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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Area’s growth key for election

The Spokesman-Review

Coeur d’Alene City Council

The races: Eleven candidates vying for three seats.

Hot-button issues: Growth, affordable housing, budgeting and spending, public accountability, oversight of urban renewal agency.

Seat 1: 4-year term

Ron Edinger – 71, retired. Longest-serving Coeur d’Alene city councilman with 33 years on the council. Coeur d’Alene mayor, 1974-78.

Issues: Wants to ensure young residents can get good-paying jobs, buy a home and stay in the area; wants to stop what he calls harassment and nitpicking by a small group that wants to challenge city government; supports creating an educational corridor – a regional hub where students can earn different levels of degrees; also wants to ensure the working class can afford to buy homes.

Dan Gookin – 46, technology writer of numerous “Dummies” computer books; Libertarian candidate for Idaho Senate in 2004.

Issues: Wants City Council to respect residents and become more accountable to taxpayers; wants the city’s urban renewal agency to spend tax revenue on economic development and job creation; favors using extra money in the city budget for property tax relief, unless residents vote to spend it on special projects; supports preserving neighborhoods and the city’s recent restrictions on the height of downtown buildings.

Seat 3: 4-year term

Jim Brannon – 54, Habitat for Humanity of North Idaho executive director; ran for Coeur d’Alene City Council in 1999.

Issues: Wants to use incentives to get affordable housing built; supports dedicating a portion of tax dollars collected by the urban renewal agency for work force housing projects; says the city needs to manage its budget more carefully; advocates using surplus money to lower property taxes; says city has gotten away from its main job of providing basic services.

Al Hassell – 63, co-owns Anderson Hassell Insurance and Financial Services; served as city councilman and mayor between 1986 and 1998; elected to council again in 2003.

Issues: Advocates for adequate parks to serve growing needs; wants to make sure tall, bulky buildings don’t infringe on established neighborhoods; believes the urban renewal agency can help create housing for mid-income workers and low-income residents; wants to see creation of neighborhood organizations as planning groups; believes the city should use as much technology as possible to avoid hiring more staff.

Chris Patterson – 42, Itron employee. No political experience.

Issues: Dislikes how Coeur d’Alene is managing its growth; believes city infrastructure, such as streets, hasn’t kept up with the influx of new people to the area, resulting in traffic congestion; believes jobs aren’t increasing and there are not enough firefighters; opposes the city hiring expensive, out-of-town consultants to make planning recommendations; wants Coeur d’Alene residents to get involved with making decisions.

Jerry Weaver – 60, retired law enforcement officer, substitute teacher District 271. No political experience.

Issues: Believes the current council disregards residents’ comments and questions; thinks the council should have term limits, capping the number of years at eight; worried city officials are turning Coeur d’Alene into another Sun Valley with no good-paying jobs and little affordable housing; thinks the city’s urban renewal agency has lost its direction and that residents should elect its board; wants the city to create a financial plan easily understood by residents.

Seat 5: 4-year term

Susie Snedaker – 66, retired after a career of various jobs, including legal secretary and retail nursery worker; former Planning Commission member, ran for City Council in 2005.

Issues: City needs to allow multifamily buildings in more areas; questions why the latest draft of the comprehensive plan rewrite has downtown core slated for intensive development and high density; says city is wrongly changing zoning rules to allow commercial businesses to replace apartments; wants to make landlords and property owners accountable when neighbors complain about renters; believes maintaining open spaces, including shorelines and parks, is important.

Joseph Kunka – 48, works for Big 5 Sporting Goods; challenged Mayor Sandi Bloem in 2005.

Issues: Wants to deal with growing gang problem, including graffiti; thinks city must provide more activities for teenagers; concerned that infrastructure hasn’t kept up with growth and supports a temporary break from development until city can evaluate the impacts of existing growth; worried about good jobs and affordability of housing; believes city should have its own animal control service and not use a regional facility.

Wayne Frisbie – 40, owns Debco Plumbing and Electric; former city building inspector; no political experience; served on the city’s animal control ad hoc committee.

Issues: Supports a regional animal shelter because it could provide more services for less cost; favors spaying and neutering stray cats to reduce overpopulation; concerned about shortage of affordable housing and says one way to encourage developers to build affordable homes is through reduced permit and impact fees; suggests council could make more of an effort to meet residents, such as through neighborhood meetings.

