The Current
city manager form of government, meaning that the manager would run the city while the city council elected one of their members to be a largely ceremonial mayor who would also run the city council meetings. Then came months of transition committee meetings, where a lot of decisions needed to be made. Would the city contract with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services or would they create their own police department? Who would maintain the streets? What would the city’s development codes be? Driskell served on the courts transition committee and volunteered to write the new city’s criminal code. “I found the work interesting,” he said. Local attorney Howard Herman, an incorporation supporter, wrote a guest column in The Spokesman-Review on June 15, 2002 advocating that Spokane Valley become a contract city, providing few services itself while contracting others to do tasks like plowing snow and providing law enforcement.
COVER STORY
“In my view, there’s nothing the city needs that it can’t buy off the shelf,” Herman wrote. “Trying to provide those services inhouse means starting a serious of bureaucracies. Bureaucracies start out innocently enough, but then they develop voracious appetites for money and personnel, after which they develop labor pains.”
A city council election was held in November 2002 and everyone wanted to be a part of the new city. Mike DeVleming, who would become Spokane Valley’s first mayor, recalls that 49 people filed to run for a city council seat. In addition to campaigning, he had to pay attention to the various transition committees. “There were a lot of transition committees that a lot of us were trying to attend,” he said. DeVleming said he wasn’t involved in any of the incorporation efforts, but he watched them closely. He thinks it was a belief that the City of Spokane was going to try to attempt to annex a lucrative business area centered on East Sprague that helped convince voters that the time was right to
incorporate.
“There was kind of a vibe that hey, this might pass this time,” he said. Once it did pass, he decided to run for city council because he wanted a role in determining the direction of the new city, DeVleming said. The first elected council members were DeVleming, Diana Wilhite, Steve Taylor, Gary Schimmels, Rich Munson, Mike Flanigan and Dick Denenny. “It was my first experience being an elected official,” DeVleming said. “It was a huge learning curve.” By the time the city officially incorporated, Driskell was working as a public defender. He was soon hired to be the new city’s first staff attorney. He remained with the city until retiring earlier this year. During his 20 years with the city, Driskell helped shape everything from nuisance codes to development regulations. “I’ve written probably around 50 percent, but contributed to the rest,” he said. “I think all of it I’ve been involved in.”
MARCH 2023 • 11
Though the incorporation effort was successful, for a few years there was an effort from some to get the city to disincorporate. “They didn’t get much traction,” Singleton said. If being a city was a bad thing, why are there so many cities?” Dean Grafos, a real estate developer and businessman, was initially against incorporation. He wasn’t sure the city could be financially viable. “Initially I thought It was best that we stayed under the county,” he said. Grafos was a vocal part of the disincorporation effort before he won a seat on the city council and then served as mayor. He said that he decided that if the city was going to stay incorporated, he wanted to make sure it was done right. “I felt it was in the interest of the taxpayers that we had regulations that were friendly to property owners,” he said. Since incorporation Spokane Valley has had eight mayors. All but two served only a single twoyear term. Mike DeVleming, a See 20th ANNIVERSARY, Page 13