Jeff Colliton offers skill Spokane needs

What do the people of Spokane need from their City Council?

During the past few years the council has generated lawsuits, intractable conflict, a budget crisis, an exodus of personnel, allegations of scandal ... It also has made some good decisions, many of them the low-profile variety that keep essential services going - although that is a feat given the city's difficult economic and political circumstances.

What now? In less than two weeks, Spokane voters will narrow the field of City Council candidates. In November, they'll elect three council members.

So it's a good time to begin thinking about what talents will serve the city best. The race to represent District 3 - Northwest Spokane - illustrates the different directions the City Council can go.

Due to a shortage of civic experience, two candidates probably will not emerge from the primary. They are: Tom Griffey, a school bus driver who expresses the admirable hope that "yelling matches during meetings" will become a thing of the past, and Barbara Lampert, a retired nursing assistant who makes appealing promises such as free garbage collection for all.

Converting good intentions into successful government is no easy task, however, and that is why voters usually choose candidates who have proved their knowledge and effectiveness in volunteer service on government committees.

The two remaining candidates offer a great deal of knowledge and experience. Each has been endorsed by this newspaper in prior City Council elections. They are current council member Cherie Rodgers and former council member Jeff Colliton.

Whoever wins will wade into a daunting array of problems. For the council to serve our city best, it needs members who know how to solve problems. There lies the key to this election.

Rodgers has shown a talent for pointing out problems and mistakes. It's a useful gift, and many in our city have it.

Yet, Spokane needs more from its City Council.

We need the gift Colliton has demonstrated, in office and in his continuing volunteer work: the trouble-shooter's ability to confront a problem, develop a solution, face misjudgments constructively, make course corrections and keep at it, over and over. Colliton is a retired Army colonel and small-business person. He has served ably on a long list of boards and commissions involving law enforcement, the arts, transit, sports, conventions and youth.

His proudest achievements, he says, include youth projects such as creating the skate park under the freeway and converting a polluted Hillyard junkyard into the Andrew Rypien sports field. His goals for the future include developing a youth sports complex around Albi Stadium and bringing outside tax revenue to Spokane's empty treasury, through the convention center project.

For this election, in all of the city races, we urge voters to opt for that problem-solving skill. Spokane needs it.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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