No recall, but spirited race in Spirit Lake nonetheless

SPIRIT LAKE, Idaho – Win or lose in Tuesday’s election, nobody can take the victory away from Spirit Lake Mayor Roxy Martin.

For the first time since 1984, Martin will become the only mayor to last an entire four-year term at City Hall – that is, if she doesn’t resign before January.

It’s a gigantic feat in this northern Kootenai County town where the word “recall” is considered a dirty word. Spirit Lake has had 16 mayors in the last 25 years – most resigned before a recall could get rolling. But a few mayors did suffer the recall wrath. The last was Bill Moe, who was recalled in 2000 for pushing a spendy street paving plan.

Martin isn’t exactly sure why she’s had so much success. Her eyes narrowed last month as she took a minute to think of a snappy answer.

“I want to say estrogen, but I don’t know if I really should,” she said with an explosive laugh that filled the Maine Street office that has views of the neighboring hot dog stand and traveling veterinarian clinic set up in a motor home.

With more seriousness, she chalked it up to attitude.

“I don’t want anything. I don’t get anything. I just live here, and I love this town. I want my grandkids to stay here.”

Martin’s three challengers – Monty Bullock, Gordon Durham and Councilman Joe Keene – agree that the mayor has attitude: a bad attitude.

They allege that Martin lies, the city is corrupt, and that city Clerk Barbara Brown actually runs the show, not the mayor and council.

So why no recall attempt? Some residents think the tactic is dead and that people no longer want the stigma.

“There’s been so many recalls here we couldn’t get people to vote for it,” said Joy French, a Spirit Lake groupie who actually lives in Coeur d’Alene but has spent years caretaking Spirit Lake’s park and dabbling in behind-the-scene politics. “We decided just to let Roxy hang herself.”

Spirit Lake resident Louise Voves, 80, agrees that a recall wouldn’t have worked.

“Being mayor has gone to her head,” Voves said about Martin, whom she’s known for more than 40 years. “It’s a mess here in Spirit Lake, and it needs to be cleaned up.”

Voves’ sentiments are somewhat of a perennial political mantra in Spirit Lake, a town of nearly 1,400 residents known for its feisty city elections that normally draw at least a half-dozen mayoral candidates.

This year, only three people are challenging Martin. If no candidate gets a majority vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in a runoff election.

Martin isn’t too worried because she said all of her challengers have personal vendettas against City Hall and no true motivation to help the town. She stands on her record and the last four years of political peace.

“Spirit Lake is no longer always in the newspaper, and we aren’t the laughingstock of Kootenai County,” she said.

Bullock, a retired heavy equipment operator who moved to town two years ago, doesn’t want peace. He wants City Hall cleaned up, and claims that the allegations of corruption are beyond imagination.

He carries a binder of receipts and papers that show that Martin used the city credit card to buy Hershey’s, Mars and Nestle chocolates at Wal-Mart in addition to an $86.18 purchase at the Candy Boutique in Coeur d’Alene. He also alleges that he saw Martin filling up her personal car with gas charged to the city credit card.

“Does the city have to cough up the money for candy bars?” Bullock asked.

Bullock decided to run for mayor and investigate Martin after the city put a stop-work order on the construction of his shop. The city alleges that he was trying to convert the building into living quarters without getting the proper permits. The building inspector charges that Bullock did the same thing at his previous residence.

Durham said he moved to Spirit Lake 22 months ago and hasn’t stopped laughing at the goofy government games. He calls for the state attorney general and the FBI to look into any allegations of corruption.

“Something’s not right at City Hall,” Durham said. “It’s not user friendly.”

He thinks Spirit Lake needs a newcomer in office, not a “homegrown” politician. As a former California corrections officer who worked in the cell block where notorious cult leader Charlie Manson lived, Durham said he is uniquely qualified for the job.

“I’m used to working with crazies,” he explained.

Keene, who has served on the council for six of the seven years he has lived in Spirit Lake, has one issue – getting rid of the city clerk. He declined to elaborate on his dislike for Brown, who has been clerk for 25 years, saying it would take “five hours” to explain.

“She has her own agenda and it’s not that of the council,” Keene said. “My intention is to repair that problem.”

Martin said she also wanted to fire Brown when she was first elected in 2001 but soon learned that the clerk was invaluable and the only constant in the city government. As for the allegations of corruption, Martin smirked and said her challengers have nothing but desperation to campaign on.

And the candy? Martin said it’s for children who come to City Hall.

“I’m not going to worry about all the gossip,” she said.