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Sometimes change happens quickly.
It certainly did Tuesday night for three sitting Spokane Valley City Council members.
While there are still votes to be counted – and final certification of ballots won’t happen until Nov. 24 – all indications point that the “Positive Change” group of candidates convinced the electorate to toss out sitting Council Members Diana Wilhite and Ian Robertson, along with Mayor Richard Munson.
In Position 5, Munson was trailing by nearly 2,400 votes to 4th District Republican state Sen. Bob McCaslin, who had nearly 59 percent. McCaslin – who says he will keep his job in Olympia and also be a council member – does not automatically become mayor. That job is appointed by the rest of the council.
Former Mayor Wilhite was down by nearly 200 votes Tuesday to Brenda Grassel, also running on the Positive Change ticket, in Position 1. Wilhite had nearly 47 percent to Grassel’s 53 percent.
But the most decisive victory came at Position 2, where Dean Grafos almost had more votes than his three opponents combined. Robertson, who was appointed to the council in August, only managed 3,310 votes to Grafos’ 6,369, for just over 25 percent. Other candidates, Edward Pace and Ed Foote, had less than 2,000 votes each.
Grafos will take office as soon as the results are certified later this month, while the McCaslin and Grassel will be sworn in after the first of January.
Positive Change colleagues McCaslin, Grassel and Grafos will join unchallenged candidates and affiliates Tom Towey and incumbent Gary Schimmels on the council. All have their concerns over the controversial Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan, which will now likely be modified or done away with altogether.
Of course, there were other issues – and candidates – on the ballot Tuesday.
In Liberty Lake, in Position 2, Cristella Kaminskas was trailing Josh Beckett by 65 votes, 550-495. Incumbent Odin Lanford had a comfortable 636-397 lead on challenger Jason Adelmann in Position 4. Ryan Romney ran unopposed at Position 6.
In Millwood, Council Members Richard Schoen, Brian Ellingson and Shaun Culler all ran unopposed. Mayor Dan Mork faced a write-in challenge by Dennis Hamlin, who only yielded 33 votes, with the incumbent netting 300.
Heidi Gillingham will take over for retiring June Sine in the East Valley School District school board race for District No. 3. Gillingham defeated Kay Sieck with nearly 61 percent of the vote.
Kerri Lunstroth will retain her District 4 spot in East Valley, fending off a challenge by Christie Burton-Hart with 57 percent. Roger Trainor will also stay on the school board, defeating Roger Cox 1,547-1,311.
In Central Valley, sitting school board members Tom Dingus and Anne Long were unchallenged.
Jeff Baxter – who ran an aggressive write-in campaign against Robert Dompier – got nearly 25 percent of the vote against the incumbent in the West Valley School District. Dompier will keep his school board job, along with unchallenged incumbents Jim Williams and Pam McLeod.
The local fire districts all also see their incumbents returning to the job, as there were no challengers.
In the Liberty Lake Sewer District race, incumbent Frank Boyle defeated challenger Darlene McHenry 896-615 and just over 59 percent.
Meanwhile, county voters joined those across the state in rejecting Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033, which would restrict the amount of revenue that cities, counties and the state could collect. Spokane County voters were rejecting the measure by just over 57 percent on Tuesday, as compared to just over 55 percent across the state.
Locally, county voters were rejecting Referendum 71, which would expand legal protection for same-sex and senior couples. County voters were against the measure by just over 60 percent. Statewide, however, the referendum was narrowly moving to approval by just over 51 percent.
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By
Mike Huffman
