Letters for May 14

Stop complaining and help

I’m exasperated by the complaining and badgering that Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown and our City Council members must endure launched from supporters of past political opponents who lost so many months ago.

Are people forgetting the overspending mess we inherited from the previous administration? We started out $50 million dollars in the hole and the city was in chaos. Mayor Brown and the council have produced a two-year budget that addresses the shortfalls. The mayor has made difficult decisions to shore up our finances. She wisely closed the Trent center that the city could not afford, and did not meet the needs of the homeless. She managed to get additional funding from both the state and federal resources to help implement the scattered shelter model which is working. Yes, we still need more beds, and yes, it’s not perfect, but it’s turning things around. The mayor and council are now working to deal with additional expected shortfalls due to the new upcoming federal and state budget cuts.

Those in office now made these campaign promises and are following through: Something rare these days!

Remember it has only been a little over a year, and the past Republican-leaning mayors did 12 years of damage. I wish people would give our current mayor and our City Council a reasonable amount of time to do their difficult jobs in our current economy. Stop acting like sore losers; help with fixing our city and keeping it afloat.

Leslie Hope

Spokane

Local candidates: Look beyond single issues

Jim Camden’s recent Spin Control column (“For newly minted candidates, some things to think about,” May 11) offers crucial advice for aspiring local government officials that cannot be overstated. While passion often springs from a specific concern – whether it’s neighborhood potholes or school curriculum – successful candidates must dig deeper.

Camden rightly points out that municipal leadership is complex. A City Council member or school board candidate must understand far more than their initial motivating issue. The road to effective governance requires comprehensive knowledge of budgets, policy, community needs and intricate governmental processes.

Fortunately, Washington state provides robust resources for candidates seeking to expand their understanding. Organizations like the Association of Washington Cities, Municipal Research and Services Center, the Washington State Association of Counties and the Washington State School Directors’ Association offer invaluable guidance. These organizations provide:

• Detailed policy research.

• Leadership training.

• Legal insights.

• Networking opportunities.

• Comprehensive governance education.

Candidates who invest time in these resources demonstrate commitment beyond single-issue advocacy. They show voters they’re prepared to tackle the multifaceted challenges of local government.

As Camden suggests, success requires candidates to “bone up on as much as you can as fast as you can.” These statewide organizations are the perfect starting point for that essential preparation.

Michael A McCarty

Retired CEO Association of Washington Cities

Spokane

Keep public lands in public hands

In, arguably, the most capitalistic nation on Earth, all 340 million of us can say we own hundreds of millions of acres of federal public lands – our birthright. Yet, no one individual or special interest group can lay claim to those lands for themselves.

The current administration and Congress are aggressively undermining public lands, the agencies that manage them and the environmental protections that safeguard them. Years of flat or declining budgets have left these agencies underfunded and understaffed. Now, executive orders are further weakening departments responsible for land stewardship. Additional executive orders are designed to fast-track projects by bypassing decades-old environmental laws and regulations, as well as eliminating public input.

Project 2025 revealed their strategy: dismantle environmental protections, prioritize extraction (logging, mining, fossil fuels, grazing) over all other uses such as recreation, conservation, and habitat protection, and open the door to transferring public lands to states–where they could be sold.

In the Northwest, our public lands like Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and national forests such as Colville, Wenatchee and Kaniksu face increasing threats and are experiencing budget and staffing cuts, including the firing of hundreds of Forest Service workers, just as the fire season rapidly approaches. Visitors to our parks and forests may experience trash not picked up, and trails, boat launches, and restrooms in need of maintenance. The Army Corps of Engineers have already closed several campgrounds on the Snake River, due to insufficient staffing.

Call Congress and tell them – keep public lands in public hands.

Lon Ottosen

Fairfield