She’s the mayor

Diana Wilhite worked her way to the back of the room during a break in this week’s City Council meeting. Like a gracious hostess – or a seasoned politician – Spokane Valley’s new mayor said hello to citizens, thanked them for coming and listened to some of their concerns.

One citizen politely took her hand and then asked, “And what do you do here?” An honest question for a meeting newcomer, but it didn’t go without some ribbing from other attendees around him.

She replied that she’s the mayor, and then Wilhite, the only female on the council, quipped, “I hang out with the guys and have a good time.”

In November, the council elected Wilhite as the city’s second mayor, a position she will hold until the fall, when every council seat is up for re-election. Wilhite, a long-time Valley businesswoman, mother and grandmother, said recently that she’s thoroughly enjoying her new job.

“It’s going wonderful,” Wilhite said. “I’m having a great time.” Spokane Valley has a council-manager form of government, in which the council sets the city’s policies and the city manager is the administrator. As mayor, Wilhite’s position doesn’t have greater voting power than other council members, but she runs the meetings and acts as the ceremonial head of Spokane Valley.

With the title, though, comes greater visibility. When a citizen has a complaint, they often want to take it straight to the mayor, and that, Wilhite said, is just fine by her.

“I’m a people person,” she said. “I like dealing with the people. … I like talking to them.”

On a recent Friday, she met with a square dancer who had questions about the upkeep of the city-owned Western Dance Hall at Sullivan Park. As he left, another citizen came in with concerns about the sign code.

Perhaps the first council meeting Wilhite ran as mayor prepared her for just about anything. More than 160 people overflowed council chambers Dec. 1 to defend the Spokane County Library District and urge the council to sign a contract with it for library services. The issue had been brewing in the community for months and came to a head that night.

Everything went relatively smoothly Dec. 1, but Wilhite has had a few rough moments on the dais learning her new ropes as mayor. With each passing week, though, Wilhite seems increasingly more comfortable with the intricacies of meeting procedures and stepping in to cut off a speaker who’s overstepped his time limit. In fact, Wilhite seems to take the five-minute mid-meeting break quite seriously, pulling the regulars and city staffers from their hallway conversations and getting back to business within what seems to be seconds of that timeframe.

One thing she certainly has taken command of is correspondence. Wilhite insists that any mail sent to her is answered by her, not by a form letter or by an assistant.

“It’s directed to me, so I want to put my stamp on it,” she said.

Wilhite moved to Spokane Valley in 1979 with her husband, Rick, and their daughter, Shannon, who was 4 at the time. The couple owns a small business, Safeguard Business Forms & Systems, and Shannon lives in northern California now, with her 4-year-old daughter.

Rick and Diana Wilhite met in the 1960s at the University of Idaho where they were both students.

“He says he was working and I was flirting,” she said.

Wilhite was attending a banquet on campus when her waiter, Rick Wilhite, lost a button from his shirt and she helped him find a safety pin. The relationship evolved quickly from there and the couple married in less than a year. During their honeymoon in Sun Valley, Idaho, Diana Wilhite “started him off right,” she said, by having him cook their first meal.

“Lately he’s been having to do a lot of cooking,” she said.

It’s Shannon who gets the credit for bringing the family to Spokane Valley and not to Spokane’s South Hill, where Rick Wilhite’s parents lived. The Wilhites were searching for a day care for Shannon. They visited one at 32nd Avenue and Glenn Road and liked how the woman they met there gave a tour of the facility to Shannon – not to her parents. They signed up Shannon and began a friendship with the woman, Lorene Harris, who is the wife of Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris.

During one of Harris’ elections, Diana Wilhite said she jokingly told him, “The only reason I was voting for him was because I adored his wife.”

Wilhite was active in the community before running for City Council almost three years ago. She founded and was the first president of the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Inland Northwest Chapter and has served on the National Federation of Independent Business’ Washington state Leadership Council. Wilhite has served as a counselor for the Service Corps of Retired Executives, helping people start their own businesses. She was a board member of Inland Power & Light Co., as well as for the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce. Recently, the National League of Cities appointed Wilhite to its federal committee on transportation and infrastructure.

