Public Periscope

Putting the streets out to stud

As the Spokane City Council heard the grim news Thursday that it will cost up to $160 million to fix the city’s streets, the group kicked around funding ideas that would attach the cost of the fix to the causes of the problem … Councilman Steve Eugster suggested taxing businesses on the basis of how many car trips they require, with businesses like supermarkets paying the most. Another, half-joking suggestion was either taxing studded tires or outlawing them … Mike Taylor, a member of the Citizens Committee on Street Repair, said studded tires were successfully banned in Denver. “If they can outlaw studded tires in Colorado, they can do it here,” he said.“But the last time they talked about studded tires in the Legislature, it snowed in Olympia.”

“God spoke,” said Mayor John Talbott, tongue in cheek.

Speak now or hold your peace

For anyone who ever said he or she could do a better job than any of those idiots in Congress, the Legislature, the courthouse or City Hall, it’s time to put up or shut up … Filing week for candidates for political office runs this week, through 5 p.m. Friday. To be a candidate, one must bring 1 percent of the annual salary for that office, or one signature for each dollar, plus a pen to fill out the petition for candidacy … Show up at the county Elections Office unless the elected office you covet has a district that crosses the county line. In that case, get yourself to the Secretary of State’s Office in Olympia.

Modern inconveniences

Democratic congressional hopeful Tommy Flynn had to interrupt his standard five-minute introductory speech last week in midsentence. “I moved to Spokane 19 years ago,” he said, when that bane of a candidate’s existence, his cell phone, started ringing … “What did we do 19 years ago when we didn’t have these things?” he wondered as he apologized, and handed what he assumed was a turned-off phone to the moderator. When he started speaking again, the phone started ringing again. A second round of button punching silenced the phone.

This week’s whine special

“The Washington State Republican Party is extremely disappointed in the lack of accuracy on the part of the media in reporting the content of the resolution,” said the state GOP Executive Committee, in trying to lessen the damage from its convention resolution that called for an end to “non-republican” governments on Indian reservations … In fact, the initial story about the state convention resolution included the entire text of that statement. GOP leaders also complained that reporters had printed comments from people not authorized to speak for the party, despite the fact that the only authorized spokesperson, state Chairman Don Benton, didn’t return calls seeking a comment.