Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Harris’ decisions aren’t making sense

Oh, great. First, County Commissioner Phil Harris demolishes 75 low-income homes at Geiger Field near the Spokane airport and now he disapproves a loan for a low-income apartment complex in the Valley. His reasoning: The county would lose $15,000 a year in property taxes.

If he would apply that same reasoning to Geiger Field, the county would have increased its property taxes $70,000 per year. Which is it?

In the same Geiger Field action, let’s not forget the $3 million the airport lost because of the failure to sell the area to the private sector. And it was all to preserve industrial space. So, why is B.F. Goodrich locating its plant five miles west of the airport? Leonard Butters Spokane

Who were anti-Hoopfest merchants?

We were amazed to read recent articles about the opposition of some downtown merchants to the street closures and other arrangements required to support Hoopfest. Has our society really degenerated to the point where each individual opposes anything that doesn’t provide personal gain? What happened to civic pride and the sense of community?

We would appreciate this newspaper publishing the names of these merchants so we can make a point of never doing business with them. Pat and Bob Mielbrecht Spokane

HIGHER EDUCATION

EWU trouble starts in high places

Kudos to staff writer Grayden Jones for his insightful story on the financial debacle at Eastern Washington University (June 24). There was one point in the article that does need clarification. This is the statement by James Kirschbaum, chairman of EWU’s board of trustees, “that he did not know that the university was also paying for Dolan’s taxes.” This is hard to accept.

I was able to get a copy of Dolan’s contract from the EWU auditor’s office. The contract clearly states both federal taxes and Social Security charges would be paid by EWU. Kirschbaum is well aware that according to EWU bylaws, all authority at EWU is vested in the board of trustees. Would Kirschbaum, with his vast financial experience (chairman of the trustees’ finance committee and vice president of the financial institution First Capital) and administrative experience at EWU, have us believe he was unaware of the terms of Dolan’s contract? That his servitor, Mark Drummond, ex-president of EWU, “struck a deal” with Dolan?

This is pure balderdash! Would he also like us to believe Drummond, recently bragging to the paper about his new life as a hobby rancher-farmer at the expense of the students at EWU, approved his own contract? Kirschbaum and the EWU trustees are responsible for the blatant misuse of the public funds at EWU.

One sad note. They are still, despite a new president, in charge. Jere Donegan Cheney

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Public employees support Sterk

Re: Ed Meadows’ letter of June 16. The public employee unions have all endorsed Mark Sterk for Spokane County sheriff. After careful consideration, they chose Sterk as their candidate. In Olympia, he has consistently supported our public employees, and they know it.

The Washington Federation of State Employees-American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 1997-1998 legislative report card recognized Sterk as the one and only Republican who scored above 50 percent on his voting record. Fourth District Rep. Sterk compiled a 64 percent “right” vote on key union issues over the two years of the 55th Legislature. In the same report, Sterk was applauded for his hard work on preventing bad bills from coming to a vote, which isn’t reflected in voting records.

It makes sense that public employees support Sterk as the best candidate for sheriff. After all, public employees are the ones who have to work with him the closest. Sterk has also been a union member for over 20 years.

We need a sheriff who can build a strong consortium of support in our community. Sterk has done this time and time again, both as a supervisor and manager for the Spokane Police Department. And he is an excellent legislator.

Sterk is the best sheriff candidate for public employees and for the community. Vote for the most qualified, for Sterk for sheriff. I sure will. Scott A. Hepler WFSE Local 1221, Liberty Lake

Sweetser should aim for efficiency

County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser feels we should pay his organization based on salaries in much richer counties. That, of course, is just as valid as the taxpayers saying prosecutor pay should be based on salaries in much poorer counties.

What he is really saying is that our prosecutors should take a higher percentage of the taxpayers’ pay than they now get.

Government should have the same attitude toward rewards that free enterprise has. That is, it should increase efficiency, lower overhead and be rewarded a portion of the savings. There are an enormous number of productivity tools that allow knowledge workers to do more with fewer people. For heaven’s sake, use them!

County commissioners should tell Sweetser he can use half of his productivity savings to increase salaries. The rest will be applied toward new services. Government should not take a greater percentage of our resources without providing a greater percentage of our needs. Mickey Thompson Spokane

HEALTH CARE

Hospital workers’ lives under siege

I am writing in response to the picture and copy of June 25 regarding the nurses at Eastern State Hospital. I spent 10 long years working at that facility and most of those pictured are former co-workers. I wholeheartedly support their efforts in fighting the proposed schedule change.

These people have had the same days off for years and have managed their home lives around them. Now, management seems to think that by taking away their days off, having them work as many as eight days in a row and having any weekend time off every eight months will increase productivity. What it will cause is further decline in morale, increased use of unscheduled leave time and, in the long run, increased overtime usage and increased weekend premium pay as is written in the contract. This all adds up to increased cost to an already strained budget.

My significant other works at Eastern, holds two full-time jobs where he has the same days off and has children over on his weekend. If his schedule changes, he will never get to spend time with them and will end up working seven days a week. His is not the only life that would be totally turned upside down by this ridiculous management move

Is management going to adjust its schedule, giving up its weekends too? Most likely not.

Management needs to wake up and see that these are people it is dealing with, not the papers it so easily shuffles around. Catherine Anderson, R.N. Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Unshackle marijuana industry, people

The hemp industry of America is making a statement. People love the marijuana plant! And they love to grow it.

Marijuana is the No. 1 cash crop in America. It could still be a most valuable crop, as well as eliminating the black market for it, if the restraints were removed and prohibition ended. Marijuana-hemp could help in healing our atmosphere by producing oxygen, clean fuel, paper and textiles, if grown as an annual crop worldwide.

The American people are learning the sordid facts about the drug war; how much it costs to pursue and funnel through the court system, to build more and more prisons (or work camps/concentration camps) where money can be made through cheap labor. Mandatory minimums and unjust sentencing in comparing violent and nonviolent offenders fracture people’s lives, including all those who love the incarcerated ones.

Millions now have criminal records for marijuana alone, losing their voting rights, compromising and jeopardizing their futures. Incarceration places decent people in an environment that corrupts their values. Eroding privacy rights, property seizures and confiscations, surveillance, interrogation, infiltration and snitching are characteristic values of this war on the American people.

Many want the right to cultivate this plant for its many historic uses, including its communion and personal enjoyment in our striving for freedom, health and the pursuit of happiness.

We hurt no one. We want an honorable livelihood that helps us support our community business. We want to grow our herb! Gail Barton Kettle Falls, Wash.

Subversive soccer - what next?

Now we have it on the authority of editorial writer D.F. Oliveria. The increasingly popular game of soccer is really a Marxist plot.

This sounds like a throwback to the 1950s. I wonder about the next step. Will there be an effort to ban Chinese checkers under the guise of “fighting the commies”? Bill First Spokane