Higgins Ready To Move Forward In New Post

Wed., Nov. 8, 2000

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Rob Higgins was headed for victory Tuesday in the race to become City Council president under Spokane’s switch to a strong-mayor government.

Higgins, who serves on the current council, was leading fellow Councilman Steve Corker late Tuesday.

Higgins said he owes his victory to a strong campaign by many supporters, including a cadre of family members.

“I think the people want to move forward,” Higgins said, referring to the ongoing controversy over the city’s financial involvement in the River Park Square mall downtown.

“Downtown is on its way to revitalization. It’s happening,” he said at a rally for Mayor-elect John Powers at Steam Plant Square, another part of Spokane’s urban renewal.

Corker conceded in a face-to-face meeting with Higgins midway through the vote count, Corker said.

“I appreciated the campaign he ran,” said Corker, who pledged to cooperate with Higgins.

The job of council president was created because the new mayor will no longer sit on the council as the mayor currently does.

Spokane’s new strong mayor replaces the city manager and becomes chief executive of city government.

Begining in January, Higgins and the five other current council members, including Corker, will select someone to take the regular council seat being vacated by Mayor John Talbott.

The race itself became something of a referendum over the city’s handling of River Park Square.

In April, Corker and council allies refused to make good on a loan of city parking meter money, as agreed in a 1997 bond deal, to make up revenue shortfalls in operation of the garage at the mall.

The decision triggered a spate of lawsuits and a lowering of the city’s bond rating. The lower bond rating means the city will pay higher rates of interest on future borrowing costs.

Higgins said the council majority, of which Corker was a part, had been irresponsible because its decisions would cost taxpayers more money in the future.

Higgins, the executive vice president of the Spokane Association of Realtors, has a long record of involvement in city politics. He served on the council in the 1980s, but left when he lost a race for mayor in 1989.

In 1997, he returned to the council.

Corker’s career has taken him through the advertising industry and business consulting to his current job as an adjunct faculty member at Gonzaga University.

Corker defended his vote against the payments of parking meter revenue, saying the city could lose millions of dollars in payments over the years.

River Park Square is owned by an affiliate of Cowles Publishing Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

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