Citizens Forum Will Focus On City Districting The Issue Will Be Debated At Friday’S Lunchtime Event

Imagine having two City Council members to call directly about potholes, a noisy neighbor or development concerns.

They live in your district, know your issues and are held accountable by the neighbors who elected them.

Now, imagine four other council members who couldn’t care less about the problems in someone else’s district.

Those are the two pictures being painted for Spokane voters by supporters and opponents of a proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot to elect council members by district.

The proposal calls for dividing the city into three districts and electing two council members with staggered terms from each district.

Supporters say districting will make council members more accountable to voters and will encourage voters to take more interest in their government.

Opponents say it will further fracture the community.

Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes and Judith Gilmore will debate the issue Friday during a forum at Auntie’s Bookstore.

“It is a terrible disservice to the voters in this community, disenfranchising them from choosing the full council,” Holmes said. “It is a giant step backward.”

Gilmore is campaign manager for the Citizens Alliance, which was formed to promote both elections by district and the strong-mayor initiative.

The group has produced television commercials supporting each initiative, and they are scheduled to begin airing this week.

Dividing the city into geographic districts might ease a common public perception that the City Council largely represents the South Hill. The perception doesn’t hold true with the current council, which has four members living north of the river, or previous councils for at least the past 18 years, according to Councilman Rob Higgins.

Higgins said his research shows that the previous councils have been divided almost equally north and south of the river at least since 1982.

“That’s not the point,” Gilmore said. “The purpose of electing candidates by district is that they will be responsible for representing that district.”

The council would still have seven voting members, and it would still take a majority to render a decision.

“I can elect two people to represent me, but they are worthless without at least two other votes,” Holmes said.

Gilmore said she imagines some issues remaining at the district level and being resolved by a council member perhaps going directly to the city manager with problems.

“It may not be necessary to take every issue to the City Council,” she said.

Holmes said there simply isn’t a need for districting in Spokane.

“I think the neighborhood council program is addressing the issue of greater communication,” she said.

Some neighborhood council members are concerned about elected district representatives pre-empting the role and newfound power of neighborhoods in city government.

“The neighborhood councils are a voice without a vote, powerless,” said David Bray, a City Council candidate and lead proponent of the measure. “Districting would change all that.”

Sheila Collins, who helped write a statement against the initiative for the voters pamphlet prepared by the League of Women Voters, said districting is unnecessary because of the neighborhood council system.

Collins said she is personally ambivalent about districting, but she is disturbed by the way the initiative on the ballot was developed.

“No one was part of the discussion that brought that initiative forward,” she said. “When you are doing something as profound as this, you have to be careful to involve a broad base of people.”

Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. IF YOU GO Public forum “Districting: A Question of Geographics,” will be the topic of a Citizens League forum Friday from noon to 1:30 p.m., at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main. The forum is free. The cost of an optional pizza lunch is $6. For reservations or more information, call 326-1129.

2. FAST FACTS Districting proposal If approved by voters, here’s how the redistricting plan would work: The city would be divided into three geographic districts sometime after January by a committee that would include the mayor, mayor pro-tem and three citizens appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council. The committee would be required to hold public hearings before drawing and adopting the districting plan. Final approval would come from the City Council. Beginning in 2001, voters in each district would elect one council member every two years. The mayor would still be elected at-large by all voters. Council candidates would be required to live in their districts for at least a year before running for election, and then continue living in the district throughout their four-year terms.