Sibling Rivalry City, County Governments Know They Need To Get Along, But Can’T Quite Figure Out How

Spokane’s city and county governments get along about as well as two kids stuck in the back seat of the family car on a long, long trip.

They know they’re supposed to get along, but they just can’t seem to do it.

They whine. They kick. They irritate each other in a dozen little ways.

County commissioners joke regularly about the city’s financial problems. City Council members respond by calling the commissioners parochial or telling them to mind their own business.

When asked what’s going on, the two parties either point fingers or say everything’s fine.

But everything’s not fine, and who’s to blame is beside the point, observers say.

The two governments need to improve relations so the Spokane area can present a united front as it competes for state tax dollars and high-tech businesses, they say.

Otherwise, the constant bickering will make Spokane’s trip into the new millennium as miserable as a drive to Yellowstone in a dysfunctional family’s minivan, observers fear.

“We have a we-they situation right now,” Spokane hotel magnate Don Barbieri said this spring at a summit on growth and development at the Ag-Trade Center. “We should be doing more to work together. What are the common planks that we can all agree to?”

A high-ranking county employee agreed.

“There’s no cooperation at all,” said the employee, who wished to remain anonymous. “The city and county have always been sort of adversarial, but it’s gotten worse lately. There are all kinds of places where we could take a more regional approach, but I’m really careful not to overstep my bounds because it would irritate the commissioners. I don’t have a death wish.”

Parties on both sides, while denying there’s a relationship problem, say they hope to begin working toward improved communications Thursday. That’s when commissioners and council members are scheduled to meet to discuss several regional issues.

The meeting will begin at 3 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall.

It will be the first time the two entities have sat down at the same table in nearly a year.

“I truly believe we need to work with them,” County Commissioner Phil Harris said. “But I don’t believe we have some kind of fight between the city and county.”

City Councilman Steve Corker isn’t so sure.

“I think there is definitely a need for improved communications,” Corker said. “When I talk to them on a one-on-one basis, I think everything is fine. When I see them in the paper, I think we have a problem.”

Case in point: March 7.

County commissioners were meeting with Sheriff Mark Sterk to discuss funding for the serial killer task force. Two months before, city police administrators had pulled their detectives off the task force, citing budget constraints.

Sterk had asked for more than $200,000 to pursue the case, half of which would be used to hire two detectives to replace those withdrawn by the Police Department.

The conversation among commissioners quickly turned to city bashing.

“We cannot subsidize the city on everything,” Harris said during the meeting. “I want this person caught, but why does the city think we should do it all?”

Commissioner Kate McCaslin agreed and questioned the city’s budgeting ability.

“I suspect if I went through their budget, I could find $105,000 just like that,” McCaslin said, snapping her fingers for emphasis.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Cal Walker shook his head as the debate roared. “I don’t want to see the task force become a pawn in a political monetary war,” Walker said.

And there’s one of the rubs in this slap-fight: Money.

The county has it, and the city doesn’t.

Over the past five years or so, county commissioners have scrimped and saved and been tough at budget time. The result is a $16 million reserve and a reputation as one of the most fiscally responsible governments in the state.

It’s something commissioners are proud of and trumpet any chance they get.

Meanwhile, the city has fallen on hard times. The car-tab initiative passed by state voters last fall cut nearly $4 million from the city’s budget. Some of that was restored by the Legislature this spring, but the city still wound up losing money. The county’s reserves helped it absorb losses from the car-tab measure. When joint projects like the serial killer task force come up and the city pleads poverty, county commissioners get irked.

“The commissioners have become real protective of their reserve,” said Francine Boxer, county administrator. “You really can’t blame them.”

Things got more tense last week when the City Council’s Public Works Committee recommended annexing four areas of the county. At least two of those areas - Yardley and the West Plains - supply large amounts of property and sales taxes to county coffers. That money would go to the city if the annexations are successful.

The ongoing controversy between the city and the developers of the River Park Square downtown shopping mall hasn’t helped instill trust among commissioners, Boxer added.

City Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes agreed.

“The city isn’t making a whole lot of sense lately. How can they count on what we’re doing?” she asked.

