SPR News is continuing our spotlight on local elections. Last week, we aired two debates hosted by KSPS PBS between Spokane City Council candidates for Districts 2 and 3.
This week, we're rounding out that series with one more debate between candidates for District 1—incumbent Jonathan Bingle and challenger Sarah Dixit.
If you prefer to watch the debate, you can find it anytime on ksps.org. The debate is hosted by Dana Haynes with panelists Eliza Billingham from Spokane Public Radio and Cannon Barnett from The Spokesman-Review.
BINGLE: Hey there, I'm Jonathan Bingle, lifelong District 1 resident, Rogers graduate, business owner in District 1, husband to Christina, father to three beautiful children, and I'm excited to be here.
I want to thank my opponent for being here. I want to thank everybody for being here and giving us this opportunity. I'm running for City Council because I want Spokane to be the safest and cleanest city that it can be, a place where we've got opportunity for our children and their children.
DIXIT: I'm Sarah Dixit. I'm running for Spokane City Council, District 1, because I love Spokane.
I want to make sure my neighbors and community members can continue to afford to live here. I'm a graduate of Whitworth University, which is where I learned the power of movements.
I have been an organizer and advocate in the region for reproductive rights for about 10 years and simultaneously fighting for rights for immigrants and lobbying at the city and state level for policies to protect our communities. I am the chair of the city's equity subcommittee as well.
HAYNES: A coin flip determined that Jonathan will take the first question and that will come from Cannon.
BARNETT: You guys are both markedly on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Why should moderates vote for you?
BINGLE: I appreciate the question. So I think I do really well working across the aisle. Literally every piece of legislation I've passed has been bipartisan.
My first legislative aide, Nicolette Ocheltree, we actually met because I was at a protest on one side. She was counter protesting. She had posted a picture about me on social media and said, 'Hey, this guy, you know, don't vote for him.'
And I said, 'I think I'm a pretty decent guy. Let's go get some coffee.' And we sat down and found out that we had a lot in common.
I think that's what we need to remember oftentimes is that there are things we disagree about, but they're very small in number. And there's a lot of common ground. And so working with folks who you might think are so much more different than you, you find out that there's a ton of common ground there.
And working off of that common ground, I think you can help establish long lasting policy that that will endure because it's not so partisan. And so I think moderates should vote for me because I have a well documented history of being bipartisan.
DIXIT: I believe at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. Whether that is community safety, whether that is a roof over our head, food to eat, clean air, clean water—those are all the same basic needs we all need. I believe we just disagree on how to get there.
So the biggest thing for me is making sure we are collaborative and listening to one another because we all have our why.
And for me, a really great example was recently, I participated in a town hall. Folks all across the political spectrum were there and folks really expressed their gratitude towards having an open forum like that where they can share their differences, share their struggles and have someone sincerely listen and just approach them like a human being.
And I think I am someone who has been able to do that through organizing. Reproductive rights is not an easy thing to organize around.
And I've been able to bring people together to show why it's an issue that impacts all of us and not just some of us. And I would love to bring that to council.
BILLINGHAM: Jonathan, you're currently serving on City Council. Sarah, you've been endorsed by sitting members. What would actually change in the city if you were elected or reelected?
DIXIT: I think there is a misconception around the current makeup of City Council and that I would just be, you know, one of many. But I think District One is really unique and currently doesn't have someone like me representing it. Nor do we have anyone on council who, you know, has my experience, has my background, myself being a young child of immigrants, making sure our youth is represented and also someone who really deeply believes in this community and really loves it.
So for me, it would be more so how do I represent District One really well and making sure that our folks aren't getting left behind? Because what we've heard at the doors is that people feel like there are things happening without their input or without their no. And when I'm going door to door, it's really important to me to listen to folks and be able to share information with them about resources that the city has, but also ways that we can address the needs that they have that aren't being represented. So I really just want to be that voice for people in my community.
BINGLE: With me on the council, there's obviously a differing worldview than the council majority. And what would be different if I were on there is that we'd continue to have that strong advocacy for District One, obviously being born and raised there.
I understand the district better than than most. And I know that I can I can elevate those those voices in that space. Now, with my candidate, you know, what would change? It would it would really be nothing.
You would have a lot more of the same. She's endorsed by the entire city council, endorsed by the current mayor. And on top of that, you know, almost 60 percent of her money has come from, you know, outside of Spokane County.
And so if you're looking for somebody who is rooted and invested in the area and representing the area, then I'm going to be that guy. And I think we need that deferring viewpoint. We need that diversity of thought on the council.
And I think it's really important that that counterpoint be brought forward. And that's what I do.
DIXIT: I think it's a misconception around if you have lived here your whole life to be the best representative for the area. I chose Spokane to be my home and I chose District One to be my home.
And I think that choice is really important for me. It's a huge thing to be a part of this community, going to neighborhood councils, going to community events, going to the Creative Arts District in Hillyard and being able to talk to people. And the overwhelming majority of folks describe that they don't know their current council members very well and they don't see them around.
So for me, that access and the accessibility is really what's important to me.
