Doug Clark: With Hession regime, secrecy is Job 1

In the bygone days of Spokane government, the public’s business was conducted behind closed doors by cigar-chomping politicians who didn’t trust the common folks a lick.

But things are different now.

Mayor Dennis Hession doesn’t smoke.

Other than that, alas, City Hall remains as lock-lipped as ever.

We may think we live in the Information Age. But as far as our buttoned-down mayor is concerned, the nitty-gritty matters of the city are none of our beeswax.

Not until Mayor Hession says it’s time to spill.

Whether the issue is the curious deportment and disappearances of the deputy mayor or the release of a $260,000 taxpayer-paid efficiency study of Spokane government, well … mum’s the word.

Or at least it was until Wednesday afternoon.

Learning someone had dared to leak a copy of the aforementioned report to this newspaper, Hession held an impromptu City Hall press conference to clear the air and tell us all that “this is a good day” in Spokane.

What hooey. The mayor had apparently calmed down from earlier in the day, when he characterized the leak as “unconscionable” and “a breach of trust.”

Whoever leaked the report deserves a public service award for forcing Hession off the pot.

The press conference reminded me of a similar damage-control attempt that took place last March.

Learning this newspaper was about to publish information regarding the city firehouse sex scandal, Hession held a public dog-and-pony show to attempt to beat us to the punch.

Oh, well. Why should anyone be surprised that secrecy is such a prized part of the Hession regime?

The man’s a lawyer. He’s trained in the art of legalized obfuscation. Lawyers live in a world of confidentiality and privileged information.

A WORD TO VOTERS: When are we going to wake up and stop putting lawyers into office? (Yeah, I know Hession won the mayor’s job through appointment. But he wouldn’t have been in line for the job if he hadn’t already won a couple of council races.)

Lawyers are the reason this country is the giant, screwed-up mess it’s in. Lawyers write laws that make no sense. Lawyers conned a jury into getting O.J. Simpson off. So I say we all take a pledge right now. Raise your right hands and repeat after me:

“I (state your name) promise to forsake party lines and never vote for another lousy lawyer again.”

Am I the only one still offended by Mayor Hession’s refusal to come clean about Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch?

“Were Lynch’s trips to seamy High Bridge Park really just to check up on the cops?

“Did the deputy mayor’s facial bruises really come from a bicycle spill?

“Why is the deputy mayor out on another unexplained medical leave?

I’m wasting my breath, of course. Hession is a polite, affable guy. He looks swell in a suit. But he plays his cards closer to the vest than Chris Moneymaker.

At the Wednesday press conference I asked the mayor if Lynch had received a copy of the efficiency report.

Hession said, no, Lynch did not get a copy. Even more curious was Hession’s confession that he had not spoken to Lynch since Dec. 28, when the deputy mayor embarked on his latest medicinal vanishing act.

The mystery continues.

As for the efficiency study, I’m really not so interested in what recommendations the thing contains. What fascinates me more is the paranoid way Hession has protected its release.

That the mayor extracted vows of secrecy before doling out copies to the City Council speaks volumes about who we’ve got leading the city.

“This isn’t my idea of how government should work,” huffed Councilman Al French in a news story.

Earlier this month, French had sharper words for the mayor. “If the report has flaws in it, acknowledge that it has flaws and let the public see it.”

Al’s right. All the hush-hush stuff stinks worse than a dead marmot in July.

But here’s something that’s not secret. Spokane hasn’t elected a mayor to a second term since 1978.

If Mayor Hessitation doesn’t get his act together, that record will live on.