Group seeks streamlined permitting and fees

Greater Spokane Inc. wants to look at ways local governments might be able to adopt shared permitting and fee practices, transportation funding and other policies that would streamline government, President Rich Hadley said Wednesday.

But he stressed the economic development group does not want to revisit local government consolidation, a move county voters rejected in 1995.

Hadley spoke during a break in a GSI-sponsored meeting among Washington, Spokane County, and local government representatives to review ways to address the area’s transportation needs, and what proposals could be taken to the Legislature in January. The discussions will resume in November.

Hadley said GSI must be competitive with organizations in other states promoting economic growth, and that progress made Wednesday was a good example of the benefits of working together.

“We think that makes sense, and we’re going to take some time with it,” he said at GSI’s annual meeting earlier in the day.

Hadley said the group also wants to continue its focus on expansion of the University District, and integrating the campus into the downtown area, and extending to four years the two-year medical school initiative launched this fall in conjunction with the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Keynote speaker Phyllis Campbell, president of The Seattle Foundation, graded Washington poorly on education, particularly in mathematics and science. “Our blueprint for basic education is not a pretty picture,” said Campbell, a former president of US Bank of Washington who calls herself an “unrepentant Spokanite.”Campbell said Spokane’s great strength is the work that government, business and education officials have put into aligning their efforts to foster entrepreneurship.

Cities that focus on the long term will flourish, she said.

Incoming Chairman Betsy Cowles said that in everything from medical technology to agricultural exports, the Inland Northwest already is establishing a global presence.

GSI priorities for the coming year include increasing cultural diversity, protecting the area’s natural beauty, meeting the need for energy and lifelong education and funding infrastructure improvements, said Cowles, chairman of Cowles Co., which publishes The Spokesman-Review.