Only One Council Member Foiled Rodgers’ Chances

Thu., March 26, 1998

Phyllis Holmes Special To Roundtable

It is time to review the history of the controversy surrounding the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority board.

The composition and appointment guidelines for this board are set by state law. In January, the Spokane City Council unanimously nominated Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers to SCAPCA’s board. Rodgers had served last year as an alternate for Mike Brewer on the board. It is up to the mayors of the small towns, however, to officially elect the Spokane resident who serves. (I did not learn until Feb. 7 that the member need not be an elected official.) I also learned recently that in December, then-mayor Jack Geraghty alerted Rodgers that she was not favored by all of those small-town mayors. It seems reasonable to me to assume that she would have approached those individuals promptly regarding their issues and sought their support.

When the tie vote was announced, I urged Rodgers on at least three occasions to contact the mayors, inquire as to their concerns and address them.

Recently, one of the mayors indicated that if Rodgers had approached them prior to the voting deadline and made assurances of her ability to be objective, that mayor could have voted differently. Another said Rodgers simply did not do her homework.

When the final vote occurred, resulting in even fewer votes for Rodgers, Mayor John Talbott asked some of us if we would support a last-minute effort by Sen. Jim West to change the SCAPCA Board membership selection. Talbott said that he needed to know right away. There were no copies provided and the terms of the bill were unknown.

There are two problems here:

1. Anything that smacks of the City of Spokane throwing its weight around to change the rules to get its own way is offensive to me. Furthermore, I am concerned about the message that attitude sends to the mayors of this county. While we represent 30 percent of the county’s population, when we sit on regional boards such as the Growth Management Steering Committee, SCAPCA, the Spokane Transit Authority, the Health Board, etc., city representatives are in the minority.

We clearly need the respect and support of our other elected colleagues if we are to prevail with city issues. Talbott agreed at that time.

2. Our city legislative agenda is adopted in a council meeting and is open to public comment. There was no attempt to follow this process. Rather, we saw back-door politics at work with an attempt to muscle this through. I know of no one who objected to a proposal to reconfigure the board next year via an orderly process.

The true test of the character ethic of individuals or a community is the willingness to abide by the rules, even when the outcome is a disappointment. Corruption is charged when one reaches behind the curtain to change the rules in order to alter the results. Such actions tear at the fabric of orderly society.

Seldom do the ends justify the means.

While blame has been shifted to members of the City Council for things over which we have no control, the real question that needs to be asked is why Rodgers did not do the simple thing of advocating on her own behalf with those who have the power to decide, rather than blaming those who do not.

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