John Bruning – 62, retired U.S. Forest Service contract administrator; Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission member for 25 years, board chairman for 20 years.

Issues: Wants the city’s new comprehensive plan to preserve Coeur d’Alene’s hillsides; wants to strengthen and expand design rules for building downtown and in other areas, especially commercial districts; wants to protect older, established neighborhoods and not allow towers and high-density buildings in transition areas; would like to see urban renewal tax dollars used to revitalize the midtown area; concerned about affordable housing and places where the homeless can stay warm.

Anita Banta – 71, legal assistant; ran for Kootenai County clerk in 1996 and 1998.

Issues: Wants to maintain the city’s livable feel and small-town character; wants to ensure people can afford to live in Coeur d’Alene but doesn’t support hiring consultants to solve problems such as a lack of affordable housing; questions the amount of regulation in city government; believes there needs to be a balance between growth and development; supports the city being involved in a short-term shelter to help the homeless.

Post Falls City Council

The races: Eight candidates vying for three seats.

Hot-button issues: Residential and commercial growth, traffic tie-ups, city infrastructure, whether to save the old City Hall scheduled for demolition next year.

Seat 1: 4-year term

Kristy Reed Johnson – 60, retired flight services manager for now-defunct TWA; full-time directory services operator for Verizon; commissioner on Aquifer Protection District; court-appointed advocate for neglected and abused children; Post Falls Chamber of Commerce member; former board member of Post Falls Historical Society; member of League of Women Voters, Rathdrum Prairie Plan Citizens’ Advisory Group and Community Volunteers.

Issues: Encouraging development on empty land within the city limits; protecting the aquifer by capping development on the prairie; bringing economic prosperity and more good-paying jobs to the region; believes old City Hall should be torn down.

Jack Evans – 47, owner/founder of TrackMy.com, an Internet company providing Internet marketing services to large U.S. real estate brokerages; former president of California-based Highland Estates homeowners association; past president of Dana Point Chamber of Commerce; former member of Dana Point volunteer group for communitywide entertainment and social events.

Issues: Attracting environmentally clean industries, such as high-tech companies; wants more businesses to provide quality jobs and taxes to pay for good schools and roads, police and fire protection, and city infrastructure.

Kerri Thoreson – 55, general manager of Kagey Publishing Co., which issues guides on North Idaho dining, recreation and family opportunities; columnist for the Coeur d’Alene Press (on hiatus until after election); former executive director and board member of Post Falls Chamber of Commerce; commissioner of Parks and Recreation Department; director of Post Falls Days Parade; member of Kootenai Alliance for Children and Families; precinct member of Kootenai County Republican Central Committee; former board member of Kootenai County United Way.

Issues: Wants to prepare city for continuing growth; encourages in-fill development over sprawl; believes in using new smart code as template for development; encourages more public participation in city decisions.

Seat 4: 4-year term

Skip Hissong – 60, co-owner/co-operator of Summit Equipment; previously served four years on City Council; 14 years as urban renewal district commissioner; Chamber of Commerce board member; member and co-founder of Post Falls Community Volunteers; member of American Legion.

Issues: Is a watchdog over city spending; wants to rein in the Post Falls urban renewal commission; seeks ways to spend less city revenue; wants to give a voice to people struggling financially.

Angela Alexander – 48, owns two small local businesses, About Business Solutions and The Coffee Cottage; former Post Falls Chamber of Commerce CEO; member of Post Falls’ City Center steering committee; involved with the board of directors for a consortium of 21 business owners.

Issues: Wants constituents’ perspectives brought to the council’s attention; strives for fair and informed decisions; desires Post Falls manages its growth; wants adequate city infrastructure.

Seat 6: 2-year term

Anthony Skarisky – 35, founder/owner of Home Mortgage Northwest; member of the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce; frequently attends council meetings.

Issues: Hopes to present a common-sense voice of the people and a voice for small business; seeks prudent management of the city; wants to stabilize local housing prices while increasing affordable housing and protecting private property rights; wants to reduce city spending; wants to attract new jobs with higher wages.

Keith Hutcheson – 39, chief of police for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe for two years; member of Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Commission for five years; former Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy, K-9 trainer and evaluator; certified by Idaho State Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy; cross-deputized with sheriff’s departments in Kootenai County and with the city of Plummer; two years on Post Falls Parks and Recreation Commission; volunteer for nonprofits Youth First and Sports USA.

