Northwest Spokane features only City Council race on August primary ballots

There are three seats on the Spokane City Council up for election this year, but only one has enough candidates to appear on ballots for the fast approaching August primary: northwest Spokane.

Liberal incumbent councilman and high school teacher Zack Zappone is fending off two conservative challengers: Meals on Wheels board member Chris Savage and private cigar lounge co-owner Cody Arguelles, who retired as an Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape specialist.

Zappone is one of two council members 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.

The seat was fiercely competitive when Zappone first ran in 2021, when he edged out his conservative opponent Mike Lish by only 1.3%. The district has since become more likely to elect liberals after the map was redrawn in 2022 – a map Zappone created, sparking accusations of partisan gerrymandering.

A judge ruled in April 2023 that the map was not illegally gerrymandered – but also ruled that council members should not have that level of involvement in the process going forward. Voters in 2024 approved reforms to create more distance between the council and the creation of City Council district boundaries.

Klitzke won her election in 2023 against Earl Moore by nearly 20 points, though redistricting appears unlikely to account for the majority of that margin.

With two challengers who have never served in elected office, the election has become a referendum on Zappone’s role in the City Council’s progressive supermajority that legislates in close coordination with Mayor Lisa Brown. Zappone has frequently stood shoulder to shoulder with Brown during her larger policy proposals, including two recent reform packages for affordable housing and homelessness laws.

Both Savage and Arguelles have argued in favor of restoring the 2023 voter-approved anti-homeless camping law that was struck down by the state Supreme Court on technical grounds in April. The council majority rejected an attempt by its conservative minority to restore the law – though, notably, Zappone was the sole left-wing council member to join the minority to try to bring that restoration forward.

Still, Zappone later joined the majority in adopting a modified version of Brown’s proposed replacement, which greatly expanded the areas where it is illegal for the homeless to camp but also prioritizes social service engagement over criminal enforcement.

Arguelles and Savage believe the city’s enforcement of homelessness laws lacks accountability. They also argue against tax increases, with limited exceptions.

This election is a rematch for Savage, who ran against Zappone for the same seat in 2021, coming last in a five-way primary. The two also served in student government together at North Central High School, where Savage was elected treasurer and Zappone was president.

Savage said he is running to better support law enforcement with a “fully vetted” tax measure to fund a new jail after a 2023 effort criticized for a lack of transparency flamed out. He also wants to fight visible homelessness with “tough love” measures, including using the new jail, while opposing most other tax increases and calling to cut city spending where possible, first by getting rid of positions in the council office.

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.”

This will be Savage’s fourth bid for a seat on the council, but he believes the experience he has gained from past runs and from being a frequent audience member at council meetings in recent years has given him the edge to win this November. He has been endorsed by Councilman Michael Cathcart, former City Council President Steve Corker, politically active businessman Chud Wendle and a slate of former candidates for public office.

Arguelles, meanwhile, is new to politics. He is currently an architecture student at Washington State University and a medically retired Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape instructor for the U.S. Air Force whose private cigar lounge, Late Arrival Club, is set to open in August.

He believes Spokane is in a “downhill spiral” and that the current council and city administration need to be held accountable to measurable metrics for improving homelessness, public safety and other issues.

“We need to be able to have people on council that are held accountable and they’re transparent with where money is going, and that are driven by measurable goals, rather than just saying, ‘Hey, here’s a four-point plan to fix this,’ and then there’s no measurable metric,” Arguelles said.

After a short bout of homelessness early in his life, Arguelles acknowledged that he needed “compassion and sympathy” to help him back on his feet, but believes that city leadership is addressing the issue by “just throwing out, ‘Here’s housing,’ and then that’s it.”

Arguelles also believes that the city needs to streamline its system for business permitting, arguing that the red tape he navigated to start his business was onerous and unnecessary.

He has also been endorsed by Cathcart, as well as Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle, former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels and a slate of politically active businessmen including Chris Batten of RenCorp Realty, Dave Black of NAI Black and Bill Bouten of Bouten Construction.

Zappone is the first openly queer leader elected to the council and has spent much of his first term supporting reforms to increase housing density, advocating for pedestrians and bicyclists, trying to eliminate fares to ride Spokane transit and reducing barriers for community festivals and fairs.

In an interview, he also highlighted his work to help secure funding for CHAS health clinics in low-income high schools and for neighborhood business districts, which fund investments to benefit local businesses, as well as behind-the-scenes efforts to bring forward a compromise version of the failed 2023 jail proposal.

Though the progressive politician has frequently publicly clashed with conservatives in city government, he has also on occasion worked with them on policy. He and Bingle, a conservative, have traded barbs on the dais, but the two have also co-sponsored legislation, such as to relax parking requirements and potentially lower costs for new development near bus routes. Zappone joined others on the council to later expand that reform citywide.

“I’ve been reflecting on my first term, and I think that one area I’ve really come to understand better to be effective as a council member, is it really does take a lot of compromise to do stuff,” Zappone said. “Being an advocate or activist really pushing for a position, I think that’s an important role, but I’m much more pragmatic than purist in my approach.”

Zappone has been endorsed by Brown, the current and former members of the council’s liberal majority, state Sen. Marcus Riccelli and Democratic Spokane County Commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan.

Primary election ballots will be mailed to registered voters beginning Wednesday. Ballots are due on Election Day, Aug. 5. The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 4 election.