Today on Inland Journal (6 pm, KSFC), we spend an hour with the candidates for Spokane mayor. David Condon is leaving office, as mandated by the city charter, after two terms, and five people are in the running to replace him.
They are, in alphabetical order, Jonathan Bingle.
Jonathan Bingle: “For me, I think that taxation is something that we should really look to scale back pretty heavily. Also, as a property owner, I don’t understand why I have to pay sales tax on something and then also I never really own my home. I have to pay taxes on it every year.”
There’s Kelly Cruz.
Kelly Cruz: “Outside of Council President Stuckart, I’m the only other person running in this race that has extensive institutional knowledge of city hall and how it works, its departments. I’ve done that. I’ve worked with city officials, city departments and even state officials.”
Shawn Poole.
Shawn Poole: “The homeless transient issue transcends just about everything that is happening in Spokane. It lends itself to the uptick in property crime. It lends itself to substance abuse. It lends itself to illicit drugs, those kinds of things.“
Ben Stuckart.
Ben Stuckart: “The way we’re going to move forward and pay for all those services, like public safety, that the citizens deserve, and provide homes for people that are homeless on our street, is by creating a denser environment around our business districts. It’s the most pressing, and it’s urbanism at its core. How do we grow as a city?”
And Nadine Woodward.
Nadine Woodward: “I do come from a place of being immersed in Spokane issues for 28 years and in a position of public trust. And I firmly believe that this race is about who you trust to be Spokane’s next mayor.”