BARNETT: Downtown is often talked about as being dangerous. But Northeast Spokane, which is a part of District One, has the deadliest gun violence in the city. How will you address safety issues in your entire district?
BINGLE: Safety throughout the district is incredibly important, right? You know, I tried to lobby the state after one of we had a young teenage boy shot and killed in my district just about a year ago. His nickname is Goose.
There was the 'Justice for Goose' campaign that I very much supported. And the problem is, the person who shot and killed that young man had already done a drive by at that same house, not but a few years earlier. And for whatever reason, that person who already shot at the same house was on the streets.
That's the kind of stuff that has to stop. If you want gun violence to go down, you put people committing gun violence away and you put them away for a long time. That's not the kind of stuff where you should be able to be eligible for parole early.
When you're committing violent acts with dangerous tools with guns, you need to be put away and you need to be put away for a while. The state unfortunately rejected that legislation that I co-championed with state representative Jenny Graham. And I hope that they take it up this year because it's a really important deal.
DIXIT: Gun violence is a epidemic and it's a public health crisis that we're seeing throughout our nation, including our district one and in downtown and in the Northeast.
So for me, looking at the data, it's really important to implement measures that work so we know common sense gun laws are effective. I was supportive when council passed regulations on having guns in public spaces like libraries and public transit. So wanting to make sure we are aware of what the crisis is so that we could properly address it.
And I don't believe having more guns is going to make people safer. I believe community safety is really around how we come together as a community. So whether that's lighting and different traffic calming measures and other things that might contribute to people's safety and the feeling of safety, I think it has to be a robust response because there's no one size fits all solution to gun violence and to the issues that our communities are facing.
And safety is a huge concern I'm hearing at the doors. So wanting to be intentional with how we respond so that some people aren't feeling left behind.
BINGLE: Better lighting is not going to stop a drive by shooting. It's just not. The folks who are dying on the streets are dying at the hands of criminals who should be put away and put away for a long time. Lighting doesn't help that.
Better streets doesn't help that. Actually enforcing the law, actually making sure that people who commit criminal acts are held accountable, that will actually help. Goose would be alive today, okay, if not for the fact that that person was let out when they never should have been let out. We need to hold criminals accountable and that will help.
BILLINGHAM: How would you close the multi-million dollar budget gap the city is facing?
DIXIT: What we're seeing right now with the $13 million budget deficit is a big improvement from the $25 million deficit we saw that we inherited from Mayor Woodward's administration who supports my opponent. And I think we need to be smarter with the dollars we have and making sure we are backing our spending with evidence based and data driven solutions.
So it's also important to not continually raise sales tax because that is on the backs of working class spoken nights and people who simply cannot afford just another percent increase. So we need to look at other options that the city has, whether that is a payroll tax, which is one of the levers we're allowed to use.
Property tax is also going to hit our communities hard. So I wouldn't suggest that. But ultimately, we have to come up with a better solution with our state and advocate for progressive revenue options because this is only going to get worse and it already is worse at our state level. So we have to act because right now we have the most regressive tax code in the nation—one of the most.
And we have to do something that's actually a solution instead of pinching pennies.
BINGLE: Our budget deficit is actually much worse than $13.5 million dollars.
That's been said, you know, we're going to have to stand up our own animal control soon. We have our own dispatch that we're going to have to set up soon. There's a lot of relationships right now that are breaking down.
And I didn't hear a single cut that my opponent has proposed. We did a forum the other day and her solution to it was to raise taxes. And when you talk about an affordable Spokane, more taxes does not make things more affordable. As a matter of fact, it makes it less affordable.
So what we need to be doing is taking a thorough look at the budget. I have found $13.5 million dollars in the budget.
Most of it comes from—we spend a lot of money out of our general fund on homelessness services. Houston is often looked at as like this is the group to follow when it comes to addressing homelessness. Houston spends zero dollars out of their general fund on homelessness and they've been very successful in addressing that issue.
There's five million dollars right there that we could remove from the budget deficit. And keep in mind, a sales tax was supported by and championed by the person who's endorsed her, Mayor Brown—and she says it's the most regressive. We added eight million dollars in revenue last year on that alone.
DIXIT: I think being honest and providing actual information is important.
So I haven't said I would support raising the tax, like I just mentioned. I believe that we need to have evidence-based solutions. So when we're talking about removing, you know, the homeless budget from the general fund, our general fund is very different than Texas's in Houston.
So we can't compare ourselves to a model that is vastly different than our own. And so we need to make sure we are aware of that so that we're not comparing things that can actually help us.
BARNETT: What purpose do local ordinances like 'Safe and Welcome in Spokane' serve if immigration policy is set by the federal government?
BINGLE: I think this is such a good question. And it's one of the reasons why I voted against 'Safe and Welcome.' Because this is an area that is regulated almost solely by the federal government.
The city of Spokane does not have the ability to say, 'ICE, you can't come here.' ICE is going to do whatever they need to do in their purview to keep the people safe.
So rather than passing ordinances that give people a false sense of security, which is exactly what our police chief said at the time—a police chief appointed by Mayor Brown and this current council majority.
