Letters for Sunday, Oct. 5

Kate Telis for City Council

A new, fresh voice has appeared in Spokane City politics. Kate Telis is a bright, engaging lawyer who is running for Spokane City Council, District 2, my district, and I am voting for her on Nov. 4. A wife, mother of two, she is an experienced lawyer who can hit the ground running because of her civic engagement and experience. She was a finalist in the recent Board of Education District 81 member appointment, and her two children are enrolled in the public schools of Spokane. She served as an assistant district attorney in California where she lived previously before her move to Spokane to be her “forever home.” She is endorsed by the Sierra Club and the Spokane Regional Labor Council as well as Spokane Firefighters Union Local 29.

I met Kate and discussed District 2 issues with her. She is the real thing and is the same in public as she is in private. She is a kind, decent human being concerned about all Spokane residents where she says: “We all belong.” Please join me in voting for Kate Telis, for Spokane City Council, District 2. She will do us proud.

George Taylor

Spokane

On behalf of our children

Let me congratulate Spokane voters for consistently supporting our children, schools and families through continued and vigorous passing of school levies and capital bond elections! Additionally, we should be proud of civic accomplishments few communities can exclaim, for example the 1974’s World’s Fair, Bloomsday, Hoopfest, University District with two medical schools!

Many believed these community achievements would not happen or could not be sustained. Guess what? Spokane can!

This November, one of the most creative bond initiatives in our history will be offered for your approval. This collaboration between Spokane Public Schools and Spokane Parks and Recreation, Together Spokane, means funding more than 200 community and school projects, strengthening neighborhoods, improving public health and supporting economic growth. This is truly about Spokane’s future.

Your support has accomplished significant statewide accolades for innovation in our curriculum, state and national recognition of programs. and award-winning faculty and staff over decades. Across the state, districts are envious of Spokane’s consistent “yes” for levies and bonds expanding opportunities for all students, including our most needy to our talented and gifted.

Dependable voter support of expanding preschool, full-day kindergarten, smaller class size and extracurricular programming has been a hallmark made possible by our caring voter culture. In two weeks, we have another transformative opportunity to say “Yes for Kids” in Spokane! Vote “yes” for schools and “yes” for parks.

I encourage each of you to study this visionary opportunity and continue our culture of caring by voting yes twice.

Gary Livingston

Spokane

Vote ‘yes’ twice

The Together Spokane school bond and parks levy on the Nov. 4 ballot is a refreshing break from much of what currently consumes our news feeds. This effort is a great example of local resources collaborating to benefit our community and create much more value than either could do on their own. While partisan politics divide us on so many issues these days, the undeniable value of the Together Spokane opportunity has attracted bi-partisan support!

It’s so encouraging to see local leaders on both sides of the aisle (including the Spokane County Republican Party chair, City Council members, former and current state Democratic senators, as well as the former and current mayors) vocally supporting these ballot initiatives. In addition to the bipartisan endorsements, local and national organizations (such as SYSA, Boys & Girls Club, Hoopfest, National Tennis Association – just to name a few) have endorsed and are collaborating to make Spokane a better place to live.

As a frequent parks user, Spokane Public Schools alum, and current SPS parent, I energetically support the school bond and parks levy. While the parks levy only needs 50% to pass, in Washington state, bonds must pass with a 60% super majority. We need both ballot measures to pass to realize these great benefits of the parks and schools’ collaboration. Sadly, it seems rare these days to see more than 60% of people agree on anything. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to vote “yes” (twice!) for parks and schools on the upcoming ballot!

Megan Hinnen Read

Spokane

Padden helps make Valley a great place to live

The city of Spokane Valley has some great things going on and Councilwoman Laura Padden has been a part of making them happen.

The city is solvent and not in debt. Compare this to Spokane and Spokane County. According to recent articles, both have estimated deficits in the tens of millions! Despite the last few years of runaway inflation, regulatory burdens and state and federal unfunded mandates, Spokane Valley managed to make improvements all within existing revenue. The city funded10 new police officers. It funded the expansion of Balfour Park with more to come, added sports courts and a splash pad to Greenacres Park, and maintained a full complement of summer programs for the children of Spokane valley.

To bring sports tourism to town, it built an amazing cross country track that has the sports world buzzing and signing up for upcoming events.

To improve emergency responses and ensure the timely flow of traffic, the city was able to finish the Barker Road/grade separation and started the Pines/Trent project. We need trains but they do stall traffic.

Is there more to do? Yes, there’s always more to do, but so much has been accomplished during challenging financial times. I have known Laura for several years and she is practical, she is smart, and she is honest. She listens. That is why we need to keep Laura Padden on the City Council to keep Spokane Valley a great place to live.

Marvel Travis

Spokane Valley

What are your priorities?

In response to my query regarding the rationale for placing National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., Michael Baumgartner responded this past week by parroting the president’s nonsensical proclamations of rampant lawlessness in major cities. He further proudly recited statistics about the Guard’s activities in our nation’s capital:

“As of September 8, Guardsman has cleared 906 bags of trash, spread 744 cubic yards of mulch, removed five truckloads of plant waste, and cleared 3.2 miles of roadway. Task Force Beautification has carried out 60 cleanup projects, primarily focused on trash removal, with plans to shift toward revitalization and community outreach initiatives. “

While these may be worthwhile civic activities, they seem to be a waste of the National Guard’s time and resources and a distraction from any law enforcement activities. Is this what is valuable to our congressman? How about advocating for the citizens of the 5th District with demands to the Department of Defense to promptly remedy the PFAS contamination from Fairchild Air Force Base now rather than in perhaps eight years or meaningfully work to safeguard the health services of our most vulnerable community members?

Congressman Baumgartner, where are your priorities?

Daniel R. Muhm

Spokane

Baumgartner needs to stand up

Our Constitution is unraveling before our eyes. Our military is weakened by a megalomaniac, our public health system has been taken over by paranoid conspiracy theorists, and our relations with our friends around the world are severely damaged. Our adversaries are laughing at us. Major figures in the administration believe democracy is an outdated concept.

What is Michael Baumgartner doing to defend our country against these attacks from within our own government? When the times call for courage, he hunkers down and hopes this will blow over. We need him, and every member of Congress, to stand up. He’s just sitting down watching.

Paul Throne

Spokane

Doctor shortage

The best prescription for Idaho’s chronic doctor deficit is un-electing the legislators who consigned our state to the dark ages of medicine. Until the infectious reverberations of red-cell conservatism, competent doctors willingly crossed the borders into Idaho to share their skills. Now there is an exodus of those doctors over the same borders because their professional oaths and ethics have been threatened by promiscuous politics.

Govenor Little appointed a task force to waltz around the problem of physician shortages. It lamely places the blame for our 50th rating of doctors-per-capita on the lack of medical school partners to fill the vacancies. There is no harm in researching other training facilities (beside the successful WWAMI), but can we please just stop the bleeding and focus on the obvious, gaping wound that created this state-wide emergency?

Between 2020-2023, three bitter-pill legislative bills were approved to remove medical procedures and choices from Idahoans. The precedent freedom of personal reproductive decisions was replaced with bureaucratic meddling. The right of doctor/patient privacy was curtailed. Restrictive, punitive measures were forced on those practicing the science of wellness.

Doctors take the Hippocratic pledge to support good, appropriate wellness– not pander to hypocritical legislators. Most of Idaho’s elected “representatives” are pregnant with ignorance and arrogance. Their ongoing mission of political malpractice needs to be aborted to save the mother state.

Shelley Dumas

Grangeville