Perceived parochialism on both sides exacerbates the relationship problems.

“They have to get past the notion that the city of Spokane does not exist in the county,” Holmes said. “It comes in part from the fact that it has been a long time since a city resident was a county commissioner. Look where they all live, on little ranches out on the perimeter.”

At a recent meeting, McCaslin accused City Council members of not caring about what goes on outside city limits because they don’t have constituents there.

“We do have constituents in the city,” said McCaslin, pointing out that residents in all the county’s cities get to vote in the commissioner races.

There’s also a perception on both sides that the other’s residents use their services without paying for them.

“Someone called me and had some concerns about Manito Park and said we all pay taxes to pay for that park,” Holmes said. “And this person lives to heck and gone out in the county. I told her, `You’re not paying a dime for this park.’ We all love it, we all enjoy it, but we don’t all pay for it.”

That argument cuts both ways, county officials said.

While city residents pay $1.61 per $1,000 of assessed property value to help fund county expenses such as courts, the Sheriff’s Department and the Assessor’s Office, they don’t pay county road taxes, which cost county residents another $1.91 per $1,000.

City residents who go to Liberty Lake County Park or the Hangman Hills golf course, for instance, drive on roads for which they haven’t paid.

Then there’s the city slicker versus country bumpkin phenomenon, which breeds distrust and dysfunction.

“There’s a more urban, liberal slant to the City Council and a more rural, conservative direction to the County Commission,” Corker said.

The tension is intensified as the urban area encroaches into traditionally rural areas of the county, he said.

“It’s a classic confrontation,” Corker said.

“Urban problems require a different kind of approach than rural problems.”

While the finger-pointing goes on, the need for cooperation has never been greater.

City and county officials either are, or soon will be, negotiating over lands for urban expansion, increasing capacity at the sewage treatment plant and consolidating public facilities districts.

Everyone agrees the two entities should try to put up a united front in an attempt to lure high-tech companies to the area.

“We’re turning off a lot of our business people and our chambers (of commerce),” Commissioner John Roskelley said. “We both need to start building some bonds there.”

Councilman Rob Higgins agreed.

“For too long, we’ve been acting like we’re competing with each other,” Higgins said.

There may be some movement toward reconciliation.

People at both the city and county are beginning to whisper the “C” word: Consolidation.

Although voters shot down a proposal to merge the two governments back in 1995, some officials said they think it still makes sense.

“I think we should incorporate the entirety of Spokane County into one government, like they have in that metroplex down in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Harris said. “You’d have only one layer of government that way, and it would cut down on the bickering and the turf wars. That would be the ultimate.”

Holmes, Higgins and Councilman Steve Eugster also support some kind of consolidated government, at least for the urbanized area.

“The fact of the matter is we’re all in this together,” Holmes said. “There should be a discussion where we can share the resources we have. I do think we need to unite the urbanized government.”

Otherwise, people in the urbanized sections of the unincorporated areas - such as the Valley, Liberty Lake and Mead - may decide to form their own cities, further diluting the area’s voice in state and national affairs, Holmes said.

“Either we’re going to form city-county government or we’re going to have (the cities of) Liberty Lake, Opportunity, the Spokane Valley and Millwood,” Higgins said. “If we do that, we’re going to die and we will lose in the competition in the state of Washington.”

The old feelings die hard, though.

Earlier this month, commissioners were discussing a city contract to hire a California firm to run the Colbert compost facility.

There was talk about whether the county would be exposed to liability if the firm made mistakes at the Colbert plant.

Roskelley pointed out that the county’s liability should be limited because the city runs the regional solid waste system and would be overseeing the contract.

“That’s exactly what makes me nervous,” McCaslin replied.

Meanwhile, Eugster criticizes county employees who drive gas-guzzling trucks and sarcastically calls Roskelley, a renowned mountaineer, “the big, tough mountain climber.”

But Harris predicted bright days ahead.

“Right now, I think we’re moving into a healing process,” he says. “Two years from now, I see the city and county having a love affair.”

The courtship, however, is proving bumpy.