Sue Lani Madsen: City breaking trust with voters over Prop 1

Government of the people, by the people, for the people means nothing when trust is broken by ignoring the people. When 74.66% of the voters of Spokane passed Proposition 1 in 2023, a mandate was handed to the government. The people expected action.

When the Spokane City Council voted 4-3 this week to defer indefinitely a resolution affirming the commitment of the city of Spokane to enforcing the people’s law, trust was broken.

Three council members objected to blocking Councilmember Jonathan Bingle’s resolution. Bingle was joined in his “no” vote by Councilmembers Michael Cathcart and Paul Dillon.

Many sensible sounding reasons were given at the legislative briefing session on Monday on why compliance with the people’s law is tough. Competing demands on staff time is a problem. Enforcement may have unintended consequences. There needs to be a more collaborative approach to addressing issues instead of criminalizing behavior. They are all excuses of the kind the city would never accept of the people or by the people who decided not to follow a law passed by the government.

Councilmember Zack Zappone said at the Monday briefing he wanted to “work on a more holistic approach” and needed administration’s support, which made it easy to assume Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration is not in support of enforcing Proposition 1.

That was exactly the point of Bingle’s resolution, to put to rest the feeling in the community that the city isn’t serious about enforcing the law passed by the people. “I offered to be a messenger to a rather large and loud group who are very frustrated by this,” Bingle said. In a follow up conversation this week he reiterated his intent to find a way to partner with the mayor for a win for the community, not just a symbolic statement. Deferring the resolution was “an incredulously disingenuous attempt to say we’re already doing this, this is unnecessary.”

Mayor Brown openly opposed the new law during her 2023 campaign. So did Dillon, but he recognizes the power of a vote of the people. In correspondence after the briefing he said “Prop 1 is law. While I disagreed with the ballot initiative in 2023, of course it is now enforceable, and I accept that. I understand the pressures behind the resolution and people’s frustrations and the pressures on everybody from providers to police to businesses and individuals experiencing homelessness themselves.”

Councilmember Kitty Klitzke, who also opposed Proposition 1 during her 2023 campaign, said during the briefing that the “reason this is coming forward is because there is an effort to imply this is not going on.”

Cathcart was on the other side. “When we have not been enforcing a law that the voters passed and they want to know that we are committed to enforcing it, this is exactly the kind of thing that could give them that confidence,” he said.

Whether there’s been enforcement is debatable, but it doesn’t take a council resolution to imply enforcement isn’t going on. Before the vote on deferring the resolution, Dillon described being out and about on the weekend and hearing people frequently asking why aren’t you enforcing Prop 1. It’s already a question in the minds of the people.

The council frequently conducts the business of the people by symbolic resolution. Resolution 2024-0062 was approved for the regular council meeting requesting the mayor use current funding from the Traffic Calming Fund to establish a Sidewalk Improvement and Repair Pilot Program. Requesting the mayor affirmatively commit to enforcing Proposition 1 isn’t out of line with past council actions.

Bingle’s resolution may have been a more symbolic statement than a suggestion on how to pay for sidewalk repair, but it addresses a substantial question of trust. “If it is being enforced and we intend to enforce it, what is the problem with making this statement?”

If Brown is serious about passing a sales tax increase for public safety in November 2024, it will take building trust across the public political spectrum. That includes the large, loud crowd of people who are increasingly frustrated by the perception of bad faith from the city administration in enforcement of the law they passed by an overwhelming majority vote in November 2023.

Bingle’s Spokane City Council resolution would have begun to build that trust, making it clear that councilmembers who had previously opposed Proposition 1 were on board with the people’s law and inviting the mayor to join them. Mayor Brown doesn’t have to wait for the council’s invitation to do the right thing and enforce the law.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.