Neighborhood Councils Worth It

When Spokane’s neighborhood council program originated in 1995, it came wrapped in a promise and a risk.

The promise was for a climate in which citizens could participate meaningfully in city affairs.

The risk was that the promise was a fraud. That the Office of Neighborhood Services would look like empowerment but feel like a leash. That it would be a playpen where City Hall could keep a close eye on mischief-minded activists. Thus far the promise has mostly been honored. Twenty-six councils have formed. One-time skeptics have become enthusiasts. Even non-city residents have approached the office for advice about handling their own neighborhood issues, such as groundwater problems on Moran Prairie.

But the risk has not been eradicated, and Molly Myers’ abrupt resignation as director of neighborhood services last month only underscores uncertainty about the program’s future.

Myers said she’s burned out. She told a reporter it’s been “an uphill battle from day one.” That’s discouraging but not surprising. For many public officials the idea of citizen engagement means making plans first, then asking community members to react. The idea behind the neighborhood councils, however, is to make citizens true partners in civic work, not afterthoughts or rubberstamps.

It was Myers, many neighborhood representatives say, who would remind fellow officials at City Hall to include the neighborhoods early and often. Her successor will need to do the same, but there’s no assurance that there will be a successor.

At a budget workshop last December, both Mayor John Talbott and Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers recommended eliminating the department. Fortunately, more farsighted council members, notably Phyllis Holmes, averted that mistake, but the makeup of the council has changed since then. Meanwhile, the city is about to convert to a strong-mayor form of government which will rearrange the lines of accountability for all city programs.

If that transition diminishes neighborhood councils’ influence, it will rob the community of an important vehicle for public involvement.

Neighborhoods are where people live and share experiences, where challenges arise and where solutions either work or fail. Neighborhoods are authentic. For trust to exist in the handling of city affairs, neighborhood voices must have a valid forum where citizens can identify their own issues. A place where they can learn together, explore competing ideas and work through their ambiguity on the way to informed judgment.

Neighborhood deliberations can be messy and spirited. They can be more time-consuming than public officials have patience for. But they focus on matters of governance, not the ideological mud-wrestling that masquerades as politics in arenas where decision-makers don’t necessarily have to live next door to the outcomes.

As neighborhood council programs go, Spokane’s is just an infant. It has earned the chance to mature.