Ubiquitous city council attendee Christopher Savage announces bid for dais

Meals on Wheels board member and ubiquitous City Council meeting attendee Christopher Savage is running again for a seat on the Spokane City Council, hoping to unseat incumbent Councilman Zack Zappone.

He is running for a seat representing council District 3, which covers the northwestern third of the city stretching north from the Spokane River and west of Division Street, and after redistricting in 2022 also includes Browne’s Addition. Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke is the district’s other representative, and her term runs through 2027.

Savage said he is running to better support law enforcement with a “fully vetted” tax measure to fund a new jail, fight visible homelessness with “tough love” measures, including using the new jail, oppose most other tax increases and cut city spending where possible, first by getting rid of positions in the council office.

He also argues the district needs representation “that’s going to embody the community, rather than tell the community what they need to be doing.”

For instance, he believes there have been unintended consequences from the council’s push to allow higher residential density – which had unanimous council support – and a removal of parking requirements for new developments, which were sponsored by Zappone and approved nearly unanimously. A lack of dialogue has created contention in some neighborhoods seeing that development, Savage said.

“For instance, in the Emerson Garfield or North Hill area, there is a lot of apprehension and not good discussion in how some properties went up,” Savage said. “If there was a little bit more community conversation with the developer and the neighborhood, there wouldn’t be so much animosity.”

Savage also believes the city should respond to the economic burden of its residents by resisting tax increases in most cases. For instance, while he supports a jail tax so long as it is more transparent than a similar effort in 2023, and supports a parks levy on ballots later this year, he opposes an upcoming Spokane School District bond and efforts by the city to rejoin the regional aquifer protection area, which would cost homeowners $15 a year.

This will be Savage’s fourth bid for City Council, having run unsuccessfully in 2023, 2021 and 2019, and his second time facing Zappone for this particular seat.

This time will be different, Savage said. He added that he had initially gone into politics and prior elections with “high-minded ideas of what I thought things were, and I have had a lot of lessons on what the reality is.”

“That’s why I think I’m prepared right now, I have a lot of the know-how that’s needed, I know all the ins and outs that I have learned from my mistakes in the past,” Savage said.

Savage’s fundraising has notably improved over past runs, raising over $11,000 already, more than he had during the entirety of past runs. Those funds were most significantly raised from donations he and his family made to his campaign account, though notable donors also include Tony Kiepe, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican against Democrat Natasha Hill for a seat in the state Legislature in 2024; Brandon Casey, who ran unsuccessfully in 2024 against incumbent Superior Court Judge Marla Polin; and former City Councilman Steve Corker.

Savage also serves as a district leader for the Spokane County GOP.