But Wilhite’s interest in government grew years ago on possibly the most fertile ground for a budding political junkie: Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

She and her husband moved there in 1970, and Wilhite immediately was enthralled by the excitement of the city.

“You either love (D.C.) or you hate it,” Wilhite said. She loved it. The parties. The history. The people. Wilhite’s face beamed as she recalled her life there.

She wanted to work for a politician, but the only openings were with a southern Republican whose values she opposed and Robert Roe, a Democrat from New Jersey. Although a Republican, Wilhite went with Roe.

Wilhite said being a woman in D.C. had its restrictions – right down to the clothes.

“I remember the first day I was allowed to wear pants on Capitol Hill,” she said. “I remember the exact outfit I wore.”

The Wilhites eventually moved to follow Rick’s career, making a couple of pit stops before coming back to the Northwest. Throughout her life, Diana Wilhite has either lived in or visited all 50 states.

Fellow Spokane Valley Councilmember Steve Taylor has worked with Wilhite in the Republican party for about 10 years and said her passion for politics is still strong.

“She loves politics, and she loves to get involved,” Taylor said. “She’s not the type of person to get involved for a title. She gets involved for results.”

Taylor praised her for being “tight and stingy,” too.

“She wants to know where every dime is going,” he said. “If she doesn’t think money needs to be spent, she’s never been shy to voice that.”

That’s evidenced by a recent shopping trip Wilhite took with Carol Carter, a parks and recreation assistant for the city. Wilhite realized that Centerplace, the community center under construction now, would need holiday decorations later this year, and the retail stores were in the midst of post-Christmas markdowns. The parks and recreation director gave them $75 from his budget, and the women hit the stores. They came back with a 9-foot tree, a slew of decorations and a receipt for $68.

“We were so proud,” Wilhite said. “We even came in under budget.”

Out of a total of 49 candidates for the seven council seats, Wilhite was one of only four women who ran for office in 2002. Taylor said Wilhite, as the only female on the council, often teases the men, saying she needs to “‘keep these guys in line.’” He said he wishes there were more women on the council because not only does Wilhite “bring the business perspective, but she brings the women’s perspective.”

Deputy Mayor Richard Munson said she also brings a calming effect to the council.

“She doesn’t lose her temper,” he said. “That ability to not get angry is very important for the position she’s in.”

At a recent Chase Youth Commission breakfast, it wasn’t anger Wilhite felt, but shock. A high school student told the audience of Spokane area mayors, business people and fellow teenagers, about his experience living in Spokane Valley and attending school there.

The boy, who is a Puerto Rican-American, said he hears the N-word daily in the Valley and feels more accepted now that he has transferred from a Valley school to Rogers High School in North Spokane.

“I was appalled,” said Wilhite, who added that people should be judged on their values and ideas, not their skin color.

But is there a racism problem in Spokane Valley?

“I think there must be because he said there was,” Wilhite said. “But I don’t think it’s overt. And sometimes I think it’s ignorance.”

Wilhite’s post as mayor is relatively short. Once a new council is elected in the fall, that body will choose a leader among its members. From then on, the mayor’s term will last two years, just as the term of the city’s first mayor, Mike DeVleming, did.

Wilhite plans to run for a council seat again and put her name in again for mayor, especially since this term is truncated. Plus, there’s more she wants to do for Spokane Valley, such as build a reserve fund and establish a better relationship with the Spokane County Commissioners.Wilhite’s concern and enthusiasm for the city is evident, even in her home. If you can get past her machismo cockatiel Chi, who stands guard in the kitchen making wolf whistles at guests, you will find the family’s upright piano. Atop it are photos of the Wilhites through the years, including 20-year-old shots of Diana Wilhite and her daughter.

On the piano’s rack, where you would expect to see music sheets left by the last person who played the instrument, two spiral-bound documents are prominently displayed:

The Spokane Valley 2005 Adopted Budget and the city’s Comprehensive Annual Report.