Roskelley odd man out on planning no more

Empty binders lined the shelves, and just about every scrap of paper in Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley’s office had been recycled as of Wednesday morning.

A dedicated environmentalist, Roskelley wasn’t about to just throw away all the county papers he’d accumulated over nine years in office.

Today is Roskelley’s last day on the job. Tomorrow he will start a new career as a member of the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, which hears disputes over cities’, counties’ and public agencies’ application of the state’s Growth Management Act.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke appointed Roskelley to the post on Monday. Members can’t be acting elected officials, so Roskelley resigned his term three months early.

Though he said he’s proud of what he’s accomplished as commissioner, Roskelley vowed there would be no tears when he walked out of his office today.

“I’m not an emotional person,” he said.

But Roskelley has been passionate about his work for the county, particularly when it came to issues related to planning, parks and public health.

He frequently sparred with fellow commissioners over how the county should be developed.

“We had our wars,” said Kate McCaslin, who likened the relationship between the commissioners to that between siblings who fight but later make up.

“John’s a good man,” she said.

Though most county issues are decided with a unanimous vote of the three commissioners, as the lone Democrat Roskelley often found himself the odd man out on issues related to planning and growth and development. But that didn’t stop him from chipping away at the issues.

After all, this is a man locally famous for tackling adverse conditions to climb mountains around the world.

Last year, he and his son, Jess, climbed Mount Everest. Even the magnitude of that challenge didn’t keep Roskelley from weighing in on county business.

When he found out that his fellow commissioners had merged the county’s building and planning departments to save money, Roskelley fired off a slopeside e-mail, denouncing the move as a way to cater more to developers.

Commissioner Phil Harris said he thinks that Roskelley mellowed some over the years.

“When he first came here, I didn’t agree with anything he did,” said Harris, adding that he thought Roskelley was too quick to dismiss developers’ proposals in the early years, but has since been more open to such ideas.

Still, Roskelley said that one of his most important achievements was preventing developers from violating shoreline regulations. If he had his way, Roskelley said, the county’s comprehensive plan and development regulations would contain more “shalls” and fewer “shoulds,” which he says give developers loopholes.

He said he’s proud to have stuck to his principles.

“I used to make every attempt to compromise and then I found I was really compromising my own values,” he said, adding that it’s better to dissent than accept something you don’t believe in.

That approach created critics of Roskelley who said that he didn’t respect private property rights or understand the challenges of running a private business.

Local developers fought hard to defeat his 2000 re-election bid.

In his new job, Roskelley will be determining issues like whether the provisions of a city’s comprehensive plan for growth and development follow state law. It’s a position that will allow him to continue to influence development.

From the start, Roskelley didn’t back down from controversy.

His proposal to boost county golf courses’ greens fees to fund parks and future courses came just months after he took office and incurred the wrath of many avid golfers.

Roskelley’s proposal was defeated in the end, but he continued to advocate for improving county parks and protecting the environment.

“Even as he first ran, he was an advocate for parks and open space and ways the population of Spokane County could make and maintain their lifestyle by caring more for the environment,” said Robbi Castleberry, president of the Palisades Neighborhood Association and a supporter of the county’s Conservations Future program.

Over the years, Roskelley also supported banning smoking in county parks and at the Spokane County Interstate Fair, which prompted outrage from local smokers in 1999.

Low attendance at the fair prompted the other commissioners to lift the ban, but Roskelley refused to back down on the issue.

As a health district board member he was instrumental in starting the Healthy Families, Active Kids Coalition to battle childhood obesity.

“John, I think, really understood that you look at the community and its health. You look where there are gaps and you establish policies and programs to meet those needs,” said Dr. Kim Thorburn, chief health officer for the Spokane Regional Health District.

Those who worked with Roskelley describe him as a hard worker.

“I think the taxpayers got their money’s worth for the work he did for Spokane County,” said Spokane County Utilities Director Bruce Rawls.

In addition to performing his duties for the county and serving on local and regional boards, Roskelley has also volunteered as a death investigator for the county’s Medical Examiner’s office. He said he plans to continue volunteering for the department in the coming months.

And he said he hopes that the two incoming commissioners will always keep the long term in mind.

“The people who sit in these seats need to have a vision beyond 20 years,” Roskelley said.

But he doesn’t have any other specific advice to the person who fills his shoes.

“They need to learn the ropes for themselves.”