Cronyism isn’t needed

Al French for county commissioner? Only if you don’t mind his documented cronyism. Al takes good care of his friends.

Like longtime pal and sometimes employer Thomas Hamilton, owner of a local bus bench company. Al has done architectural work for him for years and was even implicated in illegally dredging the Spokane River for Tom’s boat slip in 2004.

In 2008-2009, Mayor Verner and the STA Board, on which Al sat, hammered out a plan to finally replace Spokane’s broken-down, illegal advertising benches with aesthetic, Comprehensive Plan-compliant benches. At the ninth hour, Al successfully overthrew the plan with a recently discovered loophole, single-handedly reopening the bus bench business (his buddy didn’t even win it; a Florida company did).

When questioned about his associations with Hamilton during the City Council meeting of May 4, 2009, Al attempted to sidestep the question by talking about advertising his campaign on bus benches, but when pressed finally admitted “I did provide design work for his house.” Al should have recused himself instead of authoring the amendment.

Al, thanks for the ugly advertising benches that continue to line our streets. We were almost rid of them.

Suzanne Markham

Spokane