Four seek to unseat Bob Apple

Spokane’s Northeast Council District, which traditionally has the fewest voters, the lowest turnout and the least expensive races in city elections, is bucking tradition on at least one count this year.

It has the most candidates it’s ever seen for a primary, and for the first time has as many or more than other races in the city.

Incumbent Bob Apple, who at 50 has a long record of involvement in local issues and has made a name for himself as a maverick on the City Council, faces four challengers in the Aug. 21 primary. All are novice candidates, and three have strong neighborhood ties, albeit to different neighborhood organizations around the district.

Donna McKereghan, a 54-year-old former Eastern Washington University professor who now runs a Web development company out of her home, is a longtime leader in the Logan Neighborhood that surrounds Gonzaga and a well-known citizen activist familiar at City Hall.

Gary Pollard, a 63-year-old retired government employee who is chairman of the Riverside Neighborhood Council and active on the Community Assembly, comes from the downtown core, which forms the district’s southern boundary.

Luke Tolley, a 28-year-old businessman who operates a family-owned golf cart dealership, is on the Hillyard and Whitman councils in the district’s northern ends.

They’re joined by Robert Stokes, a 38-year-old health benefits adviser for the Department of Veterans Affairs, who also lives in Logan. He’s running a type of “everyman” campaign: He probably doesn’t know any more about the city’s problems than you do, so he can be your voice on the council.

He’s sometimes overwhelmed by the complexities of some issues and has put his campaign on “cruise control,” but adds, “I’m not trying to bamboozle anybody into thinking I’m something that I’m not.”

For a district that has never fielded more than three candidates for a council seat, it’s a large and diverse field.

“Maybe that will spark some turnout,” said Apple, who runs a small construction and roofing business, and owns but leases out the operation of a bar in Hillyard. The district has fewer registered voters than the city’s other two, and in most elections its turnout lags as well. Two years ago, turnout was 9 percent below the other two districts.

District 1, which is generally east of Division and south of Interstate 90, but includes downtown as far west as Monroe, has the most people on fixed incomes, candidates are quick to note. That makes it particularly sensitive to tax increases, most agree.

That means that while all believe the district is concerned about crime, most doubt that their voters would support an extension of the added property tax levy, commonly called the levy lid lift, to build up police and fire services

“We’re taxed up to the hilt and people are not going to take too much more,” McKereghan said. While voters might be happy to see it put on the ballot, she doubts it would pass.

Apple agreed. He thinks the city should stick by its word that the tax increase was to be temporary, to get out of a budget crisis. That crisis has passed, he contends, and now there’s a budget surplus.

Although some city officials are warning that the surplus should be spent only on items that don’t have ongoing costs to the city, like extra police and firefighters, Apple thinks that’s the wrong way to budget. They are setting a spending plan on revenues from three years ago, when the economy was weak, not on current situations, he said.

“There’s a definite feeling we need more cops,” Tolley said. Some voters might support extending the tax if it were clearly earmarked for police and fire, he added.

Stokes said he’d vote for it if it gets on the ballot, on the theory that he thinks he generally gets good value for the money he sends the city in taxes. But he doesn’t know if it would pass because there could be some hard feelings over extending a tax billed as a temporary emergency measure.

Pollard said he wants more police, but thinks the city should stick by the promise to make the tax increase temporary. “We can come back later (for a tax increase), but you’ve got to show me, first.”

Active in the COPS Downtown station, Pollard opposes calls for independent oversight of the force, saying the money would be better spent on more cops to handle the workload.

“I’d like to see more police officers before I go the ombudsman route,” he said. “These people are overstressed.”

Other candidates, however, said they’d back calls for more police accountability. The position of ombudsman has been proposed by the mayor, and supported by Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, but is on hold because of contract negotiations with the Police Guild.

Tolley said that while he’s willing to give Kirkpatrick time to figure out the best system, “I think it’s a really good idea to have citizen oversight.”

“We need something,” Stokes said, whether it’s an ombudsman or a citizen’s panel with stronger authority. “We need to start by having some accountability.”

Apple said he “absolutely” supports an ombudsman and has for several years.

“It’s what all responsible cities have,” he said. “It has to be a negotiated position, but we must be clear we will not give in.”

Calls for a police ombudsman are too narrow, McKereghan said: “Spokane needs a city of Spokane ombudsman. I don’t think police should be set off to one side.”

While issues of economic development and city budgets come up perennially in campaign discussions, a new issue in this year’s race is causing Northeast District candidates to talk trash – or more precisely, trash pickup.

This spring the city’s solid waste office announced it would stop making collections in some alleys and require those residents to take their garbage cans and recycling bins to the street. The change was designed to save money and increase efficiency, and it was to be implemented over time in neighborhoods around the city. But the changes started in north Spokane.

“This was dropped on us by the garbage department in their zeal,” Apple said. “They should have had a public hearing.”

The decision was made without adequate information or analysis and is an example of administrative arrogance, McKereghan said.

“City government has become a power unto itself,” she contends. “The administration thinks that ‘strong leadership’ means ‘I get to make all the decisions myself.’ ”

Tolley said he’s unsure that residents of the Hillyard and Whitman are as upset about changes. Many of them lost alley pickup years ago, he said. Still, the fact that the policy will be subjected to public meetings before being implemented in south Spokane has the potential for creating another north-versus-south issue, he said.

The Northeast District campaign promises to be low budget, with Apple saying he expects to spend about $4,000 before the primary and a similar amount if he gets to the general election. Tolley has raised about $1,150, and he’s the only other candidate to top four figures in contributions.

McKereghan said many potential donors may be holding back because of the crowded field, waiting until after the primary.

With limited resources, candidates say, they are working to catch the limited attention of voters, some of whom might not yet realize the law has changed and they will be voting in August, rather than September as they’re accustomed to.

Ballots will arrive while some voters are on vacation and will be due back when others are gone, causing candidates to worry that voting could get lost in the summer shuffle.

“The public never gets interested this soon,” Apple said.