STA Board may shut public out of CEO selection process
Spokane Transit’s board of directors is looking for someone to succeed STA’s current leader, Susan Meyer, who plans to step down at the end of the year.
Today, the board will consider a proposal from its chair, Al French, that lays out a basic strategy for finding the next CEO. It would give the four members of the STA board’s operating committee authority to work with a search firm, conduct initial interviews and narrow the field.
What French’s proposal doesn’t include is a way for the public or Spokane Transit employees to participate. It’s a basic fault line among the STA board: whether to view the transit system primarily as a public agency, as Zack Zappone does, or as a business, as French and Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley prefer.
Zappone, who represents the city of Spokane on the operating committee, said at a July 17 meeting that public input should be part of the search process.
“Whether that’s a public forum, it’s an Advisory Council [involvement] – some sort of way for the public to weigh in,” Zappone said. “Because this is a very public agency.”
While French said some informal interaction, such as a meet-and-greet, might be allowed, he rejected the idea that the public or STA employees would be active partners in selecting Meyer’s successor.
“The hiring process is a board decision,” French said. “It’s not board-and-union. It’s not board-and-community. It’s the board’s decision to hire.”
Zappone pointed out that Spokane’s recent search for a new police chief incorporated public feedback. French and Haley batted away the comparison, saying the two jobs are different.
Public comment about French’s proposal will be allowed at today’s 1:30 p.m. STA board meeting. It will be held at the Spokane Transit building on West Boone Avenue.
Spokane’s Billig joins other state leaders at world’s largest aerospace convention
Representatives from Washington state government and nearly 70 businesses from around the state are in the United Kingdom this week for the aerospace industry’s biggest annual convention.
“The goal of the air show has several parts," State Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig of Spokane said. Billig is part of the Washington delegation to the Farnborough Air Show. "One is to assist Washington businesses to increase their connections and business that they do with companies all over the world. Secondly, working to recruit new businesses in aerospace to Washington state.”
He said Washington’s massive aerospace presence on the global stage makes the convention a great opportunity for the state to attract more business.
“It's an extremely important industry for Washington. As a state, we're very good at it as well," he told SPR News. "And there's just a lot of people that want to do business with our state when it comes to aerospace.”
According to a 2022 Aerospace Competitive Economics Study, Washington brought in more than twice the money from aerospace sales as the number two state and nearly four times the money from aerospace exports as the next state.
According to Billig, the third goal of Washington's delegation at the air show is "to learn about the aviation industry and to share things that we've learned in Washington State. And that's particularly true with sustainable aviation fuels where Washington has been a real leader.”
As a policymaker in this space, Billig said it’s his responsibility to continue to push for innovation and help the government provide incentives for industry members to keep exploring sustainable solutions for the future of the aerospace industry.
Natural gas initiative qualifies for November ballot
The Washington Secretary of State’s office says building industry groups collected enough signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot.
I-2066, would bar state and local governments from banning or even discouraging the use of natural gas.
The initiative’s backers say it would preserve energy options, offer a cheaper alternative to electricity, and rebuke Governor Jay Inslee’s political legacy. Initiative opponents say it’s another attempt to erode state climate policies, and would reduce air quality and ultimately make energy costs higher, not lower.
Three other proposed measures, backed by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood and other Washington conservatives, are already set to appear on November ballots. Pending voter approval, those initiatives would make the state’s long-term care tax optional, repeal the capital gains tax and end a program aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Hot, dry weather prompts Spokane officials to step up water conservation
Since 2022, Spokane has imposed summer water conservation standards. Between June 1 and October 1, the rules forbid outdoor watering between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and they require households and businesses to limit their watering to four days a week. There are exceptions for watering trees, gardens and newly-landscaped property, or to wet down an area to reduce wildfire danger.
Then, in especially dry times, like now, when the flow of the Spokane River in the downtown area falls below 1,000 cubic feet per second, a second level of conservation takes effect. It reduces routine watering to two days a week with no more than two hours of watering a day. The city ordinance also asks households and businesses to stop cleaning their decks, patios, driveways and sidewalks with water.
Several Inland Northwest cities have similar watering restrictions, including Post Falls, Airway Heights and Cheney. Medical Lake launched its rules last month. They restrict watering to between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.
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Reporting was contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Owen Henderson and Doug Nadvornick.