Hession’s steady pace

Dennis Hession never worries about what he’s going to wear.

Each morning, Hession puts on a dark suit, white shirt, cautious tie and black shoes before leaving for work from his south Spokane home about 5 o’clock.

“I’m a suit guy,” he says.

He saves his deliberating for what really matters – like figuring out how to repair damage caused by a seven-month mayoral scandal and the historic recall of outgoing Mayor Jim West.

Friday, the 55-year-old veteran business attorney is expected to become Spokane’s 41st mayor.

Hession said he has no intention of being a caretaker and already has outlined an agenda that includes increased annexations, a cleaner Spokane River, an improved economy and better planning for urban growth.

“I know I have to prove myself,” he said in an interview last week.

Hession has a reputation as a hard-working, thoughtful, progressive councilman. While his button-down demeanor speaks to an innate conservatism, Hession is also fun-loving and self-effacing, qualities that have attracted a wide circle of friends and political supporters.

He’s described variously as unselfish and committed, but by his own admission, he can also be stubborn in his views and idiosyncratic in his personal habits. He said he is a political independent and not a member of either the Republican or Democratic parties. The mayor’s job in Spokane is nonpartisan.

Hession initially will become acting mayor, and he is expected to win a subsequent City Council appointment to the two years remaining in West’s term.

“He’ll be a great mayor,” said Steve McNutt, a longtime friend of the Hession family and a prominent architect who played a lead role in the reconstruction of Lewis and Clark High School, among other major projects.

“He makes people around him look better, including me,” McNutt said.

Ousted Mayor West has a different opinion.

In a parting shot delivered during a press conference Wednesday, the day after the recall, West told a national press corps that there are people in Spokane more qualified than Hession to be mayor. In a separate conversation, West said Hession lacks the vision to move the city forward.

Hession said West is simply wrong. Because he was elected by voters in a citywide race in 2003, Hession said he believes he is the most logical successor to West, who was also elected in 2003.

But West’s antipathy toward Hession is not surprising.

As council president, Hession organized an independent City Council investigation that confirmed reports in The Spokesman-Review that West abused his office by soliciting dates from young men over a gay Internet chat line and then by offering city positions to some of them.

Last summer, FBI agents raided West’s home and seized three computers and computer files as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Agents are not commenting on the case.

Later in the summer, petitions with more than 17,000 signatures forced the mayor’s future onto the ballot.

In the yes-or-no recall measure, Hession, for the most part, took the high ground.

He acknowledged last week that he was involved in a behind-the-scenes effort with leaders of the business community to arrange another job and health insurance for West if he would agree to resign shortly after the scandal broke in the newspaper on May 5. When West dismissed the entreaties, Hession joined a unanimous City Council in calling for West to resign.

“I don’t think anybody is feeling like this is a victory,” Hession said. “It was never intended to be personal for me. It’s not about the two of us. … It’s about the situation we found ourselves in.”

Hession last week announced an 18-member transition committee to guide his move into the fifth-floor mayor’s suite. While the committee includes his friend McNutt as chairman, it does not include any of the citizens who successfully brought the recall charge.

Recall supporters were miffed.

“There are some great minds in that (recall) group who’ve forgotten more about leading a body politic than Dennis will ever learn,” wrote David Bray, a pro-recall campaigner, in an e-mail last week. “I think you’ve seen an example of the elitist mentality and political favoritism Dennis has in store for Spokane.”

Hession said he did not deliberately exclude recall supporters from the transition team.

By anybody’s measure, Hession is a workaholic. He arrives at his law office on the 13th floor of the Old National Bank Building on West Riverside Avenue before 6 a.m. His days are filled with meetings, phone calls, memos, hearings and public appearances. He stays close to his cell phone throughout the day, and he is reliable in returning calls.

He doesn’t eat breakfast. Instead, he nibbles on a lean turkey or tuna sandwich at midday. He’s noticeably thin, but that may be the result of his passion for running and his low-calorie diet. His health appears to be good. Last winter he was hospitalized with a systemic staph infection but has recovered fully.

If he can, Hession runs five days a week, usually with McNutt.

He enjoys other sports and is reported to have a picturesque half-court hook shot, a skill he has shared with the YMCA kids he has coached over the years. “I hit the rim most of the time,” he said, “and I can do it in my suit.”

He wears loafers, he said, “only to kick field goals.”

A Roman Catholic, Hession has served on the board of Cataldo Catholic School and was the school’s football coach for 10 years.

He counts among his most satisifying legal cases the time he recovered a $35,000 recreational vehicle taken from two Spokane-area school teachers. They recovered the vehicle, money to pay for depreciation and attorney fees.

Pam Behring, who ran against Hession for council president in 2003, said she views Hession as someone who makes a decision and stands by it. His insistence on telling West he should resign was revealing, she said. “I think this is the man we need to finish out the term.”

Behring agreed to be a member of Hession’s transition committee.

Councilman Al French, who also lost to Hession in 2003 in the race for council president, said he will support Hession to replace West. French said he thinks Hession can do the job, and he wants the council to make the appointment as soon as possible. “If I didn’t think he could do the job, I wouldn’t support him,” French said.

Hession has been married to Jane McFaul Hession for 33 years. They have one daughter and three sons, all of whom have attended college.

Janie, as Hession calls his wife, is an academic adviser for first-year students at Gonzaga University’s School of Business. Jane Hession is widely regarded as one of the council president’s political assets. She almost always accompanies him to the parade of social events to which mayors are constantly invited.

Since the West scandal broke, the Hessions have been forced to step up their social schedule because many organizations around the city have not wanted to invite West given the potential awkwardness created by his presence.

As a result, the Hessions’ weekends are occupied by a mix of social events and appearances. Dennis Hession also spends weekend time working and usually makes himself available for news interviews.

Hession admits he is something of a “throwback” when it comes to personal tastes. He does not like to have his butto n-down dress shirts taken to the cleaners. He said Janie irons his shirts for him.

A conservative dresser on weekdays, Hession occasionally allows himself the luxury of slacks and a sweater on weekends. Two years ago, his daughter Sarah gave him a pair of jeans as a Christmas present. Hession said he has yet to wear them.

“But I’m thinking about it,” he said.

The past seven months have been an eye-opener for Hession. Until West’s online activities were revealed in the newspaper, “I didn’t even know what a chat room was,” he joked.