Archive for the ‘Spokane County’ Category
Time for Steve Tucker and Jim Emacio to Go
It is time to replace Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Tucker and his Chief Civil Deputy, James Emacio. Mr. Tucker is in charge of the entire office of prosecuting attorney but he defers completely to Mr. Emacio regarding the civil side of the office. We now know there are grave problems in the Office of the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney. Here is a listing of a few of these problems:
Morning Star Boys Ranch – Fraudulent Claims? Mr. Tucker has been asked to seek a special inquiry judge to look into whether there is not a conspiracy to defraud Morning Star Boys Ranch with false sex abuse claims. See this letter to Mr. Tucker.
River Park Square. River Park Square has been a critical point in the history of the city and county of Spokane. Mr. Tucker was asked to take action, to call for a special inquiry judge, to cause a grand jury to be empaneled, to explore whether the state RICO act had been violated, was implicated. He failed to take action. He failed to even really consider taking action. See this Brief Summary of River Park Square dated May 14, 2007.
The Yates Case – for years we had a serial killer of young women in our midst. Mr. Tucker avoided the serious issue of the death penalty in the matter, passing it on to others.
The Death of Jo Ellen Savage. Without a doubt there were strong indications that a crime had been committed regarding the tragic death of Jo Ellen Savage at the River Park Square Parking Garage. The facts were clear that the spandrels did not act as safety barriers, that they were defective, that they had failed in the past, that the owners knew of the failures, that the owners had been advised by engineers that the spandrels were a danger, and it was apparent that the spandrel which failed was improperly designed or manufactured. Mr. Tucker was asked to take action. He did not. Now he is being asked again. He will not act. See materials under the heading Jo Ellen Savage Death at River Park Square at this link.
Prosecution of Eileen Jensen, Yet No Prosecution of RPS Garage Owners. See this letter regarding the disconnect of prosecutorial morality. Letter to S. Tucker of February 9, 2009.
Mortgage Skimming and Fraud. Over the past several years there has been a good deal of mortgage fraud taking place in Spokane County. Mr. Tucker has turned a blind eye to the problem and has relied on the United States Attorney to take action.
Conservation Futures Taxes and the Downtown YMCA. The law of the state of Washington does not allow precious conservation futures tax revenues to be used for the purchase of developed property which is to be torn down. Yet, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Emacio think it does. When they should be enforcing the law and protecting tax resources and ensuring they are used for proper purposes, they wish to bend the law and help who?– a politically correct faction in Spokane which thinks tax revenue can be spent for any “Government Party” purpose? Just how much political correctness, political faddishness, can our community sustain? See the materials at this link. Mr. Emacio is at the heart of this Machiavellian power grab.
The Spokane Airways Case – a great deal of trouble is brewing regarding the Spokane Airport Board, a joint venture of the County of Spokane and the City of Spokane. Spokane Airways has filed a claim with the County for the ill treatment it has received and which it is enduring. At the center of the complaint is a host of attorney conflicts of interest which have cost the city and the county hundreds of thousands of dollars – Mr. Emacio is in the center of this dust-up. See the Claim Filed by Spokane Airways dated January 11, 2010.
The Orville Moe Raceway – this property never should have been purchased. It is an environmental hazard, the business the county seeks to be in with regard to it is simply not the sort of business a public entity should be involved in, it is a vanity project on the part of county commissioners drunk with the power to spend public money, and it is a project Mr. Tucker and Mr. Emacio have no business providing legal services for – it is way out of their league. Way out of their realm of expertise. You may ask, why is the county on the hook for debts the previous operator ran up? That’s bad legal work folks.
Land acquisitions in the West Plains Area. What is this all about? As best one can tell, the land acquisition and new railroad is a highly expensive open space which will be kept out of the hands of private capital. But, I forgot, it looks as though the railroad line is being used as a storage yard for various railroad cars which are not in use – many are tankers (one wonders whether they are filled with something?). Senseless, all unless of course one thinks that the legal leadership of the county should be actively involved in helping the county take more land out of the hands of private property owners. The public as entrepreneur? Heaven help us all!
A Gross Waste of Public Funds: YMCA Illegality
Ponder this. Certain county and city elected officials want to use $4.3 million of ConservationFutures Tax revenues for the purchase of the Downtown YMCA. The YMCA is to be torn down. It will cost $850,000 to tear it down. The YMCA and the demolition money will go away, into the ether.
Along the south bank of the Spokane River these officials are going to throw away the value of the building and the cost of demolition. The money for this will simply vanish. It will be the same as these officials going to the public’s bank and withdrawing $4.3 so that they can burn each dollar bill as a sort of celebration of Riverfront Park.
There something wrong with this, really wrong! Public officials cannot engage in a “gross waste of public funds.” And, that’s what this is a gross, very gross, waste of public funds.
And, it gets worse. The officials will be engaging in an act of malfeasance. They might even be personally liable.
