City’s Seat Vacant On Clean Air Board Brewer’s Election Not Yet Certified; Sen. Brown Seeks To Remove Veto By Small Town Mayors

Spokane’s seat on the county clean air board was empty Thursday as officials continued to debate who can legally represent the city.

That debate has also moved to Olympia, where state Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is trying to amend a section of the Clean Air Act that gives rural towns veto power over Spokane’s representative.

Mike Brewer, a former city councilman, was chosen to represent Spokane by a majority of the county’s small towns in a Feb. 23 election. He was absent from Thursday’s meeting of the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority.

That’s because Brewer’s election hasn’t been certified. Spokane County officials are asking their lawyers whether it’s legal for Brewer to represent Spokane on SCAPCA.

“It’s not clear whether the person selected has to be an elected official or not. I haven’t got an answer yet,” said Spokane County Auditor Bill Donahue.

Last week, Spokane Mayor John Talbott blasted the recent election as “archaic and undemocratic.” He said Brewer, whose family grows bluegrass, doesn’t represent Spokane’s interest in cleaner air. Brewer’s term on SCAPCA - and the City Council - expired Dec. 31.

At this week’s SCAPCA meeting, Talbott’s choice, City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, sat in the audience. She was Brewer’s alternate last year and was recently elected SCAPCA chairwoman, but only four of the county’s 11 towns voted for her on Feb. 23.

Rodgers is a clean-air activist who riled the rural towns by supporting a new state law curbing bluegrass field burning for public health reasons. Brewer opposes the state law.

Brown’s proposed legislation would give Spokane the authority to pick its own SCAPCA representative. The bill to which her amendment is attached has passed both houses in different versions, and must be reconciled by the end of the session next Thursday.

“It still isn’t over yet,” Brown said Thursday from the Senate floor.

Brown’s bill has the support of the Washington Department of Ecology, said Stuart Clark of Ecology’s air programs office in Olympia.

“It should fix the problem” of Spokane’s lack of representation, Clark said.

If the bill passes, it would clear the way for Rodgers to serve, said SCAPCA Director Eric Skelton.

As it’s currently written, state law lets the small-town mayors pick their own representative on the five-member board - plus the person representing Spokane.

Ecology has asked for an “informal” attorney general’s opinion on the Spokane controversy, Clark said.

“We think the law’s intent was to have the city choose the person representing the city,” he said.

“It’s a democracy issue” that urban areas should pick their own representative on clean-air boards, said Grant Pfeifer of Ecology’s regional office in Spokane.

“One of the fundamental principles of clean-air laws is that those who are part of the problem need to be part of the solution,” he said.

, DataTimes