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Friday, August 8, 2003

Disincorporation group persists
Organizers extend petition deadline
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Stacy Schwandt
Staff writer

Members of Citizens for Disincorporation granted themselves an extension Thursday night.

The group of disgruntled Spokane Valley residents will continue its effort to collect the 21,000 signatures needed to get a disincorporation measure on the ballot.

They have gathered about 6,000 since March.

The group initially planned to conclude its effort in late August, in part because each signature is only valid for six months.

Instead, they'll keep working through September,
placing calls to revalidate signatures secured early on.

Organizer Sally Jackson urged the 35 people gathered at Thursday's meeting to start collecting outside local businesses.

"Let's get out our card tables and chairs and get out the petitions," she said. "We've got to do it."

The handful of members who have been diligently canvassing neighborhoods encouraged others to get to work.

"Everybody is really nice," said Cindy Koker, who has lived in the Orchard Center neighborhood for almost 50 years. "About 80percent will sign it."

Like Koker, members of Citizens for Disincorporation are largely longtime Valley residents who were satisfied with the Valley as it was. They fear the new layer of government will cost more and favor the interests of business and developers over those of the average citizen.

The group also decided to continue sending representatives to monitor City Council meetings. Group members formed a five-member committee to work on a presentation to urge City Council members to support a vote on disincorporation.

"If we presented this to the City Council and they were resistant because they have their own agendas, well that would be a point in and of itself," said Opportunity resident Carol LaRock.

Jackson encouraged all present to persist in their efforts.

"We're showing them that we're not going to go away," she said. "The function we serve is to always be a burr under their saddle."

Securing a vote to undo incorporation requires signatures from 50 percent of registered voters, a higher threshold than most other municipal petitions.

Backers of Valley incorporation only had to collect signatures from 10 percent of registered voters.

The last Washington city to disband was Elberton, a Whitman County city that closed its doors in 1965.

Jackson said she's worked with hundreds of volunteers since the May 2002 incorporation vote.

"I've always been amazed at how many people show up," she said. "I don't know how (this new city) will work when there's so many disgruntled people."

Jackson added that she faults the new city backers for using the fear of annexation by the city of Spokane as a scare tactic to convince people to vote for the new city.

"This city is formed on dishonesty," she said. "Nobody really trusts it, and that's a bad deal. When things aren't born out of honor, they kind of suffer."

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