Outgoing Councilman Rod Higgins calls for Spokane Valley to create its own police department as he reflects on long career with city
A dominating force in Spokane Valley politics for more than a dozen years has stepped aside.
Councilman Rod Higgins joined the City Council on Feb. 5, 2013, when at age 70 he was appointed to complete a vacated term. That November, he was elected as a councilman for a four-year term and ever since then, Higgins has been sitting on the dais in Spokane Valley City Hall. He served as mayor twice, from 2016 to 2017 and again from 2018 to 2019, and was deputy mayor from 2022 to 2023. Before he was appointed to the city council, Higgins was a planning commissioner in the Valley for a year.
Higgins, who opted against running for a new term, attended his last council meeting on Dec. 23.
Outside of his political career, Higgins worked in mining and financial services. In his words, Higgins has done everything from holding a shovel to working in administration in the mining industry. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Idaho.
Higgins first won the seat with a bit of luck. He won the appointment for an empty council position in a coin toss after the other six council members cast three tie votes between the finalists, Higgins and Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council executive director Linda Thompson. Higgins was favored by the three more conservative members on the council.
He has since been a firm conservative voice on the council, but his vote was not always predictable. He cast one of only two votes in 2024 in favor of the city accepting a 1% increase in property taxes, for instance, saying the city needed to boost policing. (Last year he voted to reject the increase after voters approved an increase in sales tax for public safety.)
Arnie Woodard was elected to the Valley council in 2011 and worked with Higgins for 12 years on the city council. He considers Higgins his best friend. The pair of them get together once a week, more often during basketball season when they watch the Gonzaga games together.
“We love this city; we love what we’ve done together for it,” Woodard said. “Higgins is an incredibly intelligent guy who has a whole lot of experience with politicians.”
Woodard and Higgins often discuss city politics when they are together, and at times the conversation can get heated. Their disagreements can be passionate ones, but it has never stopped their friendship, Woodard said.
“I think that when Spokane Valley’s maturing and growth is written and analyzed, you will find what I deducted very early on while Higgins was mayor. He’s what Spokane Valley needed as a mayor. He’s what a Spokane Valley mayor ought to be like, and he certainly did his service to the city with a great amount of dignity and a lot of strong support for all citizens in the Valley, whether they voted for him or not.”
The future of
Spokane Valley policing
When Higgins was asked about his accomplishments, he noted that he was a part of the council when the new city hall was built, which he said he is very proud to have been a part of. And while Higgins’ work in the council is now finished, he still has a vision for the city’s future.
Higgins has urged the council to look into creating a Spokane Valley Police Department instead of renewing the city contract with the county, which ends at the close of 2027.
“Right now is the opportunity for the city to move to take charge of managing its law enforcement program,” Higgins said during a council meeting in November.
Higgins’ opinions on the Valley’s law enforcement follows the passage by city voters in August of a 0.1% sales tax increase to fund more law enforcement equipment and deputies. The Valley’s police department has 118 officers now, Spokane Valley Police Chief Dave Ellis said in November. In January last year, the department had 108 officers. The Valley will begin hiring 11 new police officers on Jan. 1 as a result of the tax boost.
According to Higgins, the Valley will have grown its police force by 20% by the end of 2026. At the same time, Higgins said the Valley’s police costs through the county have gone up $16 million in the past five years.
“There is no way city revenues can sustain that rate, nor can we sensibly cut other costs to keep up. Something’s got to give,” Higgins said. “Our city contracts where it makes sense financially, but we cannot afford 11% cost increases every year.”
If the council does not ultimately choose to end its contract with the county, Higgins said he would question their priorities. In previous interviews, every council member, including the newly elected Mike Kelly, has said their first priority is public safety.
“That’s the default answer,” Higgins said. “They say it because everyone else is saying it … The problem is, control is missing. It’s our police department, but we do not control it.”
At the very least, Higgins encouraged the council to negotiate a contract with annual caps and limits on additional price increases without council approval.
“We’ll never really be in control until we have our own police department, with our own police chief and our own police officers under the direct control of our city manager. Until the city is in control of its own police department it does not realistically control its first obligation to its citizens: public safety,” Higgins said.
Mayor Pam Haley said it is clear Higgins wants cost containment and believes that can happen if the Valley creates its own police department.
“The whole point of us contracting through the county is that we save money. If we can’t save money by contracting, we may do something different,” Haley said in an interview.
Tim Hattenburg, the deputy mayor in the Valley, said a discussion about cost increases would be one worth having with the county, but he does not know if the Valley needs to create its own police department.
“I would not be for getting rid of the contract we have, but we do need to look at it,” Hattenburg said.
Councilman Al Merkel had a similar take to Hattenburg’s. Merkel and Higgins have had a tumultuous relationship on the council – on one occasion, Higgins called Merkel an expletive right after a break in an October council meeting.
“The city wants to grow and have more direct control,” Merkel said. “I am in favor of doing a better job contracting this time around.”
No regrets
Higgins said he does not have any regrets from his long political career in the city.
That includes his controversial comments on Rodney King that were reported by the Los Angeles Times while Higgins was mayor in 2019.
The Times reported that during a Northwest Grassroots meeting, Higgins said police should have shot Rodney King, an African American man who was severely beaten in 1991 by Los Angeles Police Department Officers after a high-speed chase. The officers who beat King were acquitted of almost all charges in a trial in 1992, but two of the four officers were found guilty in a separate federal civil rights trial in 1993.
“I thought the police at the time showed a remarkable amount of restraint,” Higgins said. “… The fact that the officers were acquitted in California tells you something.”
His comments at the meeting were not meant to be racially charged ones, Higgins said. In the end, Higgins said he wanted to make it clear that he supports police officers and their violent efforts in Kings case were “justified.”
“I don’t know a Rod Higgins who is prejudiced,” Woodard said. “If that had been a white man, Higgins would have said the same damn thing, and quite frankly, he was right.”
Time will tell what the council decides to do with Higgins’ advice on the police department, but one thing is for certain – Higgins will continue having long talks with Woodard about city politics, watch Gonzaga basketball and spend time with his family during his time off. For now, Higgins says the retirement from city politics is a relief and a much-needed break.
“I’ve got other things to do,” Higgins said.