John Talbott Clings To Status As An Outsider Mayor Still Looks At Leadership From A Different Perspective
As a freshly minted second lieutenant in 1960, John Talbott was assigned to an Air Force radar station in Buck Harbor, Maine.
There, he joined a pair of fellow rookie officers whom he remembers as both ignorant and arrogant.
“They thought they could come in and run it,” Talbott said with disdain. The difference between Talbott and his fellow officers was that Talbott was 27 and had spent seven years as an enlisted man before passing Officer Candidate School.
The other two were fresh out of college ROTC programs, with no idea how the Air Force really worked, he said. They were ordering around a master sergeant twice their age, Talbott said, while he knew “the master sergeant ran the place.”
And that, he said, was why he was able to prosper in the Air Force, eventually retiring as a colonel in 1982 after 29 years of service.
“The key to my success was my seven years as an enlisted man,” he said. “I knew how to work with the troops. I looked at leadership from a different perspective.”
He still does.
After three years as Spokane’s mayor, Talbott, 66, still clutches tightly to his outsider status.
His current campaign has none of the gloss one would expect from an incumbent. He lags far behind his rivals in fund raising, and his campaign manager grumbles about not having a fax machine.
That’s the way Talbott likes it.
“I’m not a politician,” he often says.
For most of the 1990s that was true. Talbott often appeared as an angry presence at City Hall, criticizing city government as wasteful and out of touch.
Defeating the incumbent Mayor Jack Geraghty in a come-from-behind darkhorse race in 1997, Talbott noisily crashed the party of the city’s political elite.
As mayor, he has challenged the priorities of the city government, most notably its decision to participate in the River Park Square downtown development project, and the role of the city’s numerous economic development organizations.
He has been a gruff and occasionally irritable presence at council meetings, sparring with his rivals and alienating some former supporters.
He embraced the hurricane of change unleashed in last fall’s election, and speaks proudly of a new spirit of openness in city government.
But with Talbott, it’s never quite clear if he’s leading the parade or following it. He has had few successful initiatives of his own, and most of the new direction at City Hall came after last fall’s election, which tipped the council majority in his favor.
Talbott’s apparent lack of direction has led critics to speculate that the mayor knows what he’s against but not what he’s for.
But for many in Spokane, that’s enough.
In the modest home of Verble and Gloria Smith, at the busy corner of Belt and Francis, there’s no doubt who will get their vote for mayor.
Talbott, the retired couple said emphatically, is the only candidate who is fighting for Spokane’s average citizens against the business interests they believe are controlling the city. Specifically, they speak of Cowles Publishing Co., owner of The Spokesman-Review.
“We need somebody who will stick up for the people,” said Gloria.
“He’s the only one who will stand up against the Cowles,” said Verble. “He’s willing to fight for the people and the rest of them say, `Hey, let’s do what the Cowles say.”’
Other supporters point to Talbott’s character, honesty and values.
“He’s a dedicated Christian and has some real good principles,” said Bud Scott, who lives outside the city limits but nonetheless came to a Talbott rally. “We need people that can stand up for their beliefs.”
Talbott has a gift for appealing to everyday Spokane, said Councilman Steve Corker, an ally on the council majority.
“He’s a spokesman for the unheard,” Corker said. “John has a common way of talking. He’s sort of like Harry Truman. He can be understood by the common person.”
To some, Talbott gives voice to the sense of displacement and dispossession felt by many in Spokane who have been left behind by the nation’s economic boom.
Jay Cousins is chairman of the Emerson Garfield neighborhood and a member of the Cable Advisory Board, which has feuded with Talbott over its responsibilities.
In Cousins’ view, Spokane is in deep pain as it wrestles with its divides between the haves and the have-nots. Talbott brings to the surface the hurt that Spokane has so far been trying to ignore.
“If you’ve got an ingrown toenail, you can walk along that toenail pretty good,” Cousins said. “Talbott’s the guy who steps on that foot and doesn’t get the hell off.”
That constitutes an endorsement, Cousins said.
For Talbott’s critics, however, the appeal he holds for some doesn’t cover up his limitations.
Attorney Doug Siddoway, who helped lead the fight against the proposed Lincoln Street bridge, supported Talbott in 1997.
He now says he’s disappointed in Talbott’s lack of effectiveness.
“I don’t think he came to the mayor’s office with any sort of vision or agenda,” Siddoway said. “I’m mindful of his limited role, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have put forward a cogent plan. He’s just incapable of seizing the reins of government.”
Talbott has clearly been stymied in pursuing some of his priorities from the 1997 campaign.
He called for street repair, but the various plans he has supported have sputtered.
It was only after the matter was forwarded to the neighborhood councils that a plan has developed. Still, it’s unlikely that there will be a vote on any of the various fundraising proposals until 2001.
Likewise, Talbott was unable to gain any traction for his proposed internal auditor position for City Hall until the election of the new majority. And it was the looming transition to the strong mayor form of government, not Talbott’s urging, that placed the issue before the council.
It wasn’t for lack of trying, Talbott said.
“The things I was pursuing when I first was elected, I’m still pursuing,” he said. But prior to last year’s election, “I had no team. The city manager was opposed to me. The council was opposed to me.”
His supporters say that Talbott was also held back by the nature of the office, which gave the mayor no more power than the rest of the council.
“I think the skills are there,” said David Bray, who ran unsuccessfully for the council last fall. “I think John’s strong point is in management and his leadership and he wasn’t able to exercise that. We’re going to see a new John Talbott.”
Whoever is elected strong mayor in November will have much wider powers than Talbott currently does. The mayor will be a manager of an organization of more than 2,500 employees and an annual budget of $130 million.
Of the three mayoral candidates, Talbott has the most managerial experience, thanks to his terms in the Air Force.
Talbott’s specialty in the Air Force was electronic communications, and he served in various positions connected to that field.
Those included heading the Air Force’s Frequency Management Center, which coordinated radio frequencies around the world, and serving as commander of 300 people in the 341st Communications Squadron in Great Falls, Mont.
He also spent nine years working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and Virginia.
Many of the management skills he learned in the Air Force will translate into running Spokane, Talbott said.
“We’re talking about team building, we’re talking about having a specific mission and how to accomplish it,” he said. “It’s putting together an annual plan - your budget - and briefing your bosses - your constituents.”
But Air Force service may not require the same political skills as being mayor of a city of 190,000.
In his three years as mayor, Talbott has attacked not just River Park Square, a project embraced by many city business leaders, but has also questioned the city’s contributions to organizations like the Economic Development Council, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the International Trade Alliance.
Those groups, and their business-heavy boards of directors, may view a Talbott administration as less than friendly.
“I don’t think John Talbott could win the support of the other stake holders in this community,” said Siddoway. “I think he has burned up all of his political capital.”
It’s also not clear how enthusiastic the city staff would be under Talbott.
While he claims employee morale is high, there have been numerous resignations of senior management in the last year and a general sense or turmoil as the city prepares for the strong mayor.
Councilwoman Roberta Greene said morale at City Hall is at an all-time low.
“So many of the employees are hunkered down because I think they are just afraid of the atmosphere that is there right now,” she said.
“There are folks who are waiting to see what happens in November,” she said. “If John is elected, I think there will be senior staff thinking very seriously about their continued employment.”
But Talbott said city employees should thrive under his leadership.
“I expect the management team below me to do what they’re paid to do and I’m going to do everything in my power to let them do that.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: ELECTION Mayor race
Profiles of John Powers and Jim West were featured in Thursday and Friday papers.