Last week, Larry Stone met with Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown to share big news.
After years of frustration with city leaders' response to his concerns about homelessness and crime, Stone is forming the Spokane Business Association — a 501 (c)(6) nonprofit organization of businesses across the city that will hire a CEO, host fundraisers and lobby elected leaders.
"I've been aware that Spokane business doesn't have a voice for several years now," Stone tells the Inlander. "It's just become super clear to me in the last few months that we need to do something."
Stone, a prominent Spokane businessman and developer who has been a major donor to conservative political causes in recent years, plans to launch the organization this week. A job posting for the CEO position is going live soon with an annual salary of about $150,000 to $200,000. Stone says he's already talked to three interested candidates.
Stone started putting the pieces together for the new organization two or three months ago. When asked, he denies that it was prompted by Brown taking office in January.
"I think it's in response to the continuing deterioration of safety, deterioration of crime, graffiti, public camping," Stone says. "Those issues were there under Mayor Woodward, and they're not getting better."
Stone is hoping the new organization will eventually have more than 600 members.
"I don't think I've talked to a single business that's not on board," Stone says.
Stone presented his plans for the Spokane Business Association, or SBA, last week at a private meeting of the East Central Business Association.
"You will hear some people say, 'Well why is Larry Stone doing it?'" Stone told the group of about two dozen business leaders. "I want you to know I didn't sign up for this. But if nobody else is going to do it, I'm going to do it."
The SBA (not to be confused with the Small Business Administration, a federal agency with an office in Spokane) will primarily focus on political advocacy to start, Stone explained.
"Most of us have been really frustrated with the state of our city," Stone said. "It's been really hard for all of us to watch our city really decline in so many ways."
Stone shared a list of 15 "early initiatives" for the SBA — many of which align with issues Stone has spent years advocating for through his controversial "Curing Spokane" videos.
The list includes increasing the size of Spokane's police force; enforcing drug laws; cleaning garbage and graffiti from downtown; opposing "rent control" and other landlord regulations; promoting affordable housing; building a new jail; relocating the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza; and enforcing Proposition 1 — a ballot measure criminalizing homeless camping within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, and playgrounds that was largely funded by Stone and passed with 75% of the vote in November.
The gathered business leaders from east Spokane seemed enthusiastic about the proposal. Several expressed lingering frustration about how city leaders responded to the Camp Hope homeless encampment in East Central.
One attendee said they hope the SBA can also focus on education and push back on what they see as a "multi-decade approach to condemn capitalism and promote socialism" in schools. Another said the new organization could leverage its membership to show City Council members that "if they don't get on board, they can't stay in power forever."
Danny Beard, director of strategic partnerships at Union Gospel Mission, said he's hopeful the SBA can present a "unified front" to city leaders.
"When we walk in there, we walk in there with 1,000 businesses that are saying 'We're on the same page, here's what we're asking,'" Beard said.
Spokane already has several business organizations that speak for business owners' interests.
Greater Spokane Incorporated, or GSI, describes itself as "the Spokane region's business development organization," serving as both a regional chamber of commerce and economic development organization.
There's also the Downtown Spokane Partnership, or DSP, which describes itself as a private, not-for-profit membership organization that "serves as Spokane's central city advocate and service provider."
Stone says he respects the work both organizations do and hopes the new SBA can be a collaborative partner.
Both organizations frequently lobby elected officials and wield significant political influence. But Stone argues that a new organization is necessary because GSI represents the entire region and tends to focus its lobbying efforts on the state and federal government, and DSP only represents downtown businesses. A middle option is needed, he says, to represent businesses across the city of Spokane. Unlike GSI and the DSP, the new SBA will refuse to accept any government funding, Stone says.
Instead, the new SBA will be entirely supported by membership dues and donations, Stone says. The organization will have a board of trustees, a 60-member board of regents and an operating budget of $750,000 in 2025. Stone says three local businesses have already pledged $550,000 in "guaranteed liquidity."
"We've got business firmly and financially behind us," Stone says.
Mayor Brown says the idea that she and other elected leaders aren't listening to business owners' concerns is an "unfounded accusation."
Brown says she has regular meetings that are coordinated by GSI and the DSP where their members can bring concerns forward. She sits on the board of both organizations and attends their monthly meetings.
She also sits on the University District board, which also has business representation. Additionally, she says she's had a "very extensive list" of individual meetings with business owners. Members of her administration also have a biweekly meeting with business owners along the Madison Street corridor.
"Lots of different avenues," Brown says.
In addition to the DSP and GSI, Spokane business owners have also spent years lobbying elected officials and airing their political grievances through a semi-informal email group run by Sheldon Jackson, a local developer.
The email group includes a lot of powerful members. Stone says he appreciates the email group, but that the angry tone of some of the emails is sometimes unproductive.
"We write about how awful things are, how much crime there is, how much drug use there is, about the assaults employees are having, but it's not doing any good," Stone says. "I think at times it makes some of our elected officials angry because they take it personally." ♦
