Realtors Worry About Higgins’ New Position Some Agents Wonder Whether He Can Lead Them And Council

One month after being elected Spokane City Council president, Rob Higgins’ ability to manage his new position with his professional job has come under scrutiny among some of his fellow Realtors.

About 60 members of the Spokane Association of Realtors attended a special meeting Tuesday to discuss whether Higgins’ duties as council president will interfere with his responsibilities as executive officer of the 1,300-member association and whether the association needs a policy on employees serving in elected positions.

After all was said and done, however, Higgins’ situation remains unchanged.

On Thursday, the group’s board of directors met again and decided to take no action. Association President Sabrina Jones-Schroeder said she and the other board members have confidence in Higgins’ ability to fulfill his council and professional duties.

Other association members were disappointed in the decision to not appoint a task force to examine the board’s lack of a policy on employees serving in elected roles.

“Our questions were how can Rob Higgins serve effectively for the Spokane Board of Realtors if he’s in charge of the transition to strong mayor, is mayor pro-tem, must work with the city staff and constituents and chair the Public Safety Committee, Public Works and the Finance Committee,” said Pam Simpson, co-owner of Simpson Realty and one of the organizers of Tuesday’s meeting. “Is the city being well-served with a part-time council president, and is the Spokane Board of Realtors being well-served?”

Simpson added that she and others may circulate a petition calling for the board to look more closely at those issues.

At times, the Tuesday meeting got a little hostile, she said. Some members accused others of having a political agenda, saying that their motives were driven by opposition to Higgins’ political leanings rather than by concern for the well-being of the association.

That sentiment is shared to some degree by Jones-Schroeder, who said, “The folks who raised complaints have some connections to Steve Corker.”

Corker ran against Higgins for City Council president.

Simpson, however, said that politics did not play a part in her decision to pursue the issue.

“I don’t even know Steve Corker,” she said. “None of us were there to question Rob as an individual. It was a question of policy, not personality.”

Jones-Schroeder downplayed the controversy, saying just a handful of members at Tuesday’s meeting were worried about Higgins.

Simpson said about half of the attendees expressed concern, and that many other members who couldn’t attend feel the same way.

Higgins has said the council president job won’t require a full-time commitment.

On Thursday, he reiterated that the position won’t interfere with his work for the Realtors group.

“I was hired in 1985 when I was mayor pro-tem,” he said. “That political activity has been in my contract all along.”

When he was considering running for council president last June, Higgins approached the Realtors board, which gave him unanimous support, Jones-Schroeder said.

“The fact is that we as a board of directors would encourage staff to become involved in the community,” she said.

Earlier this year, Higgins argued against raising the council president’s salary from $22,500 to $40,000 because he said there was no justification for paying a full-time salary to someone in a part-time position. The council voted to raise the position’s pay anyway.

Some Realtors Association members say that salary should be deducted from the approximately $60,000 they pay Higgins each year.

“Should we be paying Rob a full-time salary if he is taking on what may be a full-time city job?” asked one real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous.

Simpson said that the group is raising some fees that Realtors pay for things like lock box key pads and education. The board decided not to raise member dues.

But the notion of adjusting Higgins’ pay was dismissed Thursday at the association’s board meeting, Jones-Schroeder said.

“The feeling is if he is doing the job, even if he has to take some time to do some civic duties, if the job requirements are being met, we’re not concerned with punching a clock.”