Issues: Wants to bring public safety aspect to community growth; expects council to operate in a transparent fashion; wants to make Post Falls a model city; hopes to make sure city is run in a professional manner.

Linda Wilhelm – 51, real estate broker at Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Real Estate; member of Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission for about eight years; helped rewrite city’s 2004 comprehensive plan; co-chairwoman of city beautification committee; involved with Habitat for Humanity.

Issues: Supports growth as long as it doesn’t manifest itself as urban sprawl; endorses and has been active in helping develop the city’s “smart code” guide for development.

Rathdrum Mayor

The race: Two candidates vying for the seat.

Hot-button issues: Growth, spending, city infrastructure, public involvement in city government.

Ken Hayes – 81, retired long-haul trucker for Georgia-Pacific Corp.; Rathdrum councilman since 2006.

Issues: Prides himself on being thrifty; voted against recently approved 2008 city budget and argued that the salary increases and benefits packages for city employees were too high; wants to involve residents more in the city’s decision-making, and would establish regular town hall meetings; wants to attract companies that pay livable-wage salaries; concerned about the impact more residents would have on city infrastructure.

Vic Holmes – 52, owner/manager Eagle Garage Doors; Rathdrum councilman since 2003; past president and vice president of Rathdrum Chamber of Commerce; vice president of Lion’s Club.

Issues: Would encourage growth in and around Rathdrum and wants to raise the standing of the city in the region; believes Rathdrum’s infrastructure needs to be improved and enlarged and wants the city to save for projects such as replacing or expanding City Hall and police headquarters; believes city must do better to clarify where tax money is spent; supports holding a series of workshops where city staff could outline their department’s mission, accomplishments and operational obstacles.

Post Falls City Hall measure

The issue: Should the city preserve the current City Hall, slated for demolition next year, when the city moves into a new building under construction, and would residents support a one-time tax levy to pay for it?

The building at the center of the ballot issue is the current City Hall, a white masonry block structure at 408 N. Spokane St. City officials had planned to demolish the structure next year. Some residents want to save the old building for public use, such as a museum. Others say that would cost too much.

Preserving the 7,500-square-foot structure at this late date would cause a financial crisis, said City Administrator Eric Keck. Taxpayers would have to foot the estimated $1.2 million bill, plus pay $60,000 a year in operating costs. And they’d get an aging building fraught with maintenance problems, Keck said.

On the other side is Bob Templin, a longtime community leader and founder of Red Lion Templin’s Hotel on the River. He’s heading up a campaign to save old City Hall, scheduled to be torn down after its 41,000-square-foot, $8.8 million replacement is finished next spring.

When the city held a public hearing on the plan last year, no one objected to razing the old building, Keck said. But over the summer, Templin launched a petition drive that put the issue on the ballot.

Templin maintains the city has exaggerated the cost to preserve the building, which will be a bargain. He believes old City Hall fits the downtown vision. It’s compatible with the Old Church Community Center, the new two-story City Hall, and nearby parks and trails, he said. And if the city revitalizes the area, the building would be surrounded by landscaped streets, sidewalks with river-themed embellishments and parking.

Both the old and new City Halls are in the City Center District, bordered by Interstate 90 on the north and the Spokane River on the south. It’s where community leaders hope to create a sense of downtown in a city whose population is expected to double in 20 years.

If voters keep the old building, the city will need to dig up and move underground phone, gas, electric, water and sewer lines, Keck said. The utilities were located with the expectation that old City Hall would soon be gone. Likewise, a new storm swale slopes toward the building’s front door, Keck said. On top of that, the structure needs a roof, plumbing, insulation, energy-efficient windows, ceiling tiles and repairs to cracking walls, he said.

“The most important thing for people to know,” Keck said, “is there are real costs associated with preserving old City Hall. And those costs are substantial.”

That’s why the city has placed a second question on the Nov. 6 ballot: If voters want to save the old building, would they also support a tax levy to pay for needed improvements and modifications. If not, the city would need to cut staff and services, officials say.

The city says it would cost $1.24 million to save the old City Hall. The breakdown:

“$20,000 to redesign the site

“$145,320 to rebuild the site

“$589,940 to bring the building up to code

“$35,000 to remove a roof and porch; install metal fascia

“$225,000 for additional land on which to park

“$225,000 to build parking spaces