Ormsby owes us a debate

Given our appalling property crime situation, does anyone else think Timm Ormsby should stop avoiding a debate with Dave Lucas and explain his role in stopping SB5539 (it would have created a Community Supervision Program for Spokane)? It had already passed the Senate, but Timm, as budget chair for House Appropriations Committee, chose not to support it.

David Condon has said he was upset at not getting a courtesy call from Timm to explain that the bill would die in committee. According to the mayor, if he’d known in time, he could have found the funds needed to implement such a program in Spokane.

Timm’s been in office for 15 years now, and our crime picture has not exactly improved. He’s never personally sponsored a crime bill, but in 2017-18, he secondary sponsored HB1088 (enables vacation of multiple misdemeanor convictions) and HB1783 (limits interest on court imposed fines). Both bills were great news for those convicted, but did nothing to help law-abiding citizens and victims.

Timm had the influence and opportunity to try out a program for monitoring repeat offenders in Spokane, but he chose not to. Word-count limits a fuller explanation, but clearly we are owed a public debate.

Ron Devonport

Spokane