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Elections Heat Up for Spokane City Council President

Kevin Boyd
Council Chamber, Spokane City Hall

The battle for Spokane city council president pits the incumbent against a former state legislator.

Former State Representative John Ahern served 10 years in Olympia.  Just two years ago, he failed in a bid for a city council seat. Now he is challenging incumbent Ben Stuckart for council president.

The Republican lawmaker says the council has swung too far to the left in recent years: "The city council today needs adult supervision and guidance, it does, they are so out of line."

Ahern cites examples, such as the city council endorsing the idea of police being prohibited from checking on a person’s immigrations status, or working on issues like mandatory sick leave for Spokane business employees.

Ahern says his main priority is to create a friendly business atmosphere, something this current council has not: “What business person wants to set up a business in Spokane knowing the council president is a continual smoker of marijuana, and also one of the council members in a grower of marijuana.”

Ahern says that kind of unfriendly business atmosphere translates into higher unemployment rates in the city, than other areas with fewer restrictions: “We have an 8.1 unemployment rate for the city of Spokane, at least that's what I've heard, where the valley is 6, much lower, got to Coeur d'Alene, and the city is 4 percent.”

A note, we were unable to verify those employment figures. The state employment security department says the numbers for the city and valley are combined, and show 6.1 percent. Coeur d Alene’s current unemployment rate is 4.9 percent.

Ahern is also critical of incumbent president Ben Stuckart's handling of the city council meetings and is critical of the way he tried to shut down meetings when some public testimony got out of hand.

Ben Stuckart’s bio includes being council present for 3 1/2 years and working in event ticketing for several years before that. He holds a masters degree from Gonzaga University.

He cites as his biggest accomplishment working on a targeted investment program to develop infrastructure in one part of the city at a time to boost business growth. He cites spending $18 million in the Sprague corridor on things like sewer, water lines, and streets: "And so the theory is if we concentrate our efforts on spending on one district at a time, like we did in the Perry district ten years ago, and concentrate on one district at a time, we can improve our business districts in the city.”

Stuckart, who says he does admit to having had smoked marijuana, feels Ahern's criticism of pot businesses overlooks the economic benefit: “Well, you know my opponent also wants to ban all marijuana businesses in the city of Spokane, and Ive done my research on that , and if we put a ban on all processing and retailing it would kill 1500 full and part time jobs.”

Stuckart says he also proud of the work the current council has done on environmental issues: “Cause we are initiating the sustainability plan, whether the is banning of neonicotinoids, banning products that have PCB’s in them, passing the urban farming ordinance, we just passed a law saying every new city vehicle must be more fuel efficient than the vehicle it is replacing.”

The ballots for Spokane voters are being mailed out this week.

Steve was part of the Spokane Public Radio family for many years before he came on air in 1999. His wife, Laurie, produced Radio Ethiopia in the late 1980s through the '90s, and Steve used to “lurk in the shadowy world” of Weekend SPR. Steve has done various on air shifts at the station, including nearly 15 years as the local Morning Edition host. Currently, he is the voice of local weather and news during All Things Considerd, writing, editing, producing and/or delivering newscasts and features for both KPBX and KSFC. Aside from SPR, Steve ,who lives in the country, enjoys gardening, chickens, playing and listening to music, astronomy, photography, sports cars and camping.