “Here’s our special Christmas gift to you,” it said. “No more faxes on Social Security until the New Year!”

So long, Bill

Spokane County Auditor Bill Donahue will be retiring this week after 30 years in the courthouse. After three decades, the man who has overseen scores of elections and graciously answered even dumb questions from reporters obviously deserves a rest … We don’t like to get maudlin about such things, so let’s just say that Donahue was always a straight shooter and a good friend who will be missed.