Local ballot measures

City of Spokane

Proposition No. 1: Shall the City Charter be amended to enable the City Council, pursuant to a recommendation of the City’s ethics committee, to pass a resolution, by a majority plus two votes, to place an elected official’s name on a recall election ballot based upon a violation of the City’s Code of Ethics for action by the voters on the next general or special election; and to provide for other procedural matters, pursuant to Ordinance No. C33913?

What it means: If approved by Spokane voters, this measure would give future City Councils and voters a new way to recall an elected leader for violations of “moral turpitude.”

The proposed charter amendment would provide an alternative to a time-consuming recall petition process in state law, which was used by a North Side woman last year to recall Mayor Jim West.

Here’s how it would work:

•A newly approved city ethics commission would have to find that a violation such as dishonesty, corruption or improper conduct has occurred. The commission would then advise the City Council that the violation constitutes “moral turpitude” and warrants a recall election. Council members and the mayor could be subject to the process.

•Council members in public session would take testimony and debate whether a recall should go before voters.

•The council would place the recall on the ballot if six members vote for it. Voters get the final say.

The proposal to create a Spokane city recall process – along with adoption of a new ethics code this year and creation of an ethics commission – are among reforms resulting from the West recall.

Spokane Transit Authority

Proposition No. 1: Should Spokane Transit Authority identify regional funding sources and local taxing alternatives and develop a funding plan to build a $263,000,000 light rail project, in 2006 dollars, to run from Spokane City, through the City of Spokane Valley to the City of Liberty Lake, and bring that funding plan to the voters at a future election?

Proposition No. 2: Should Spokane Transit Authority use existing resources to fund preliminary engineering/design and environmental analysis for a future light rail system to run from Spokane City, through the City of Spokane Valley, to the City of Liberty Lake?

What it means: The Spokane Transit Authority Board is seeking guidance on whether it should proceed with plans to build a 15.5-mile light rail system between Spokane and Liberty Lake. If voters turn that down, the STA Board wants to know what voters think of a plan to continue limited design work on the project.

Building the system would require additional local taxes. The second question would only require the use of existing STA funding and would cause no disruption to bus service.

Though the propositions are only advisory questions and not binding, STA Board members have repeatedly stated that they won’t build or even continue designing a light rail system without voter buy-in. So a no vote on both would most likely kill light rail plans for the immediate future.

The ballot issue estimates it will cost $263 million to build the light rail system, but it doesn’t limit the project to that sum. The STA Board has already approved a Light Rail Steering Committee recommendation to set a cap of $300 million for a project. The most likely local tax source would be raising the local sales tax by as much as 0.3 percent. That would be a 3-cent tax increase on a $10 purchase.

The system under consideration would use diesel light rail trains and stop at 14 stations. The vast majority of light rail systems have electric vehicles, but diesel systems are cheaper to build.

If work began right away on a light rail system, it could be operational by 2014. Proponents say it could spur economic development around stations.

Central Valley School District

Proposition No. 1: The Board of Directors of Central Valley School District No. 356, adopted Resolution No. 06-13, concerning a proposition to finance capital improvements to its facilities. This proposition would authorize the District to build a new elementary and middle school, to modernize Broadway, Chester, Greenacres, Opportunity, Ponderosa, Progress, Summit, Sunrise and University elementary schools, and pay for other capital improvements, including technology improvements; issue $75,757,000 of general obligation bonds maturing within 20 years; and levy annual excess property tax levies to pay such bonds, as provided in Resolution No. 06-13.

What it means: Central Valley School District is asking voters to approve a $75.76 million construction bond to modernize some elementary schools and build a new elementary school and a new middle school in the eastern part of the district.

During the past two years student enrollment in the district has grown about 3 percent a year, or three times the enrollment growth rate the district experienced before 2004. An additional 5,300 students are expected in the next 10 to 12 years, based on more than 8,600 new housing units in the planning stages within the district’s boundaries.

A similar construction bond for $55.2 million did not receive the 60 percent voter approval needed to pass in March 2006. The November bond’s $75.76 million price tag reflects increased costs of building materials, shortages of construction workers and includes an inflation rate of about 10 percent a year calculated through expected bid dates for each project. The estimated cost to taxpayers is an additional 80 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value per year, or approximately $120 more per year for a house assessed at $150,000.

Deer Park School District

Proposition No. 1: The Board of Directors of Deer Park School District No. 414, Spokane County, Stevens County and Pend Oreille County, Washington adopted Resolution N. 13-2005-06, concerning a proposition to reconfigure its school directors’ districts. This proposition would authorize the Board of Directors to change the school director districts from five geographic districts to four geographic districts and one at large district.

What it means: The Deer Park school board is hoping to rezone the areas it represents.

The school board is now made up of members from five geographic areas in the community.

If this ballot issue is approved, four school board members would represent four, redrawn geographic districts, while the fifth board member would represent the community at-large, according to Superintendent Mick Miller.

“We want to try to be able to allow more people to participate,” Miller said. Many people living in small communities, such as Deer Park, might not feel comfortable running for office against their neighbors.