Hession sends West warning about speech

Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession on Friday warned Mayor Jim West not to turn a scheduled Monday night appearance before the City Council into an illegal campaign speech.

The mayor under the City Charter is required to annually give the council a “statement of the affairs and conditions of the city” on the second Monday in October. West’s speech is scheduled for the council’s 6 p.m. legislative session Monday and will be televised on cable Channel 5.

Hession said in his letter that he learned this week the mayor was planning to turn the speech into a full-blown State of the City address, which was to include an accompanying rundown of city accomplishments.

The council president obtained an e-mail from the city’s public affairs officer asking all city department heads to submit “two to three one-sentence accomplishments from each department” so the mayor could make a “full-blown state of the city address complete with an accompanying published accomplishments piece.”

On Friday, Hession sent a letter to the mayor warning him that two upcoming ballot measures – a property tax proposal on Nov. 8 and a mail-in recall election Dec. 6 – could be affected by a speech that extols accomplishments of the city.

Televised council meetings offer a forum for communicating directly with the public.

In his letter, Hession cited a state law that forbids use of public office or agency facilities to campaign for or against a ballot proposition outside the normal conduct of office.

Marlene Feist, public affairs officer, said Friday evening the list of accomplishments will not be submitted because city officials ran out of time to put it together. She said the mayor is not planning to change his speech as a result of Hession’s letter, and that the City Charter “doesn’t prescribe how the speech should go.”