If you're looking for work, there may be a job opening at Spokane City Hall this summer.
The position: interim City Council member.
The role is currently filled by Council President Pro Tem Lori Kinnear, who's term is up at the end of the year. But Kinnear's District 2 seat might become vacant early. That's because Council President Breean Beggs will be leaving his seat early and taking on a new role as a Spokane County Superior Court judge "sometime in July."
Someone will have to fill in until a new president is elected in November, and Beggs says it will likely be Kinnear.
Anyone from City Council is eligible for the temporary council president role. But Council member Betsy Wilkerson, who is running to replace Beggs as president, says she doesn't want it. In addition to being too busy, she doesn't want people to think she's trying to tip the scale as campaign season kicks off.
Taking the temporary position also means giving up your current seat. That's not appealing for council members who still have a few years left in their term, so that leaves Kinnear and Karen Stratton, who reach their term limits at the end of this year. Stratton doesn't want it, so that leaves Kinnear.
If Kinnear takes the job, her District 2 seat would be open, and the council will have to start an application and interview process, and vote on someone from that district to take over for five months.
"There's no promise of anything, except you get five months on the rock pile, five months of hard labor," Kinnear says, not making the job sound very appealing.
As she suggests, there's no honeymoon period. Whoever gets the gig will have to hit the ground running immediately — learning the ins and outs of city business and navigating a politically charged election season. They'll be expected to answer for everything that's wrong with Spokane. And it's all temporary.
Kinnear says she's been racking her brain, but has yet to identify someone who is both qualified and would actually want the job.
"I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here, I'm just being realistic," Kinnear says.
Beggs says the appointee very likely won't be someone currently running for office. "We don't like to get political that way," he says.
Come November, whoever is elected president — Wilkerson, Kim Plese or Andy Rathburn, the only people who filed to run this year — would take over the role immediately. If it's Wilkerson, she'll give up her District 2 seat, and the council will have to make another appointment for someone to fill in for the two years left in her term.
Kinnear's feelings about taking on the role of council president are complicated — a combination of excitement and "somebody has to do it." The job comes with a lot of extra work.
"Some of the things that I wanted to get done this year might not get done. Or I'd have to ask somebody else to do it," Kinnear says. "There's just not enough time in the day."
Kinnear also has mixed feelings about Begg's early exit. They've worked together for seven years.
"When people leave, it's painful," Kinnear says. ♦
