Candidates for Spokane Valley City Council, Position 5
Candidates for Spokane Valley City Council, Position 5
PAMELA HALEY
Age: 60
Political experience: Served on the Spokane Valley City Council since she was appointed a year ago. Campaigned for Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, for many years.
Work experience: Self-employed for 25 years; owns Rainbow Connection daycare in downtown Spokane, and is part owner of two other childcare facilities. Part owner of Paint and Pints, also in downtown Spokane.
Education: Graduated from Central Valley High School in 1975. Obtained a master’s degree in business administration from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa, in 2000. Earned master’s degree in education from Capella online university, in 2010.
Family: Married for 32 years, no children.
Top priorities if elected: Haley would like to find a way to better recruit and retain police officers, perhaps by Spokane Valley offering a hiring bonus.
She said it’s very important to keep roads in good shape. She said before a funding solution can be chosen, the roads must be assessed carefully so the total cost can be determined.
Haley said the city must continue to bring “good wage-paying jobs to Spokane Valley” especially to the newly expanded industrial park.
ANGIE BEEM
Age: 48
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Is on disability. Last job was in a microbiology laboratory at a local hospital.
Education: Graduated from Wenatchee Valley High School in 1986. Graduated from Wenatchee Valley College in 2000 with an associate degree in applied sciences. Earned bachelor’s degree in visual communication and digital design online from American Intercontinental University, and an MBA with focus on operations management also from American Intercontinental in 2011.
Family: Single, no children.
Top priorities if elected: Wants to establish an ethics commission within city hall, because she believes Spokane Valley’s ethics policy isn’t tough enough and politicians “should be held accountable by a somebody.”
Beem wants to overhaul the city budget and cut spending. For instance, city council members shouldn’t have what she calls “Cadillac health insurance” for the part time job they have.
And she wants to clean up nuisance properties more swiftly and efficiently, as well as help those who are drug addicted and homeless. “It’s our job to take care of our residents,” she said.
INGEMAR LLOYD WOODS
Age: 56
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Prior to becoming an educator at Apollos University in Great Falls, Montana, he worked in oil fields and as a construction laborer.
Education: He had four years of primary education because his parents were migrant farm workers and moved a lot. Obtained a GED in 1983. Attended Oregon State University from 1999-2001. Obtained a bachelor’s degree online in 2008 from Nations University. Graduated from Liberty University Seminary in 2010. Obtained a doctorate in business administration from Apollos in 2016.
Family: Married for 12 years and brought together eight children from previous marriages.
Top priorities if elected: Woods would like to bring back what he calls “the culture of people.” He wants the city to invest in its people like it invests in infrastructure.
He would like to start a city sponsored summer job shadowing program, allowing young people to shadow police, fire and city department heads, perhaps combined with a mentoring program.
Woods wants to continue the push for economic development. “If people are employed it naturally reduces crime,” he said.
Criminal history: Woods was convicted of four attempted murder charges in 1993 after he was accused of shooting at police. He was sentenced to seven years, and served five in Jackson County, Oregon. In 2002 he was convicted of second-degree burglary, also while intoxicated, in Stevens County and spent 13 months in prison.
ROBERT “ROCKY” J. SAMSON
Age: 47
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Bricklayer, cab driver. Has owned Checker Cab in Spokane Valley since 2014. Also owns Rocky’s Flea Market on Pines Road and Third Avenue.
Education: Graduated from Lincoln Park High School, in Michigan in 1987; apprenticed as master bricklayer through the bricklayers union in Detroit starting in 1988.
Family: Divorced. Has custody of one daughter.
Top priorities if elected: Samson wants ride share companies Uber and Lyft to be regulated like cab companies. He wants Spokane Valley to adopt the same regulations as cities like Seattle that requires ride share companies to carry higher insurance and be licensed.
He would like to do something for homelessness in Spokane Valley, perhaps by expanding the reach of the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane Valley. He’d like to get a vagrancy law put in place requiring all homeless to have ID and an address.
Street preservation also is a priority to Samson, who’d like to make sidewalks mandatory along all roads in Spokane Valley.
Criminal history: Samson is on inactive court supervision until May stemming from a Class D felony charge he accrued in connection with a furniture store bankruptcy in Kentucky in 2013. He was arrested on a fugitive from justice charge in Clearwater, Florida, also in 2013. Samson was extradited to Kentucky where he said he paid creditors. In 2013 and 2014, restraining orders were filed against him in Stevens County by his ex-wife, and ex-wife’s family, during a divorce and custody battle. Courts sided with Samson and awarded him custody over his daughter a year ago. He has about half a dozen unpaid speeding and traffic tickets, of which many have been sent to collection. He said he is protesting them in court. “I’m a cab driver, I get speeding tickets, that’s just how it is,” Samson said. He has never been convicted of a crime.