Eugster Backs Alternative Plan For Park Board Neighborhoods To Have Say In Panel’S Makeup

Tue., June 20, 2000

Oliver Staley Staley Staff writer

A controversial proposal to disband the Park Board and replace it with an elected commission has been withdrawn from the Spokane City Council’s agenda. Councilman Steve Eugster, who has advocated the change, agreed to pull the proposal off the agenda after huddling with Mayor John Talbott.

The proposal would have put the change before Spokane voters this fall.

Rather then scuttling the Park Board system, which has been in place since 1907, Talbott suggested a plan to increase diversity on the existing board by asking neighborhood councils for nominees when vacancies appear.

Nominees would also be suggested by council members who will be representing three districts beginning in 2002, Talbott said.

Over a five- or six-year period, we will achieve a balance of Park Board members over the three districts,” Talbott said after a Monday afternoon council briefing session.

Park Board members, who had pleaded with the council to keep the current system intact, were pleased to hear the news.

“It’s the best decision for the city,” Park Board President Steve Jones said. “It preserves a Park Board that’s worked very well. I didn’t see the sense of trying to fix something that was working so well.

Eugster had criticized the Park Board for lacking accountability and being out of touch with the neighborhoods. The new plan “is certainly worth a try,” he said.

He acknowledged that the process of bringing on new board members will take longer than a wholesale replacement of the existing board, but the end result may be the same.

“My goal is and has been to ensure that the Park Board was more representative to neighbor- hood park interests and concerns,” Eugster said. “My hope is that this will attempt to solve that problem.”

Park Board members, however, said they have always made the community a priority.

“I have felt we have been very sensitive to the broader needs of average Spokane citizens,” said Steve McNutt, vice-president of the board. “Accountability was one of our No. 1 charges.”

McNutt did agree that the board could use more diversity.

“I think we’re a little weak on (members from) the North Side and I would welcome that kind of involvement,” he said. “We would like help from all the socioeconomic strata in Spokane.”

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