Mager seeks night commission meetings

Bonnie Mager, in her third month as a Spokane County commissioner, moved Tuesday on her campaign promise to steer commissioners toward evening meetings that more people can attend.

Commissioner Todd Mielke responded as though he were facing a roomful of department heads in the first round of budget negotiations.

Time, after all, is like money: People find ways to spend whatever is available.

Mielke said the one evening meeting commissioners already conduct each month tends to last all evening, no matter how much business is on the agenda. He said he fears adding a second evening meeting would double the talk with no corresponding increase in accomplishment.

“What are we not getting done?” Mielke asked.

Mager said she thinks it is important to hear from constituents whose jobs don’t allow them to attend daytime meetings.

“Folks just can’t take the time off to come down and share with us,” Mager said.

Mielke said he was sympathetic, but he questioned whether that would be the best use of commissioners’ limited time. Commissioners already meet all day on Tuesdays and at least half of two other days each week, leaving little time to answer constituents’ phone calls, e-mails and letters, he said.

Nor is there enough time to attend all the events to which commissioners are invited, or to go look at all the problems constituents want them to see firsthand, Mielke added.

He said he has about 10 items on the list of things people want to show him, but “I haven’t figured out how to do it unless I start doing weekends.”

Commissioners, Mielke said, also need time for their families and personal lives.

“I know you and I have children who are about the same age, and we want to be part of their lives,” Mielke told Mager.

Mager said she thinks commissioners “just need to be firmer about ending times” for meetings.

Mielke questioned whether the Spokane City Council’s weekly evening meetings really increase public participation.

“They have a handful of regulars, but their meetings look like our 2 o’clock meetings,” in which most of the people in the audience are employees, he said.

But, Mielke conceded, Spokane City Council meetings get more television coverage.

“Be careful of what you ask for,” Mager rejoined.

Commissioner Mark Richard missed Tuesday’s inconclusive discussion. He had to leave early to attend another meeting.