Nine vie to guide county

Spokane County is in for significant changes come November.

For the past eight years, the same three commissioners have led the county. Now two of them – John Roskelley in District 1 to the north and Kate McCaslin in District 2 to the south – are stepping down.

The absence of incumbents in the races has contributed to the number of candidates. Four candidates are vying to replace Roskelley, and five are competing to win McCaslin’s soon-to-be vacated seat. The winners will join Commissioner Phil Harris on the board.

Only Republican Todd Mielke in District 1 faces an uncontested primary Sept. 14.

Those who win in November will face a host of issues.

Spokane County held off large-scale budget cuts for years because of its reserve account, even as other local municipalities were forced to institute layoffs and program reductions. Now the county’s reserves are running dry, and commissioners are slashing the budget.

Commissioners must also find a way to build a new sewage treatment plant for the county, now that the Department of Ecology has decided effluent from the plant must be treated at higher levels to meet Spokane River water quality standards.

And commissioners will continue to face pressures with overcrowding at the county jail.

So who are the people seeking to take on such challenges?

District 1

One Republican and three Democrats have filed for the open commissioners seat in District 1.

The Democrats in this race have a wide variety of backgrounds.

Tom Hargreaves is a retired Air Force major. Linda Wolverton serves as Spokane County’s elected treasurer and has worked as a certified public accountant. And Barbara Lampert is a retired nursing assistant who has also worked as a medical insurance claims processor and as a waitress.

This is Hargreaves’ first political race. He said he wants to be commissioner to help the economy and the environment. Hargreaves, who lives by the Little Spokane River, said the environment is a key draw to the area and protecting it will attract economic development.

He has been active on the Spokane County Planning Commission and said his experience there would help him as a commissioner. Hargreaves has worked as a land-use consultant and as a potter.

“My first priority would be to work very hard to improve friendly relationships between the jurisdictions. In fact, I’m already working on that,” he said.

Lampert has run unsuccessfully for many offices, including Spokane City Council, Spokane County Auditor and state representative. She is her precinct’s Democratic committee officer.

She said she decided to run for commissioner to help the county implement the state’s Growth Management Act.

Lampert advocates establishing registration for same-sex and unmarried heterosexual partners at the county level. “It’s a legal way to prove you have a relationship with somebody,” she said.

Ritzville-born Wolverton has served as the county’s treasurer for 12 years, working as an accountant before that. She said she’s proven her ability to manage county finances by finding a way to earn more on the investments of the county and other jurisdictions, bringing in $25 million for education, public safety and transportation since she became treasurer.

“The biggest thing they do is the budget – deciding where your tax dollars are going to be spent,” Wolverton said of the commissioners.

Wolverton said the county also needs to take care in managing its natural resources, which will be big assets as other Western communities run out of the water capacity companies need to grow.

Republican Todd Mielke, who is uncontested on Sept. 14, is a former state legislator. He represented the state’s Sixth District from 1990 to 1995, leaving before his final term ended to take a job with Johnson & Johnson and handle issues surrounding his divorce.

Mielke now runs a government consulting business, working for local business groups. He said commissioners need to examine the county’s day-to-day operations and work with other jurisdictions to improve the county’s business climate.

District 2

Three Republicans and two Democrats are running in this mostly Spokane Valley district.

The Republican primary race is hotly contested.

Three Republicans – Matt Ewers, Steve Peterson and Mark Richard – are seeking the seat. Together the three have raised almost $50,000 for their campaigns, with Richard raising $40,000 of that total.

Richard has never run for office before, but politics has been his bread and butter while he’s served as legislative director for the Spokane Home Builders Association.

Many of his campaign contributions come from developers, but Richard is also supported by many local law enforcement groups. Public safety and keeping housing affordable both rank high on his list of important issues for the county. Richard said that maintaining infrastructure and supporting education are also important.

“If someone wants to peg me as my sole issue being development, they don’t know me,” he said.

Of the three Republican candidates in District 2, only Peterson has experience as an elected official. He is serving as Liberty Lake’s first mayor and has worked toward building the new city, supporting its library, parks and police force.

Empowering county employees to come up with new ideas to save money and improve programs will help improve the county, he said.

Peterson’s Liberty Lake mayoral job pays just $9,000 a year, so he pays the bills working as a salesman for Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

Spokane County commissioners are paid $75,000 a year. But Peterson said money wasn’t part of his decision to run for Liberty Lake mayor and now the Spokane County Board of Commissioners: “It’s a labor of love for your community and fellow citizens.”

Candidate Matt Ewers has worked in Central America as a manager for Dole Food Co. and is the marketing director for local company Inland Empire Distribution.

Ewers said the experience he gained managing multimillion-dollar projects has prepared him for managing the county’s budget.

“I’ve made my reputation on getting things done on time and on budget,” he said.

Ewers returned to Spokane to help care for his father, who has Parkinson’s disease.

On the Democratic side, community development consultant and local event organizer Bill Burke and Liberty Lake City Councilman and computer software consultant Brian Sayrs are vying for the commissioner seat.

Best known in Spokane as the Pig Out in the Park founder and organizer, Burke said he’s helped other communities with their revitalization projects, and he’s ready to step in and do the same for Spokane.

He ran for commissioner in 2000, but he lost to McCaslin.

Burke said that to improve the economy and the region, commissioners need to restore faith in local government.

They must always remember the people they represent, Burke said.

“When you make a land-use decision, commissioners should go out and walk the neighborhood and talk to the people there rather than just living up to the letter of the law by placing an ad in the Valley Herald,” he said.

Sayrs is a former Army specialist who later became a software consultant. When the technology market started to dwindle a few years ago, Sayrs threw himself into public service, starting with the new city of Liberty Lake. He also serves on the Spokane Transit Authority Board and has been part of the team that’s moved the agency through plans for cuts and its recently successful sales-tax initiative.

As commissioner, Sayrs said his first priority would be to concentrate on smart growth.

“It’s to start redirecting growth in Spokane County to areas where services are already being provided so that when we bring jobs into Spokane County, they don’t have a negative impact on our existing neighborhoods,” he said.