Verduin vision too narrow

I don’t know Evan Verduin, Mayor David Condon’s hand-picked ally in a strategy to force a Spokane City Council makeup more to Condon’s liking, but I do know Verduin is dead wrong on one important issue.

In an Oct. 10 article, Verduin proclaimed the council has wasted its time on an earned sick and safe leave ordinance. I’m a member of the Spokane Alliance, a 20,000-member organization that two years ago commissioned a local poll showing strong support for allowing up to 40,000 low-income workers to accrue sick leave, and arrange for safe shelter in domestic violence situations. It’s already the law in Seattle and Tacoma. It’s a public health and social justice issue.

Verduin mimics Condon’s right-wing politics when he says the city council should only be concerned with business, asphalt and police. That is a minimalist approach to city governance that ignores Spokane’s neediest citizens.

I’m not happy with Karen Stratton’s ambivalence on earned sick leave, but I’m even less happy with Verduin’s opposition. Spokane will never advance without addressing its poverty problems, including the huge number of working poor with no social safety net. It’s time for us to expand, not contract, our progressive city council majority.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane