Michael Cathcart is the only incumbent Spokane City Council member on this year's ballot. He says he's running for reelection because he wants to continue fighting for public safety and fiscal accountability in northeast Spokane's District 1.
Before becoming a council member, Cathcart worked as an aide for former Republican state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, who is now the county's treasurer. He also worked with the Spokane Home Builders Association and served as executive director of Better Spokane.
Cathcart is up against Lindsey Shaw, a progressive advocate who previously served as chair of the Logan Neighborhood Council. Shaw also served as a Community Assembly liaison for Spokane Parks and as a campus engagement coordinator for the Northeast Community Center.
"Once elected, I would definitely be bringing that neighborhood voice to the decision-making table, which I don't think is currently represented there," Shaw says.
District 1 covers much of northeast Spokane and is mostly bordered by Division Street to the west and I-90 to the south. The district has some of the city's highest poverty rates, and both candidates say it's been historically overlooked and under-resourced.
Shaw is a staunch progressive and has criticized Cathcart in her fundraising emails for describing himself shortly after he was elected as one of the most conservative voices on the City Council.
As a member of the council's two-person conservative minority, Cathcart is often outvoted by the City Council's five-person liberal supermajority. But he stresses that he's consistently been able to work with both sides to pass legislation. He highlights a number of recent collaborations with progressive council members, including his work with Council President Lori Kinnear on an upcoming resolution stating that the City Council will not be moving forward with fluoridating the water, and his collaboration with Council member Karen Stratton to require "good neighbor" agreements establishing expectations between homeless shelter operators and the surrounding community.
Cathcart also notes that his progressive colleagues chose him to serve as council president pro tem, allowing him to serve as president in Kinnear's absence.
"For a person in the minority, in their first term no less, to be named council president pro tem is a pretty significant step," Cathcart says. "It really indicates an ability to collaborate and work together."
PUBLIC SAFETY
The candidates disagree strongly on issues of homelessness and incarceration.
Cathcart, for example, supports Proposition 1, the November ballot measure that would criminalize camping within 1,000 feet of parks, playgrounds and child care facilities. He argues that it will protect children and families and help to direct people experiencing homelessness toward services.
"There should not be a debate around protecting children," Cathcart says.
Shaw is opposed to the proposed camping ban. She argues that many people experiencing homelessness have children.
"I understand that it's not always families camping, but I feel like it's really out of touch with what a lot of families are facing in the northeast," Shaw says.
Like every other progressive running for office this year, Shaw also opposes Measure 1, a county ballot measure that would raise the sales tax by 0.2% to fund a new jail and other public safety measures. Jail isn't always the answer, she says.
Cathcart supports the measure and argues that the money it will generate would help fund a number of much-needed public safety programs for the city. He says safety is by far the biggest concern he hears from constituents, and that his focus on the issue is part of what sets him apart from Shaw.
"I think there has to be accountability, there has to be a way for us as a community to be safe," Cathcart says.
Spokane's police department is understaffed and struggling to fill a number of vacancies. Cathcart says he wants to encourage more lateral hires for the department and reform the city's laws to allow it to be more targeted in its recruitment.
"There shouldn't be a reason that we can't go to, say, Seattle or Tacoma or Vancouver, Washington, and look at their publicly available records, identify their absolute best officers and say, 'Hey, we'd love to have you come work for us in Spokane,'" Cathcart says.
Shaw, however, says she wants to be more focused on local recruitment. She wants to see more youth-focused programs in local high schools that can encourage young people to pursue a career in law enforcement.
"Having somebody from the area become a police officer, maybe then they are not as scary and they're more of a helper," Shaw says.
HOUSING
Shaw says she's especially focused on issues of housing affordability and renter protections. She has a slate of proposals that include requiring six months notice before rent increases, streamlining the application process and capping security deposits to first month's rent.
Shaw criticizes Cathcart for voting against a landlord-tenant reform ordinance earlier this year that would've required landlords to give notice to tenants if the unit has a history of mold, meth or other contaminants. Cathcart argues that he had actually fought to include the language about notice for contaminants but was told by the city's legal department that the notice would face legal challenges.
"We had legal concerns over a number of the provisions in there," Cathcart says. "It went too far, it wasn't planned out well."
Cathcart stresses that he did end up voting for a different slate of landlord-tenant reforms that he feels go a long way toward holding bad landlords accountable without raising housing costs across the city.
Cathcart points to Spokane's Building Choices and Opportunity for All ordinance as one of his proudest first term accomplishments. The interim law, which is in the process of being made permanent, essentially legalized the construction of dense "missing middle" housing citywide.
Shaw says she isn't familiar enough with the specifics of the law to comment, but, in general, she says she wants to see development concentrated along the city's centers and corridors where infrastructure is already in place to support it. ♦
