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There were no disincorporation picket signs or anti-city petitions at last Thursday’s “Spotlight on Cities” presentation hosted by the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Speaking to friendly crowd comprised mostly of government officials and representatives of the local business community, Spokane Valley Mayor Richard Munson delivered a speech that addressed many of the criticisms brought on by a group currently gathering signatures to put the incorporation vote back on the ballot.
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| Spokane Valley Mayor Richard Munson was the keynote speaker at last Thursday’s “Spotlight on Cities” presentation sponsored by the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce. Similar events featuring Liberty Lake and Millwood are scheduled for later this year. |
The April 9 event at the Mirabeau Park Hotel was the first in a series of three chamber-sponsored programs focusing on the history and composition of three area cities – Spokane Valley, Millwood and Liberty Lake. Chamber President and CEO Eldonna Shaw said the objective is to provide each city with an opportunity “to talk about their priorities and goals.”
“We thought it would be a good idea,” Shaw said. “We wanted to do something for each of the communities we serve. Each of these cities is different in their own way.”
Liberty Lake Mayor Wendy Van Orman will speak at the Valley HUB on Thursday, May 21, in the next installment of the series. The event is scheduled to run from 6 to 8 p.m. Shaw said the Millwood presentation will likely be on June 6 with Mayor Dan Mork as the featured speaker. The date and time will be confirmed later this month.
All but two members of the Spokane Valley City Council – Steve Taylor and Gary Schimmels – were present for last Thursday’s program along with a handful of city staff. In addition to Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke, representatives from the Central Valley and West Valley school districts along with Spokane Valley fire commissioners, were also in attendance.
Munson made it clear from the outset that citizen participation continues to be an integral part of effective city government.
“Everything we do, year by year, is dedicated to achieving this vision of making Spokane Valley a better place to live,” Munson said. “Unless you’re a part of this and attend our meetings, we can’t do our job.”
The mayor described how the city has been working with the Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize a wastewater plant discharge permit by the end of 2009. Munson and other area leaders continue to emphasize the critical nature of having a new treatment plant on-line by 2014 – the year current capacity is expected to run out.
“I’m sure the county commissioners will join me in our concern about the wastewater issue,” Munson said.
While relations with county officials have improved since the fallout over snow removal services earlier this year, Munson reiterated that the city is committed to re-evaluating each contract “to ensure that a backup is in place.”
As for installing a new snow removal service – Spokane Valley’s contract with the county is officially up on Oct. 12 – Munson said the city “will not do a haphazard job.”
“I pledge to you we will have snow removal in place,” he said.
In response to what Munson described as “the controversy over the growth of the budget,” the mayor talked about how the city continues to benefit from a slew of state and federal grants. Capital improvement projects – from the replacement of the Barker Street Bridge to the resurfacing of area roads – are funded from outside sources to the tune of 80 percent, on average, with the city picking up the remaining 20 percent.
“What that means is that your taxes are coming right back to Spokane Valley,” Munson said.
The mayor went on to break down the amount of property taxes paid by the average citizen to support muncipal services such as road repair and law enforcement. Using the example of a housed valued at $164,000, Munson said an average of just $20 a month goes to the city with another $3 from a phone tax earmarked for road repair.
“People say the city is too expensive, that we ask for too much money,” Munson said. “I think that’s a pretty good bargain.”
The city plans to have a number of new parks projects in the works soon, Munson added. In addition to Discovery Park near the CenterPlace Regional Event Center at Mirabeau Point, a new green space is slated for Greenacres. A series of improvements are also currently underway at Valley Mission Park.
The mayor provided a brief overview of city staffing – the payroll for the seventh largest city in Washington now includes 89 full-time and 22 part-time employees – applauding municipal workers for what he called “the highest level of service that Spokane Valley has seen in a long time.”
While Munson acknowledged that the uncertainty over the Appleway right-of-way has muddled some of the details related to the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan, he expressed hope that the document outlining a resurgent strategy for the city’s main corridor “should be completed this spring or summer.”
Munson described how the cost of the SARP – often quoted at $41 million – is also tied into the extension of Appleway from University to Evergreen, a project representing $18 million of the overall price tag. Funding for the work would come from federal and possibly state sources, Munson added, with citizens only being asked to cover “a fraction of the costs.” Even that would be put on a ballot, Munson said.
“There will be opportunities for the public to vote on it, just like they did for the library,” he said.
Shaw said there was “a lighter turnout than expected” for the first event in the series, but added that Munson’s talk shed light on a number of topics addressed by those who support disincorporation.
“I thought there was some excellent information on how the city is run,” she said. “I wish more of that was out in the public. If it was, I think critics of the city would have less to go on.”
Spokane Valley City Council Member Bill Gothmann said he plans to attend programs spotlighting Liberty Lake and Millwood in upcoming months as a way to “learn about how we can coordinate with surrounding cities.”
“I think events like this help cities work together more efficiently,” Gothmann said. “They also help people to understand how cities are actually run.”
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By
Craig Howard
