Public Periscope
Commissioner Eugster?
Spokane city Councilman Steve Eugster threw down a good-natured gauntlet to county Commissioner Phil Harris last week at a joint meeting of the two governments’ leaders. The county should help grade a scenic gravel byway west of the city so tourists don’t knock their cars out of alignment when driving over it, Eugster said. … “That road’s in your district, Phil,” he said. “If you don’t do something about it, I’m going to run against you.” Replied a laughing Harris: “You go on ahead, Steve. You need a sound defeat, and I’d like to give it to you.”
The councilman, who has been a lightning rod for controversy since his election in November, turned wistful. “Sometimes I wish someone would defeat me.”
Termination terminated?
Eugster has withdrawn a resolution calling for a City Council vote on Jim Sloane, although he says he still wants the longtime city attorney fired. … The resolution was withdrawn in a one-paragraph letter Eugster wrote to city Clerk Terri Pfister. “If other council members wish to express their lack of confidence in Mr. Sloane as the city attorney, they can do so by directly conveying their view to City Manager (Henry) Miggins,” he wrote. … Last week, Eugster said the resolution is off the table “for now” but he will continue to push Miggins either to reappoint or fire Sloane. Miggins said he considers the matter a “dead issue, and there is no action pending at this time.”
Early to rise
U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt probably should have charged other politicians extra to attend his $25-per-plate breakfast last week. Not because they ate more - in fact, some of them were so busy working the crowd on their own behalf that they didn’t have much time to eat. … State Sen. Jim West, who wants to be Spokane’s next mayor, almost bumped into county Commissioner Kate McCaslin as they politicked around adjoining tables. … The real benefit, though, was being introduced from the podium to a roomful of some 400 people who care enough about politics to be dressed and downtown by 7 a.m. How important is that? Important enough that all three mayoral candidates were in the crowd. … Mayoral hopeful John Powers had enough politicking left to attend a campaign kickoff for Tom Keefe, a Democrat challenging Nethercutt, a few hours later.
A little out of the ordinary
Speaking of Keefe’s rally, it was smaller but the entertainment value was higher. It opened with singing and drumming by four members of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe and closed with a stirring rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Julia Keefe, his 10-year-old daughter.
Everyone’s got an opinion
Most Northwest newspapers have editorialized on whether to breach Snake River dams. The Spokesman-Review and The Oregonian in Portland have come out against it, while The Idaho Statesman in Boise long ago endorsed breaching. … Papers from outside the region are getting involved, too. Within the last three weeks, The Denver Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The News Gazette of Champaign, Ill., and the Quad-City Times of Davenport, Iowa, all have endorsed breaching. … That makes the Columbia River Alliance, an industry group opposed to breaching, suspicious. “Without science to support dam breaching, national environmental groups and lower river treaty tribes have resorted to a national political campaign,” the alliance said in a statement.
Getting involved
Spokane County has an opening on the library board of trustees as well as four openings on the Chase Youth Commission, three on the Water Conservancy Board and one on the Boating Advisory Board. Contact Demeris Skaggs in the commissioners’ office at (509) 477-2265 for information about applications and deadlines.