NEWS | 2013 “WHAT WE’LL REMEMBER,” CONTINUED... reorganizing city departments to reduce civil servicetested positions, expanding the city’s downtown sit-lie ban — have been decided by a four-member voting bloc. Until now, that bloc has been a conservative, businessfriendly group that often lines up behind Mayor David Condon. But with November’s election of union-backed former Plan Commission member Candace Mumm, that balance will shift. (Mumm, representing northwest Spokane, will replace conservative councilwoman and one-time Republican state senate candidate Nancy McLaughlin.) In a contentious, expensive race, Mumm and her opponent, Condon ally Michael Cannon, raised more than $150,000 between them, and PACs funded attack ads on TV and in the mail. While Mumm says she’s eager to work with everyone at City Hall, she was backed by Council President Ben Stuckart and many local progressives who supported him and left-leaning councilmembers Jon Snyder and Amber Waldref. In 2014, the council is likely to face a new set of controversial votes, and we’re likely to see the votes leaning left. That could start as soon as February with a “strong push for urban agriculture” in the city, Stuckart says. “I’m just hoping we can move forward with a strong progressive agenda that benefits everyone and our neighborhoods.” — HEIDI GROOVER
HOTEL SPOKANE
The past decade in Spokane saw the once-great Davenport Hotel restored to its former glory and the once-great Ridpath Hotel sink into further disrepair. The past year, however, brought good news for fans of both hotels. Walt Worthy, star developer behind the Davenport, decided to move forward on constructing a new high-rise hotel near the Spokane Convention Center. Last year, he had determined “that the cost to build a large convention hotel was too high … to feel comfortable moving forward,” but a scaled-downed plan and a pile of incentives from the Spokane City Council allowed construction on the 15-story hotel to begin. Whether the expanded convention center across the street will draw enough business to fill up his hotel remains to be seen. In the meantime, one of the chief villains of the Ridpath saga got his comeuppance. Greg Jeffreys, the scam artist who helped split the Ridpath into convoluted pieces and sold them off at vastly inflated values, pled guilty to four counts of criminal fraud in November. Ron Wells, the downtown real estate maven specializing in historic properties, has made considerable headway in piecing the Ridpath back together, navigating a tangle of ownership disputes and lawsuits. He wants to turn the hotel into a complex of small apartments, and he’s confident it will actually happen. By November, he was putting up Craigslist advertisements for one-bedroom apartments opening in June 2014. — DANIEL WALTERS
ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER OMBUDSMAN BATTLE
The fight to strengthen the city’s Office of Police Ombudsman continued this year with little resolution. The ombudsman is currently allowed to sit in on Spokane Police Department Internal Affairs investigations, but cannot open his own. A proposition passed by voters in February added language to the city charter calling for a “totally independent” ombudsman and a commission to oversee him or her. But this past fall, after almost two years of negotiations, the city administration announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the police guild. The agreement
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The fortunes of the long-shuttered Ridpath Hotel appear to be changing. did not, as some had expected it to, grant the ombudsman any investigative authorities outside the IA process. The mayor and police chief say they believe what was bargained for — the current ombudsman structure (inside the Internal Affairs process) plus a new oversight commission — gives citizens the independence they voted for. Police accountability advocates, like those at the nonprofit Center for Justice, are unsatisfied. Now, the council has deferred the next ombudsman vote to Feb. 3, and some members are urging the mayor to go back to the bargaining table with the guild and negotiate a contract that includes more authority for the ombudsman. “In a way, this is like chasing a ghost,” Councilman Steve Salvatori said during the vote to defer. “We could have independent investigative authority come right up in front of us and not recognize it because it means something different to everybody.” — HEIDI GROOVER
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
Corridors 1” (for example, Garland Avenue near Monroe Street) to the prohibited zone. When marijuana growers, processors and stores open in the spring and summer of 2014, we’re likely to see them in the city’s industrial areas, like East Sprague and Hillyard. — HEIDI GROOVER
SPD RE-ENGINEERING
In a year of reform and restructuring, Spokane Police Chief Frank Straub has overseen dramatic changes to the daily operations and command hierarchy of the Spokane Police Department. A believer in data-driven, community-based policing, Straub has shifted the SPD to the CompStat model, assigning officers to crime “hot spots” pinpointed through data mapping. While property crime has continued to increase, Straub says year-to-date statistics show violent crime has dropped 8.5 percent compared to 2012. Straub credits the new targeted policing strategy as well as improved cooperation between the department and other local agencies. The year since Washington’s voted to legalize “I think we’ve begun to turn the corner,” he says. recreational marijuana has brought a flurry of public “That’s a huge, huge accomplishment.” forums, revised documents and history-making decisions. In addition to the internal re-engineering underway, (Plus, a startling number of awkward marijuana jokes the SPD has received broad reform mandates from the from elected officials.) city’s Use of Force Commission and the county’s CrimiWhile unanswered questions — like where pot businal Justice Commission. The Department of Justice also nesses will store their cash — remain, the feds have largely launched a review of department policies. Straub says the stood down as Washington and Colorado department has embraced those reform efforts. have gotten into the business of pot. Other After opening its first downtown substation, states and cities are seeing their own legalizathe SPD plans to expand its precinct-based policSend comments to tion movements, and a majority of Americans ing with captains assigned to geographic areas editor@inlander.com. are, for the first time, in favor of seeing the throughout the city. Officers will also start weardrug legalized, according to Gallup. ing body cameras and recording race data on Tasked with creating a brand-new pot market, the citizen contacts this coming year. Straub says he expects Washington State Liquor Control Board spent the year to release a new strategic plan for 2014 later this month. crafting regulations for how marijuana growers, proces— JACOB JONES sors and sellers will be licensed, monitored and required to operate. Over a month-long window this winter, they Mention “Obamacare” in a crowded room and accepted more than 3,700 applications for marijuana busidepending on the company you keep, your ill-fated nesses and will now set about licensing those who qualify. conversation starter is bound to incite fierce defenses, Any qualifying grower or processor will be licensed, rabid mockery or outright confusion. but stores will be limited based on population. Spokane The rollout of the president’s contentious health care County will be allowed 18 stores with eight in the City reform law has gone smoother in Washington, where the of Spokane and three in the Valley. (More than 60 retail state-run online exchange has performed remarkably well applications have been filed for locations in Spokane in comparison to the federal government’s buggy insurCounty.) ance portal, HealthCare.gov. But Washington HealthMeanwhile, cities across the state, including Spokane, planfinder has been plagued with its own hiccups: In added their own zoning regulations to determine where October, a glitch caused some 8,000 people who applied pot businesses would be allowed to open. A rule written for private insurance plans through the exchange site into the voter-passed initiative keeps the businesses 1,000 to receive overestimated tax credit amounts. Insurance feet away from schools, parks and playgrounds, and shoppers also have complained of excessive waiting times Spokane added certain areas of town called “Centers and
RULES FOR REEFER
LETTERS
OBAMACARE’S ROCKY ROLLOUT