Newest council member eyes comprehensive plan

With his wife by his side and his hand on his grandfather’s 1898 Bible, Bill Gothmann swore to uphold his new office on Spokane Valley’s City Council on Tuesday night.

“I’m very humbled,” Gothmann said afterward at the council meeting that drew about 50 people.

Behind him sat Mike Flanigan, the outspoken Position 6 councilman whom Gothmann replaces.

Gothmann will be the lone new voice on the City Council when it convenes in January. All six of the others were re-elected.

“I think the biggest thing that we’ve got to take care of is the comprehensive plan,” said Gothmann, a former planning commissioner.

The council hopes to approve the city’s 20-year strategy for growth by March. In meetings on the plan so far, Gothmann has already contributed to council discussions, offering insight on the Planning Commission’s draft of the comprehensive plan.

Now he will have a chance to put his mark on land-use decisions and countless other legislative issues from the other side of the dais.

Gothmann, 68, is a retired electronics engineer. While his broader political leanings will not change the all-Republican makeup of the council, his technical background and soft-spoken personality will change the character of the Position 6 seat.

“Bill’s got big shoes to fill,” Councilman Mike DeVleming said at the meeting.

Each of the other council members also lauded Flanigan’s contributions to the council, pointing out his sense of humor and his friendly tenacity during disagreements between himself and the rest of the council.

“I have never had any problem speaking my mind,” Flanigan said.

He was a vocal opponent of a utility tax and of proposed changes that would have opened up management of the Spokane Valley Library to private competition. The council shelved the library proposal when it proved highly unpopular.

Joint planning between the city and Spokane County when new housing will affect city roads was another issue he felt passionately about. Flanigan said he will probably testify before the county as a private resident on those matters in the future.

Flanigan has said he never aspired to a career in politics, and he opted not to run for re-election this summer, citing in part the large time commitment attached to the position. He is the father of two children, 12 and 13, and sells advertising for a publishing company.

He’s proud that he helped establish the new city, though, and said he’s glad to leave city government on sound financial footing.

“There are people who put elected people in this never-never land they don’t have access too, and that’s false,” Flanigan said.

His view of government is that it’s a lot like a corporation. The residents hold the stock, he said, and they can change the leaders and speak at the meetings. The council does its best to listen to people who come before it and acts in their interest, he said. But residents need to be actively involved in their government so that “special interests” aren’t the only ones being served, Flanigan said.

“When it’s the only voice they’re hearing, what are they going to do?” he said.

For his part, Flanigan said he will continue working with community groups, including one pushing for a handicapped-accessible children’s park at Mirabeau Point. Additionally, he said the council has not seen the last of him when it comes to the comprehensive plan and other topics open for public comment.