The YMCA — Waste of Public Funds, Malfeasance
The Spokane County assessor in 2009 assessed the YMCA property at $5,230,000. Of that $1,246,000 represented land, the remaining amount represented improvements of $3,984,000 — land was 24% of the value. Of the $5,300,000 YMCA purchase price, about 76% represents improvements or $4,028,000.
Our elected officials are going to tear down the improvements, demolish them. To do so, they will have to spend another $850,000. In the end, the building will be demolished and trucked away. In terms of dollars, $4,878,000 vanish. The value destroyed will not increase the value of the land The value of $1,246,000 will be a constant. So, in the end, our elected officials will have spent $6,150,000 to gain an asset worth $1,246,000.
There is something very wrong here.
It is wrong to use Conservation Futures Tax revenues for the purchase of this particular property. The laws simply do not allow it. But there is something worse, terribly worse, – certain of our elected officials are intent on simply throwing away some $4,878,000. Is it reasonable to think they can do this?
Does anyone think that the members of the Spokane City council could pass a law that said they could stand on the banks of the Spokane River and, one by one, burn 4,878,000 dollar bills obtained from the public treasury in celebration of a public display of affection for Riverfront Park?
Fairchild AFB — Economic Impacts
The Washington state Office of Financial Managment has some useful information regarding the economic impacts of Fairchild Air Force Base in Airway Hights, Washington (a few miles west of Spokane). Go here.
West Plains Race Track: Government Should Seek Simplicity
The problems with the West Plains Race Track should teach us some lessons about government. Track Pact In Danger, Spokesman - Review.
Government has no business in being in the race track business. And, that includes making deals with others to use a county race track.
The people we elect have very few real skills in the business of property acquisition, finance, operations and leasing. Ask yourself, which county commissioner would you go to for help in the investment of your money? Not one of them. The people we elect to positions of responsibility have little experience in anything. The reason for this is that we love our illusions. We love to think the people we elect automatically become endowed with wisdom and experience upon their elevation to public office.
Making things worse, the lawyers our leaders use for their forays into property acquisition and leasing do not have experience or skills in the area. The deals we make are terrible and leave our county exposed to the follies of others. This at a time when we have enough of our own propensity to folly.
So what have we got? Whatever it is we should sell it.
So what have we learned? Government should stick to the essential functions of government. Owning and leasing property, a race track no less, is not an essential function.
Metropolitan Government for Spokane and Spokane County
Who to elect in the council candidate primaries? It seems to me there are some real opportunities to make some changes to our local government which would make for better provision of essential services and county urban planning of those services. A new government – the city and county of Spokane – would be a possibility. This would be a new and single government for the county and the cities and towns of the county. It would be a single government but certain cities and towns outside of the county urban area and county urban growth area would remain independent. The new single government would be responsible for all functions – all functions assigned to counties by state law and all functions of encompassed cities and towns and all functions of various independent public entities such as Spokane Transit.
This form of government is allowed by the Constitution of the State of Washington, Art. 11, Section 16. Freeholders would be elected under this section and once elected could formulate a new home rule charter for the county. This proposed home rule charter would then be approved or rejected at an election of the electorate of the entire county.
I surmise that the only way this would likely come about would be for a Home Rule Charter Group to form itself, draft a charter it determined would be the best, and then obtain a freeholder election and try to have elected the members of the group who would agree to immediately present the charter to the electorate.
In the meantime, perhaps a Metropolitan Municipal Corporation is the way to go. See RCW Ch. 35.58. This corporation could be voted in at the behest of the county or a major city in the area. It could be charged with the responsibility for some or all of these services RCW 35.58.050 –
Metropolitan water pollution abatement.
Metropolitan water supply.
Metropolitan public transportation.
Metropolitan garbage disposal.
Metropolitan parks and parkways.
Metropolitan comprehensive planning.
It is the metropolitan comprehensive planning which brings all this together in terms of efficient services and cost cutting with respect of these services.
The Government Party and the Spokane County Public Safety Tax
John Roskelley, former Spokane County Commissioner, has written a good Op Ed for the Spokesman-Review concerning the so-called Spokane County Public Safety Sales Tax. Here it is. This is a good piece — thanks John Roskelley.
We are in tough times and the times are going to become even tougher. It is time to take stock of what government is and time to eschew notions of what this or that political wind thinks government should be. We are a government of necessary services, not a government of good things.
There is one political party today — it is Government Party. The Government Party in Spokane wants to raise taxes, ignore the core functions of government and go off on spending sprees where it spends so as to buy land and take it off the tax rolls, go in the business of car racing and drag strips, and subsidize the friends of the Government Party.
The answer to our moral dilemma is not to increase taxes, it is to take a hard look at reality and to take care of the core essentials of government with what we have. Seems to me life would be more satisfying in Spokane County if we lived our lives a bit more rigorously, more independently — we do not need a Government Party and with its faddish nostroms.