Mayor’s secretary, meet recall leader Shannon Sullivan

A city Street Depart- ment employee’s decision to remove a North Division sign supporting the mayor’s recall prompted petition author Shannon Sullivan to ask the city for reimbursement.

This despite the fact that Sullivan admitted her attorneys advised her to “pick her battles.” She was pretty steamed when she went to City Hall last week to file a claim for the long-gone, 8-by-10-foot sign – so steamed that she apparently didn’t catch one bit of humor in the whole visit.

Clad in a bright white “Recall Jim West” T-shirt, Sullivan was talking to the mayor’s secretary about leaving a message over the fate of the sign.

The secretary wrote it down, adding “And your name?”

She gave it.

“Could you spell that?” the secretary asked.

“S-h-a …” said Sullivan, spelling it all out without a pause.

We’re guessing the secretary was just being careful, rather than unaware of something fairly large involving her boss.

But if Sullivan is steamed over the sign removal, there are some other people who might be nervous. Suppose, for the sake of argument, the city decided to demonstrate it wasn’t really singling out the recall effort for selective enforcement.

A drive down Division or up Ruby reveals plenty of sandwich boards and other signs placed in the sidewalk and rights-of-way along the city’s chief north-south arterial.

Everything from furniture to lattes to burgers shows up on signs obstructing the sidewalks and the sightlines. If the city really gets concerned about such things, they could wind up in the back of a white city pickup truck some morning soon, like the recall petitioners’ sign.

Maybe not so far away, after all

Republican Diane Tebelius has an interesting way to prep for a possible run for the U.S. Senate in 2006. She’s in Afghanistan monitoring that country’s parliamentary elections.

A spokeswoman for Tebelius, a former federal prosecutor and a congressional candidate in last year’s GOP primary to replace Jennifer Dunn, sent word Tebelius is part of the International Republican Institute delegation sent to keep an eye on voting in Kabul and the environs.

In her postings, Tebelius reports that the ballot is very crowded with candidates, and the main issues are roads, security and economic opportunity. Sounds like the City Council primary in Spokane’s Northwest District.

Primary reminder

Which segues into this public service announcement: Tuesday is primary election day for some voters in Eastern Washington. Whether you do or don’t have a primary depends on the number of candidates seeking office in the various political subdivision you find yourself in.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday, but remember that most post offices close by 5 p.m., and dropping the ballot in the postal box in the afternoon might mean it won’t be picked up and postmarked in time.

In Spokane, the exception is the blue postal boxes on Second Avenue east of Division Street. They have a pickup at 7 p.m. and will be postmarked in time, County Auditor Vicky Dalton said.

Projected turnout: About 26 percent for Spokane County, between that and 50 percent in other parts of the state.

And the feng shui is wrong, too

You may have a theory on what’s wrong with City Hall. Maybe you think things would be hunky-dory if it just wasn’t controlled by downtown fatcats. Or if the neighborhood ayatollahs didn’t have so much pull. Or if someone could just pay the Gypsies to lift the curse.

Turns out all those theories are wrong, wrong, wrong. Word arrived this week, via a press release from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, of the true cause of city government’s problems.

The hirsute holy man is urging leaders around the world to abandon all government buildings “with a wrong layout” and sadly, City Hall fills that bill.

“South or West entrances produce disorderly thinking, conflict and problems,” the maharishi says.

That explains everything. Main entrance to City Hall? Faces south.

The MMY says government leaders will have fewer problems and conflicts “overnight” if they abandon their improperly laid out buildings and build new ones based on more harmonious Vedic architecture. Of course, we could have even bigger budget problems overnight, too, if the city went off and built a new City Hall.

Maybe we should just wall up the main entrance and make everyone come in through the east doors above the Council Chambers. East entrances “promote harmony and prosperity,” he says.

Fine, but will someone please brief the council?

Felicitations, all around

In case your calendar missed it, this past week was Constitution Week, set aside to lead up to the 218th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17.

Hallmark has yet to issue cards to mark the event. Hope you took your favorite article to lunch.