French gets challenger for council position

A trio of first-time municipal candidates filed Tuesday for seats on the Spokane City Council. Two joined the expanding field for the Northwest District’s open seat while the third will challenge a Northeast District incumbent.

Valentina Howard, a former charter bus and school bus driver turned stay-at-home mom, will challenge Councilman Al French in the Northeast District.

Howard, 40, said she’d like to give the city a working-person’s outlook on the budget, make it easier and safer to report crime and bring living-wage jobs to Spokane.

“I want to make a difference, even if it’s just a little bit of a difference,” she said.

Keith Springer, a retired airline pilot and former grade school and junior high teacher, said he wants to bring the viewpoint of a fiscal conservative “with a law-and-order orientation” to the council as a representative of the Northwest District. He, too, would like to bring more jobs to the city, and suggested offering better incentives to get firms to relocate in Spokane.

Springer, 69, said some of the ways to help the city’s budget problem would be to “improve supervision of city employees so we get a full day’s work out of them,” and contract with private businesses to provide more government services.

Also filing for the Northwest District was Joyce McNamee, a certified nursing assistant who has served for the last five years as a coordinator for the Washington Dental Service Foundation.

McNamee, a past president of the Northeast Community Center Association who announced her campaign earlier in the month, has served as a Republican precinct committee officer and been active in a pair of legislative campaigns. Her other volunteer activities include serving on the board of the Community Health Association of Spokane.

With McNamee and Springer entering the race, the Northwest District has five candidates for the seat being vacated by two-term Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers. Judith Gilmore, Steve Corker and Nancy McLaughlin filed on Monday.

Candidates may file for elective posts in city and town governments, as well as school, water, fire, sewer and cemetery districts, through 5 p.m. Friday. Filing for most positions takes place at the county elections office, which in most counties is located in the county courthouse. In Spokane County, the elections office is at 1033 W. Gardner.