Al French didn't want the Spokane County Commission to grow from three members to five, as mandated by a 2018 state law. Now, as voters choose commissioners by district rather than countywide, he faces a strong opponent in what looks like the most contested race for the expanded board.
The race for Spokane County's new District 5 could determine the power balance of the commission, which has been led by Republicans since the last century and composed solely of Republicans since 2010, when Democrat Bonnie Mager lost to French.
As the commission transitions from three to five members after next month's election, two of the five new districts are likely to lean progressive, and two are likely to lean conservative. So all eyes are on the toss-up fifth district, where political newcomer Maggie Yates, 34, faces longtime incumbent French, 71, in a bid to represent part of the West Plains, northwest Spokane and the upper South Hill.
Yates, a Democrat with a law degree from UCLA, previously worked for the county as the regional law and justice administrator, a role she left in January 2022 after facing resistance as she tried to address equity issues within the criminal justice system. After leaving the county, she taught at the Gonzaga University School of Law before deciding to run for office.
French, a Republican with a background in architecture and real estate development, has served on the commission since getting elected 12 years ago. Before that he represented northeast Spokane on the City Council for eight years. He serves on several boards and commissions, including the state's Building Code Council and the boards of the Spokane Transit Authority, Spokane Airport and West Plains Public Development Authority.
Yates took 44.5 percent of the vote in August, while French received 41.1 percent. Opponents Don Harmon (a former Airway Heights mayor who ran as a Republican) and Tara Carter (a district court clerk who ran as an independent) took a combined 14.2 percent of the vote, and both have since thrown their support to Yates.
"Al French needs to move on," Harmon said in a statement when endorsing Yates. "I've been impressed by Maggie's campaign and feel she is the fresh voice the county needs to move forward toward bipartisan solutions."
French says Harmon has no previous record of being a Republican, and he expects to pick up the people who voted for him based on party affiliation.
"We fully expect that those folks will come back to experience, proven leadership and demonstrated abilities," French says.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
While working at the county, Yates worked to create an intake-and-release center that was piloted for a short time to prevent people from fully being booked into jail unless a judge deemed it necessary. Yates says the pilot ended because of detention services staffing issues.
"There is an extra space that was designed to potentially hold remote court hearings, at least for first appearances," Yates says. "When I was there, if you were arrested after 11 am, 12 pm in the day, you wouldn't be able to get to court that day. So no matter what, you're going to spend the night in jail."
Booking is one of the most expensive parts of jail administration, she says. The intake center was designed to avoid that where possible and increase the availability of first appearance hearings, when a judge decides to hold someone on bail or release them before their next court date.
French says the failure to launch the intake center is Yates' fault because she didn't manage to convince the various departments involved that it could work. He says he and Commissioner Mary Kuney brought the idea for the intake center to the county.
"The judges refused to provide a court commissioner. The law enforcement, whether it's police or sheriff, refused to use them because they felt like it was not safe. The clerk didn't want to [staff] it," French says. "So I have a facility over on the Spokane County campus right now that's empty. But under her leadership, she said, 'We have everybody bought in,' and we didn't."
The hours for that facility were intended to be late afternoon through late evening, but the court didn't want to do that, French acknowledges.
"I don't know whether the lack of buy-in was because of Maggie's failure to collaborate with all the parties and address their issues, or whether it was just fundamentally, 'We don't want to work after 5 [pm],'" French says.
Yates says many other solutions to the criminal justice system are needed, including expanding ideas she promoted while at the county, such as giving free rides to court dates, reminding people when they need to appear and reducing recidivism rates.
"We see a commitment from my opponent to continue putting 70 percent of our taxpayer-funded general funds toward criminal justice departments and systems that are not producing the results that our county residents really deserve," Yates says. "We should be using contact with law enforcement and the criminal justice system as an opportunity to stabilize individuals so that they don't have this cycle of repeated arrests."
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Last year, Washington state saw a staggering increase in the number of fatal fentanyl overdoses, with a spike larger than researchers have ever seen with any other drug. In Spokane County, there were 108 fatal overdoses involving fentanyl in 2021, compared with 28 in 2020 and 11 in 2019.Medication-assisted treatment, where people are prescribed an opiate alternative or replacement such as methadone or Suboxone, is one of the most successful ways to prevent overdoses for those who struggle with opiate addiction, public health experts say. Researchers are exploring ways to increase the success of that treatment, and Spokane Regional Health District, which is overseen by the county board of commissioners and the local health board, operates a methadone program.
"As we learn more and get more educated, I think we are developing better responses to [fentanyl]," French says. "One of the things we're learning is our kids have got to have a higher level of education about the danger of this drug."
French says one solution that opened about a year ago is the city and county's shared Mental Health Crisis Stabilization Facility, where people experiencing mental health issues can be taken for treatment rather than getting booked into jail or taken to the hospital. They can also receive substance use treatment.
"They get treatment, they get medication, they get housing, they get food, they get all the support systems necessary to one, stabilize them and two, to be able to get them back into the community in a healthy environment," French says. "That program is very successful. I'm excited about it."
Yates says the county should also make more investments in housing, early childhood education and behavioral health to address disparities that play a factor in people ending up in the criminal justice system.
"We need to understand public safety holistically, and we haven't done that historically," Yates says. "We have also tasked law enforcement with the really impossible charge of addressing a lot of our social issues like homelessness, drug addiction and serious mental illness, and that is not what they signed up for."
Yates says it is essential to rely on data from experts as the county invests in programs and training related to substance use and behavioral health, and to collaborate with regional partners. Because the risk of overdose is increased for people leaving jail, more services are needed, she says.
"Any sort of treatment and intervention needs to include services not just in the jail, but also at jail releasing and in the community," Yates says.
HOUSING
The state's Growth Management Act is intended to limit urban sprawl and require counties and cities to ensure infrastructure for utilities and public safety are in place before approving development. In effect, it restricts how the county approves new homes in the area.
French has long railed against the limits of the act. For example, he says that when the county asked to swap rural land that's approved for development within a planned "urban growth area" for urban land that's closer to Fairchild Air Force Base for more housing, the state rejected it.
"They said it's got to be 'like for like,' but if it was urban we wouldn't need to trade it, so it was a Catch-22," French says. "They said no [to] 1,100 homes that could be in Airway Heights."
The state's land use policies have forced much of the growth in the region to move outward, French says, including across state lines to Post Falls.
"It's because of a state decision, not anything we did here locally. ... I need to get more housing up on the West Plains because that's where all my new jobs are," French says. "We are going to be going through a process where we expand the urban growth boundary over the next year and get housing closer to where the jobs are, because that fundamentally is a key element of good growth."
Yates says in addition to identifying areas where existing infrastructure can support more growth, the county should look at creating programs to support first-time homebuyers and incentivize developers to build affordable housing.
"It's really important that we continue to create affordable housing for the majority of our residents, while keeping an eye toward future impacts, including our infrastructure, and the stewardship of our natural resources," Yates says. "Those efforts are not mutually exclusive."
She says a lack of county planning has resulted in flooding issues in the West Terrace area near Cheney, which continues to see new construction. She also thinks the county could have better helped plan for growth along Highway 195, where the City of Spokane has now put a moratorium on building until transportation issues are dealt with.
"I think we're seeing so many different infrastructure issues, and issues when it comes to our natural resources," Yates says. "Across the board, having unplanned sprawl with these large lots can put stress on our aquifer and our river. So again, we should be looking first to those urban corridors to grow." ♦
