Spokane council and school board candidates talk issues during forum with three weeks left until election

Spokane City Council and school board candidates mingled with voters, disagreed thoughtfully and learned a few things about the city they hope to represent at a candidate forum Tuesday evening.

The event, called “Pints and Politics,” was hosted by The Spokesman-Review as a way to encourage civil political dialogue.

Candidates for three City Council races and one school board position answered questions posed by newspaper staff and audience members, with a break for trivia related to their districts.

In Northeast Spokane, Kate Burke, aide to Democratic state Sen. Andy Billig, faces off against Tim Benn, a day care center owner who ran for the state Legislature unsuccessfully in 2012 and 2014 as a Republican.

The pair agreed that public safety is a top concern for constituents in the Hillyard area, but disagreed about the performance of the current council and mayor in addressing issues.

Benn said the council’s veto-proof liberal majority was focusing too much on hot-button national issues.

“The No. 1 concern I hear is property crime and drug addiction and I just don’t see our City Council addressing that,” he said.

Both want more police officers in the city, but Burke said more robust public services are needed to address the root causes of crime.

“I see the real problems as mental illness and drug addiction,” she said.

She also criticized Mayor David Condon for his handling of the sexual harassment allegations against former police Chief Frank Straub, which she said were thrown “under the rug.”

Benn said City Council President Ben Stuckart was “forceful” in a way that didn’t invite public testimony or questioning during council meetings and said he’d like to change the rules to give the public more opportunities to talk directly to their council members during open forums.

Neither candidate guessed the largest park in their district correctly during the trivia portion of the forum. After being told it was Minnehaha Park, Benn quipped, “Are you adding where all the squatters are?”

The Monroe Street “road diet,” which would reduce the arterial from five to three lanes, dominated discussion in the District 1 race. Incumbent Councilwoman Candace Mumm supports the project, which she framed as a safety issue.

“The neighborhood for 15 years has been trying to find a solution for the people who are injured and dying on that street,” she said.

The project has drawn opposition, including the threat of a $15 million lawsuit, from some businesses.

Mumm’s challenger, Matthew Howes, who owns a pizza restaurant, said he thought there were ways to improve safety on the corridor without cutting the number of lanes, which he said would cause congestion. Well-marked crosswalks like the ones on Hamilton Street near Gonzaga University would help, he said.

“There are several businesses that shut down in the Sprague corridor” during a similar road project, he said.

The two also disagreed about an audience question about how the council can address climate change. Howes said the council’s focus should be on local issues like infrastructure and public safety, while Mumm said wildfires and the resulting smoke over the summer show how local climate change is. She suggested walkable neighborhoods and high-density planning near health services as two things cities could do to help.

The District 2 race was perhaps the most contentious, with the two candidates debating a proposed city ordinance that would fine trains bringing volatile oil and coal through the city.

Breean Beggs, the incumbent councilman and civil rights lawyer, supports the ordinance but said it’s up to the city’s voters.

“The voters got the signatures, it’s not really a council issue,” he said.

His opponent, former park board member Andy Dunau, challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance, suggesting it would lead to costly litigation.

“Breean’s living in Breean’s world,” he said, responding to Beggs’ assertion that any litigation would be short and relatively inexpensive.

The two went back and forth over the details of constitutional law before talking about the Riverfront Park reconstruction project.

Dunau said soon after voters approved the bond for the reconstruction, park board members learned it would be significantly over budget.

“We found out that we’d had a very underbaked product we sold the public,” he said.

He said he advocated for being transparent with voters but was overruled by city staff and ultimately left the board because of it, something Beggs criticized him for.

“At the time we needed him there, he left and didn’t tell us why,” Beggs said.

For the Spokane school board, Mike Wiser, who was appointed to the seat about a year ago, disagreed with his challenger, Jennifer Thomas, about arming school resource officers.

Thomas said it takes police about three minutes to respond to a school in the event of a shooting, during which a shooter could “level a lot of students and faculty.”

Wiser said resource officers should focus on leading students to safety, and campuses should look at other security measures like locking doors after classes start.

“There’s no reason why we need to put guns into our schools,” he said.

Wiser said he supports allowing transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity.

Thomas said bathrooms and locker rooms were separate issues and all students needed to feel comfortable. She then said she supports gender neutral locker rooms for transgender students.

Thomas spoke passionately about supporting teachers to help reduce disproportionate discipline for students of color and special education students.

“There are a lot of parent educators and educators who are working with kids who have learning disabilities that aren’t trained specifically about their disabilities,” she said.

Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley said he was happy to see the turnout of about 200 people, and wanted to host similar community events in the future.

“We proved tonight that we can have thoughtful discussions that are even heated without yelling,” he said.