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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Commissioner to run for Valley Council seat


Gothmann
 (The Spokesman-Review)

Bill Gothmann, a planning commissioner and retired professor, announced Tuesday that he will run for a seat on the Spokane Valley City Council.

“To me, it’s tremendously exciting to be part of a new city,” he said.

After the Valley’s incorporation, he asked the planning department if there was a way for him to get involved. City officials put him to work on an early city roads study, and later he became the first chairman of the Planning Commission.

Public service was “something I always wanted to do, I just didn’t have time,” he said. “When the city came along, though, it was an opportunity to jump in.”

Gothmann, 67, was born in Spokane and came to the Valley 33 years ago. He built his house in the Ponderosa neighborhood where he and his wife, Myrna, raised three children.

He holds degrees in electrical engineering, teaching and business administration from area colleges, and he has taught at Spokane Community College and Eastern Washington University.

Before joining the Planning Commission, his activities in the public sphere were mainly with Sunrise Church of Christ in Spokane, he said.

He is running for the position-six council seat. Mike Flanigan holds that position but announced recently that he will not run again. All seven council seats are up for election this November, with six incumbents seeking re-election.

Challenges the next council will face include managing sewer capacity, creating a city center and firming up the city’s long-term finances, Gothmann said.

“I want to make sure we keep our police and fire protection service at a level of service that is adequate for us,” he said of funding for those agencies.

He also wants to see some city planning discussions take place at a neighborhood level, balancing the wants of unique areas with the needs of the community at large.

“Government is usually best at the lowest level, and in this case it’s the neighborhood level,” he said.