Council sends new recall rules to voters

Spokane City Council members voted unanimously Monday in favor of a ballot measure that could streamline the process for recalling city officials.

If approved by voters this November, the city charter amendment would allow future councils to subject an elected leader to a recall vote for a violation that constitutes moral turpitude.

Here’s how it works:

“The city’s newly approved ethics commission would have to find that a violation has occurred and then recommend to the City Council that the violation warrants a recall election.

“Council members in public session would take testimony and debate a recall of any council member or the mayor.

“The council would place the recall on the ballot if six members vote for it. Then voters get the final say.

The 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 successfully recall Mayor Jim West after a newspaper investigation showed that West used his office to arrange personal liaisons.

West was recalled in December. He died July 22 of complications from surgery after a three-year battle with colon cancer.

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

“I think the public was crying out for a level of accountability of its elected officials and public servants,” said Councilman Al French, a chief proponent of establishing a city recall measure as well as the ethics policy and commission.

Council members on Monday, however, were divided on how many votes it should take for the council to place a recall before voters. The proposed charter amendment was initially written to allow five members of the seven-member council to bring a recall.

Councilman Brad Stark won an amendment to increase the number of votes needed to place a recall on the ballot from five to six, to add an additional safeguard against an unfair recall, he said. He was joined by French and two new council members, Nancy McLaughlin and Rob Crow. Crow was appointed to his position earlier this year. McLaughlin won election last fall. Stark is running as a Republican for Spokane County assessor.

“Six for me is good,” McLaughlin said.

Voting no on the amendment were Council President Joe Shogan and council members Mary Verner and Bob Apple. Shogan was elevated to his current position after Dennis Hession was appointed mayor to replace West.

Shannon Sullivan, who brought the recall against West, told council members the recall petition process under state law “is something I would not wish upon any citizen, nor would I want to do it again.”

Sullivan said that the city recall process would “take the emotional and financial burden off of the people.”