Election ‘07

Mary Verner denied Thursday that she’d dismiss Spokane’s fire chief if she becomes mayor and challenged Mayor Dennis Hession to produce someone who said she had. Hession denounced attacks on his wife as “outrageous” and challenged Verner to have them withdrawn.

The exchanges came in another meeting between the city’s mayoral candidates, a televised debate on KSPS-TV.

The candidates repeated their stances that the city needs to do more to promote low-income housing that is disappearing as downtown thrives and work harder to control gangs. They continued their disagreement over a change to the firefighters’ pension fund, with Hession saying it could cost the city up to $10 million and Verner saying it would not.

But the real sparks came on some minor issues in the campaign.

In response to a question about whether she’d fire several top city administrators, Verner said it was “a myth” that she had told the firefighters union she would fire Chief Bobby Williams and challenged Hession to produce anyone who heard her say it.

Hession said he heard from people who said they heard her say that, and he finds them credible. “They are concerned about coming forward because of reprisals from the fire union,” he said.

Countered Verner: “We’re both attorneys, and we know about hearsay.”

Another exchange involved an incident from Monday’s debate in which a protester filed a police complaint saying Jane Hession shoved her, causing an injury to her back. Hession, who was present at the time, has denied his wife shoved the protester.

“The allegations that were made against her are outrageous,” he said. “To the extent that this woman considers herself to be supporting Ms. Verner, I would call on (Verner) to equally call on this woman to withdraw these ridiculous allegations.”

Replied Verner: “I did not authorize, condone, anticipate or have anything to do with the confrontation.”

The person was there protesting, not supporting her as a candidate, she said.

The protester, Tari Anderson, told The Spokesman-Review earlier this week she was angry with the mayor’s decision to end garbage pickup in alleys in her neighborhood. Spokane County sheriff’s deputies are investigating her complaint.