Hession highlights growth

Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession on Monday said Spokane’s growing population, its downtown residential boom and an expansion of urban amenities means only one thing.

“We are the city of promise,” Hession said in the mayor’s annual state of the city address before the City Council. “No longer are we the city with potential waiting to be discovered. This is a bold statement by a community like ours and this institution and our citizens.”

“We are engaged in the plan for growth and development that this community has not seen since the early years of the last century, and it promises significant change and prosperity for our citizens.”

Hession used the speech to outline the city’s accomplishments in the 10 months since he was appointed to replace recalled Mayor Jim West, but he was careful to acknowledge city staff and council members who had helped.

Many of his staff were in the council chamber for the speech, including newly appointed police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, who said the mayor was right in pointing to Spokane’s “bright future.”

Hession said he is working to improve oversight of the Police Department and is awaiting results of external reviews into a police homicide of a disabled man and the resignation of a Spokane firefighter involved in a firehouse sex episode in which police allowed him to delete graphic photos from his camera. Both incidents occurred this year.

Hession said he wants to make the city more “transparent” in dealing with the public and in addressing conflict-of-interest issues.

Hession made no reference to his predecessor, who was removed by voters for using his position to solicit dates, nor to a new ethics code or city recall process implemented after West’s departure.

Relations between Hession and Spokane’s county commissioners have been strained over disputed jail costs, a city effort to annex tax-rich land on the North Side and long-standing disagreement over growth planning.

Hession focused his speech on the City Hall’s planning for economic development, not on the disputes over planning on the urban fringe.

“I’ve said it before. We are the city of promise,” Hession said in the defining theme of his speech.

Sales tax revenues have increased by 11 percent this year, and new employees are being hired in planning, building and construction services to help bring development projects to completion, including the large Kendall Yards project recently approved for the north bank of the Spokane River, he said.

“We are closely examining what it means to be a responsive, customer-driven organization,” he said.

But the city also must protect the environment, encourage multiple modes of transportation, conserve energy and promote healthy lifestyles, he said, calling for what he described as “smart growth concepts.”

While the city’s finances appear stable going into 2007, Hession is facing potential trouble next year as his appointment to the mayor’s office enters its final months. A two-year property tax levy, proposed by West and approved by voters last year, is set to expire in 2008. Hession may find himself having to ask voters to renew the property tax levy at the same time the mayor’s job goes on the ballot. Already, political figures are positioning themselves for a possible run for mayor’s job. Hession is reportedly considering a run.

George McGrath, a consistent City Hall critic and fiscal conservative, said Hession’s speech was filled with a lot of “hearts and flowers” but was silent on the need for sustained wage growth beyond the short-term benefit of new development, as well as a comprehensive response to traffic congestion spilling into neighborhoods as a result of that growth.