Prop. 4 Fails

The first 44,000 ballots counted in Tuesday’s general election saw three out of every four Spokane voters reject a proposal to add a Community Bill of Rights to the City Charter.

Proposition 4, as the Bill of Rights is known on the ballot, was failing 24,490 to 8,095, according to early returns released Tuesday night. The county elections department has 40,000 more ballots to count.

“It’s pretty clear the voters got the message that this is a very expensive proposal that went beyond the edge of reason,” says former County Commissioner Kate McCaslin, leaning in close in order to be heard over the buzz of conversation at Press, a sleek South Hill martini bar where opponents of Prop. 4 gathered to watch election returns.

Meanwhile, supporters of Envision Spokane — the coalition that crafted Prop. 4 in nearly two years of meetings and then drummed up signatures to place it on the ballot as an initiative — gathered at the Peaceful Valley home of their main benefactor, Jim Sheehan.

The mood was more gallows humor as people arrived in twos and threes just before the election results were dropped at 8 pm.

“It’s 0-0. We’re still in it,” was the recurring joke.

“We were under no illusions,” says Tom Linzey. The fact that you’ve got $350,000 spent against the campaign — we were outspent 4 to 1 — I don’t think we’re under any illusion we can squeak it out.”

The Envision crowd was even expecting a defeat on the order of 65-35, he says, “which is unusual for a campaign. Usually people come in and say, ‘We’re going to win, we’re going to win,’ and then they don’t and they go home and don’t do anything any more. These guys are ready to do something more.”

Brad Read, the Spokane high school teacher who formed Envision Spokane out of frustration at land-use decisions that struck him as weighted against neighborhood interests, says the Bill of Rights will return in a modified form.

During the campaign, Mayor Mary Verner told The Inlander that, while she opposed Prop. 4 as too costly to the city, she respected the passion, the frustration at the status quo and the grassroots organizing that drove the measure onto the ballot.

She said she intends to meet with Prop. 4 supporters after the election to see how some of the initiatives goals — such as
affordable housing or prevailing wages or land-use decisions can be addressed without changing the City Charter.

Rich Hadley, president and CEO of the chamber of commerce, Greater Spokane, Incorporated, also made overtures to Linzey and Read in October to all sit down and talk things over once the election dust has settled.

Hadley reiterated that offer Tuesday night at Press and says the seemingly lop-sided trouncing of Prop. 4 doesn’t change that.

“I think the mayor’s instincts are good — we should sit down and have a discussion about what issues are important to the people of Envision.”

As head of GSI, Hadley campaigned strongly against Prop. 4, arguing that it would cripple business in Spokane. But he adds, “We are a business group, but we are also a community group and we care about what’s important for the community.”

Olive branches may not be easy to hand out, however.

The Community Bill of Rights grew out of deep frustration with “business as usual” in Spokane. And Read says he is wary of joining the mayor and GSI for discussion.

“Every impulse in the political world is to work for shared solutions, partnerships, stakeholders… I don’t want to say
cooperation is never a good thing, but what they’re going to ask for is cooperating with them to perpetuate a system that benefits them,” Read says.

He adds that there has already been informal discussion among Envision members to make a second run.

“These issues are too important. This is not a one-time shot. This is a long-term organizing effort because, at the base if it, this is all about making a healthy more sustainable community. Even if we don’t win tonight that passion isn’t going to go away.”