Small-town issues front and center in Fairfield

Times are changing in Fairfield, a town of nearly 600 nestled in the Palouse 40 minutes south of Spokane.

Historically, the town was considered rural. There weren’t many businesses – just enough to meet people’s basic needs with a hardware store, grocery, pharmacy and doctor’s office.

Now, it’s a bedroom community to Spokane. People commute into town for almost everything.

That change has transformed Fairfield in some ways from a tight-knit community where neighbors bumped into each other at the store to one where passing each other on the road into town is more common, residents said at the League of Women Voters candidate forum Wednesday night.

Like in many small towns, it’s a struggle to fill elected positions and few people show up to council meetings. But Wednesday, the Fairfield Community Center was packed with more than 65 people in attendance sparking hope of a more community-minded future.

“I want to kind of see some continuation of the work that was started,” CJ Livingston, a town resident, said ahead of the forum.

“A lot of things in town need to be repaired,” said Tracy Bench, who came to the forum with Livingston.

The mayoral race has been contentious, with current town council member Dave Rafferty running against Derek Knecht, who was fired from the town’s public works department. Both men entered the race when Mayor Val Rogers opted not to run for a new term after nearly two decades of service on the town council.

Both Livingston and Bench said they hoped to hear from the candidates for mayor and get some of the rumors and controversy resolved.

“I like this town, and it’s very two-sided and it’s getting old and it needs to stop,” Bench said.

Instead, they want to focus on encouraging businesses like a pharmacy to move back into town. Livingston’s husband recently left the town council due to health issues. She recalled one recent day when he drove the 35 miles into Spokane to pick up a prescription, only for it not to be ready like expected.

“We need some new excitement here in town,” Bench said.

She said she wanted the forum to be a chance for all sides to be aired out. She wanted “everybody to get along, talk and agree to disagree,” Bench said.

But Knecht didn’t show up to the forum, leaving one side silent.

The Knecht family has been the subject of continued allegations that they’ve harassed town employees. The same issues reared their head in 2017 when Knecht’s father unsuccessfully ran for mayor. Back in 2017, the elder Knecht said he’d been unfairly fired, and that Fairfield officials were slandering him and his son, and purposely delaying release of records that could clear him before the election.

The younger Knecht who is on the ballot this year has not returned several requests for comment from The Spokesman-Review since filing to run for office.

Other candidates at the forum included Brady Collinson, Bill Enzler and Amanda Blood, who are all running unopposed for town council seats. Cynthia Davidson and Diane Kooyman were also in attendance as they vie for council position three.

All the candidates were asked how they would deal with harassment of town employees. Most said that any issues need to be documented according to current processes, and law enforcement notified if applicable.

They also addressed conflict in town.

“Sometimes we just need to listen,” Rafferty said. “The end result may be the same. People want to go different ways.”

All of the candidates present Wednesday said they would like to build community in town and have more input from citizens.

At most town council meetings, only one or two people attend, Blood said. She believes that’s due in part to how long meetings are, sometimes droning on for two-plus hours.

Rafferty agreed that meetings could be shorter.

All the candidates also agreed that updating and maintaining town infrastructure is a key duty of the council.

Rafferty hopes to use grants to update the sewer and water systems.

“We need to utilize more of those grants that are designed to help rural communities rebuild their infrastructure,” he said. “It’s not something that we can do in a year or two.”

Ensler disagreed about the grants and said the community just needs to come together to fix things.

“We don’t need a grant,” he said. “I think we just need to get the community more involved.”

The candidates also discussed agreements with nearby towns to share services. Most candidates agreed the positive is cost savings, but the negative is a loss of control over how those services are administered.

Rafferty said the council has discovered many of these agreements don’t have the details ironed out and are based on old handshake deals. He hopes to review the contracts to make sure they meet the town’s current needs.

While candidates complained about the lack of community input to council, attendance at Wednesday’s event was larger than any other forum that the league has put on this fall, said Elaine Harger, a board member of the League of Women Voters of the Spokane Area.

Some attendees left a bit disappointed, though.

Kay Kjack came out to see what everyone had to say. She said she learned a lot, but not in the mayoral race since Knecht wasn’t there.

“Well, you don’t get to see the other side by any means,” Kjack said.

“So you go with what you know. If you don’t know the other side, how can you vote for what you don’t know?”