Spokane Valley City Council race features three parents with differing views on public safety, development and more

Spokane Valley City Councilwoman Laura Padden will have to fend off challenges from a salvage yard manager and a Gonzaga student to advance in her bid for re-election this fall.

A pair of fathers separated by decades in age are hoping to unseat Padden: Joseph Ghodsee, 26, who’s studying business management at Gonzaga University, and longtime Valley resident Brad Hohn, 64, who stepped away from his role as a manager of the salvage yard High Mountain Horsepower to focus on the race.

Elected in 2021, Padden, 71, said she’s proud of what she’s helped accomplish for the city over the past four years. She believes there still is work to be done to cement Spokane Valley as an attractive place for business, families and the local workforce.

“I’ve been doing it for four years and been involved in some really positive things, but, and I guess you can always say this, there’s still things left to do,” Padden said.

Hohn said he’s never been politically involved but starts his mornings reading local and national news. The tension that’s plagued the council in recent years piqued his interest, and he began attending the meetings held every Tuesday at Spokane Valley City Hall. He said he’s connected with groups who’ve frequented the meetings longer than he that apprised him of local issues and encouraged him to run, including Councilman Al Merkel and his supporters.

Hohn is concerned about the Valley’s future as it continues to grow, and disagrees with how the majority of council has shepherded that growth .

“It gets kind of depressing when things are not going like they should, and the average person like me really can’t make a difference unless they quit their job and devote 110% of their time and money at it,” Hohn said.

Merkel has been at the heart of the chaos since he joined the council in January 2024, as the subject of a pair of workplace investigations that found he harassed city staff and violated city policy and state law regarding public records. The council moved to sue Merkel over the latter earlier this year, saying he still is not complying with state or city standards. He’s since been on a grind to see his fellow council members unseated, recruiting Hohn and other candidates to challenge the incumbents and assisting in their campaign efforts.

All three candidates expressed confidence in being able to navigate the personalities and tensions among board members, regardless of what the board looks like.

Ghodsee, also in his first bid for public office, said he’s always had an interest in public policy and wants to introduce more “freedom” to Spokane Valley. Adding to his motivation to run for office are concerns over Merkel’s behavior as an elected official, and the fear of him coalescing more power on the governing board by getting hand-selected candidates elected. He worries Merkel would abuse that power to go after political opponents. He has voiced those concerns when speaking at city council meetings over the past several months.

“I want to do away with unnecessary rules, regulation and red tape, as long as it does not jeopardize life and health,” Ghodsee said.

On public safety

The candidate elected to the board in November will join the city next January amidst an ongoing effort to bolster the city’s police services provided by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, after a 2023 consultant’s report found a need for an additional two dozen deputies . The council has approved, funded and filled 10 new positions and advanced a 0.1% sales tax measure to the Aug. 6 ballot to secure funding for the remaining recommended positions.

Ghodsee, Hohn and Padden are supportive of efforts to bolster public safety in Spokane Valley, but disagree on priorities and how to cover the costs.

Ghodsee favors co-responder programs that pair mental health officials and additional homeless resource deputies to be housed with the Spokane Valley Police Department, saying the city will need those resources as it continues to grow. He is supportive of having the public weigh in via elections whenever possible, including on whether they’d be willing to be taxed to fund more public safety efforts “that are just a part of life,” Ghodsee said.

“I think it’s great to go to the voters for approval,” Ghodsee said.

Hohn said he agrees the city needs additional law enforcement officers on patrol, but is not supportive of asking voters to fund more deputies. He believes the costs of adding the remaining roles recommended in the consultant’s report should be found somewhere in the city’s existing revenues and criticized the recent vote to move funding from new police vehicles to cover the costs of the lawsuit against Merkel. He said it shows the council does not support public safety.

“That’s saying one thing and doing another,” Hohn said.

As a member of the council’s public safety committee, working to meet all of the consultant’s recommendations for police services is part of why Padden decided to run for another term. She touted the success in filling the vacant and additional positions approved thus far, as well as other public safety campaigns of which she’s been part.

She noted the recent passage of a law providing law enforcement additional charges when Valley residents are exposed to illicit substances, inspired by a pair of toddler overdoses earlier this year where the victims got into their parents’ stash of suspected fentanyl. She also pointed to legislation adopted by the council earlier this year taking aim at illicit massage parlors believed to be connected to human trafficking, which she said has been used to close more than 75% of the known unlicensed businesses in town.

On economic and residential development

Hohn, Ghodsee and Padden recognized a need for more housing and additional support for local businesses. They agree that the character of the community needs to be maintained even amidst rapid growth.

Hohn would like to see more support for existing businesses in the city, particularly along the Sprague-Appleway corridor where the city has invested in a number of efforts to create a city center, including upgrades to Balfour Park and City Hall, as well as the closure of a traffic lane on Sprague to make stormwater improvements and ad a bicycle lane. He believes improvements could be made on current zoning laws in the city to ensure the nature of the community does not change as it grows.

“We have growth, that’s going to happen, but we need to channel that growth a little bit better from where we put apartment buildings to just single-family homes, things like that,” Hohn said.

Ghodsee would like to attract more industrial manufacturing to the area, which he sees as an opportunity to secure additional tax and fee revenue and employment opportunities. It may also bring the cost of construction down, as the supply chain for materials would be entirely local, he said. Agreements also could be made to have the companies invest heavily in things like street maintenance to offset the damage and usage.

He said removing some red tape around housing development would be a primary focus, if elected. Access to affordable housing is a priority for him as someone who has grappled with homelessness, and he wants to pursue a program to assist low-income residents to buy housing in co-ops through partnerships with local credit unions, nonprofits and the city.

“We need to be a good place to do business, visit and raise a family,” Ghodsee said. “And I want it to be as good of a place as possible, that is my goal.”

Padden said the city should work to have the Inland Northwest’s workforce call Spokane Valley home, rather than the communities across the border in Idaho. With rents and vacancy rates stabilizing, she wants to help residents become first-time home buyers. She also advocates for the state to do away with construction regulations she said are leading developers to build housing in Idaho where it’s cheaper.

“The Valley loses out on a lot because those people aren’t living here,” Padden said. “They don’t have the skin in the game, so to say, on being involved in the community because they don’t live here. They don’t often recreate here or shop here because they live in Idaho. We want to keep people here and grow our community.”

On issues important to them

Padden said she’s looking forward to the tourism, tax revenue and acclaim that will come with the opening of a $7 million cross country facility along Flora Road, which should be completed this fall. The facility was selected as the site of the Northwest Athletic Conference regional men’s and women’s championship for the next two years. In 2027, the NCAA Division I cross country Western Regional championships will be held there.

“We really were fortunate to fill a niche that we didn’t have to compete with Spokane or with Idaho or anybody else,” Padden said. “We’re going to have a premier cross country course that people from all over the region are going to, well, they already want to come. I mean, it’s a huge amount of excitement.”

Hohn disagrees, citing a concern over the costs to maintain the course over the years to come. He does not feel it was a worthwhile investment for the city, which devoted $6.9 million in lodging tax revenue toward the project while receiving nearly $500,000 in state grants.

“I don’t know the project all that well, like I say, I haven’t seen it,” Hohn said. “But for the size of what that park is, I mean that’s a lot of cost to maintain that thing when there’s so many other parks.”

If elected, Hohn said he would like to reel in taxes in the city, pointing to the public safety proposition on the ballot and the $20 license tab fees approved by the council in 2023.

Ghodsee said he has an interest in looking at ways to support young families like his own if elected, including city-sponsored parenting classes, support programs and investments in local parks.

“It takes a village,” he said.