City Council Considers More Review Of Charter Suggestions By Citizens Group May Not Do Enough, Some Say

Spokane’s city charter needs major reconstructive surgery, not a simple face lift, several City Council members say.

Translation: The eight-month review of the charter recently done by a citizens committee is likely to be forwarded to another committee for more review.

The council met Wednesday with Community Partners to discuss the group’s recommended charter changes. Some council members worried the nine-point proposal doesn’t go far enough.

“What I’m concerned about is that we’re approaching this almost on a piecemeal basis,” said Mayor Jack Geraghty. For changes to win voter approval, the city must “take a major step forward at modernization of the charter.”

“I think we should fine-tune this charter into a two-page kind of thing,” said Councilwoman Roberta Greene, adding that the current charter, which runs 19 single-spaced pages, is inflexible. “Everything else should flow into ordinances.”

Committee members began their review of the charter in October, when the council asked the group to look at four areas: charter provisions that govern parks and commissions, civil service and unions, the initiative process and elected representation.

The committee came back this month with several recommendations, including that the charter be changed to:

Allow privatization of ongoing city services as long as restrictions are negotiated with Civil Service, city administrators and affected unions.

Require five council members to be elected by districts, while the mayor and vice mayor would be elected at-large.

Require legal review of citizenproposed initiatives before signatures are gathered. Petition sponsors would have six months to gather signatures totaling at least 15 percent of the voter turnout in the last general election.

Geraghty and other council members lauded the committee for completing the assignment. But after reviewing the work, they wondered how a package of unrelated charter amendments would fare with voters.

Only three of the last 18 proposed charter amendments have won voter approval.

“There is a larger picture here than we originally thought,” Geraghty said.

Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes said the council “felt a sense of urgency” to review the charter after a strong-mayor initiative proposed by attorney Steve Eugster won healthy support at the polls, even though it lost.

But committee members found little community-wide interest in the charter - except among specific groups such as city employees worried about Civil Service changes.

“If we’re talking about upgrading it, it shouldn’t be in pieces,” Holmes said.

The council may decide to take one or two of the committee’s proposed changes to voters, she said, adding the group’s review will be used as a starting point for more study.

Committee chairwoman Judith Gilmore said she wasn’t disappointed by the council’s response. Neither the council nor committee members realized how onerous the charter review process would be, she said, adding that the more they dug, the more problems they found.

“We felt a rush while working on it,” Gilmore said. “If it becomes part of a larger plan, that makes more sense. “We will make sure it doesn’t get lost.”

, DataTimes