Chief Hall said that it is not going to protect anybody. It's going to provide a false sense of security. And so unfortunately, what the 'Safe and Welcome' act did is it actually provided, again, a space where people might think that they're safe and they're actually not.
If we truly want Spokane to be safe and welcome, what we should be doing is again, cracking down on drug use, making sure criminals are held accountable. And then it's not just for a segment of the population, but for the entire population that we can actually be safe and welcome.
Then maybe we start seeing our tourists wanting to go downtown again, then maybe our families want to start going downtown again and enjoying the beautiful parks the district one has to offer like Riverfront Park and like our river.
DIXIT: I think it's really important to listen when immigrants are sharing that they're scared. And so I think 'Safe and Welcome' was a compromise type ordinance because we couldn't do quite a robust thing because we know that there's a different supremacy when it comes to federal government and our state government and our local one.
So I think for me, it was really important for myself as a child of immigrants to advocate for 'Safe and Welcome.' And I testified on behalf of it passing because we have seen a huge impact for our immigrant communities and seeing our neighbors disappeared when they're following the law.
And so whether it was Nuestras Raices with their Tacos y Tequila event downtown, which brings a ton of revenue to our city—them having to shut that down because they didn't feel safe, that's important to pay attention to.
And we can't just assume that we can't do anything, because we have to do something, right? And what 'Safe and Welcome' did is allow our law enforcement to also know to protect our people, right? And be able to record if something like that is happening and be able to intervene if something unsafe is happening.
BINGLE: So I don't necessarily disagree that we have to do something, but the 'Safe and Welcome' ordinance did nothing. It is not going to help.
Things that are going to help: I wrote a letter to President Trump on behalf of the folks in my district who came here legally to say, 'President Trump, with you on the illegal immigration, I'm glad that you're shutting that down, but I have a lot of people in my district who came here legally and are struggling to work through the system to stay here legally. Can we have some grace? Is there a separate path that we can have for folks who are here legally and maybe overstay their visa? What can we do there?'
Those are the kinds of things and advocacy that I bring that will be effective.
BILLINGHAM: [This is] specifically for Sarah, but Jonathan, you will get a chance to respond afterwards. Sarah, your opponent has criticized you for speaking publicly at a library event organized by, in part, by the Communist Party of Eastern Washington. What does Spokane have to learn, if anything, from communism?
DIXIT: I don't think the event itself was about communism, so I'd want to correct that first and foremost. The event was a town hall hosted by members of our community, including the Communist Party, but also Democratic Socialists of America in Spokane, Gonzaga's Mutual Aid Club, the MASS organization that's just at large in our community. So it's more than just one political party or one organization.
And I think it's really important for me to show up to those things because those are District 1 residents and there are people who want to talk to me and want to know what my thoughts are about these issues that are pressing all of our communities regardless of political party.
So for me, when I'm asked by community members to do a public forum that is open to everyone at our public library, I'm going to say yes. So that is within my values, and I'm glad I did it because we had people who are big proponents of my opponent, people who really support my platform, everyone was there, and I was able to have conversations with people and really open and respectful manner, and that's what we need in this time of division.
BINGLE: I don't think she answered what we can learn from communism. So I'll say what we can learn from communism.
I think what we can learn from communism is that you can really quickly take away people's freedoms. You can really quickly take away people's futures. You can really quickly take away people's livelihoods and their lives.
Communism is by far the most destructive ideology the world has ever known. And for us to be associating ourselves with that sort of ideology is not representative of our district or of the United States. And it is a problem for me that a potential representative of our district could be somebody who has a good relationship with the communist party.
I don't think it's good. I don't think it's representative of the district, and I don't think we should be doing that.
BARNETT: This one is specifically for you, Jonathan. You are a son to missionary parents, and you've spent years as a Christian pastor, and now you're a politician. Separately, the U.S. is seeing a rise in Christian nationalism. How, if at all, should Christian beliefs inform Spokane ordinances?
BINGLE: It's a great question. I think that my religion cannot be disqualified from the public square any more than my opponents or anybody else's.
And obviously, the values that I bring come from a deeply tied respect that I have for my God and for my religion. And there are laws that are specific to Christians that are not for everybody. And those are the things that that's where we draw the line.
For example, we go to church every Sunday. We tithe to our church. We give to the poor. Those are not things that should be mandated to the rest of the community because those are specific mandates to Christians, right? We go out, we do missionary work. We're not going to force everybody to do that because that's specific to us.
But, don't murder? That's one that applies to everybody. Don't steal? That applies to everybody.
So when it comes to my religion, there are things that don't apply to everybody, but there are plenty that do apply to everybody.
DIXIT: I think it's a misconception that my opponent doesn't have any extreme beliefs or that his ties to political parties are not a big deal.
I would say his connection with former Representative Matt Shea is a big deal—that was one in which, you know, [Shea] was removed and was being investigated for being a violent Christian nationalist and having a biblical manifesto.
And I think that's really dangerous to our country right now. And, you know, when I first met Jonathan, actually, was when he was protesting outside of the clinic I worked at—Planned Parenthood. It was wildly unsafe and multiple patients, providers, staff members felt unsafe and we needed to be escorted to our cars.
And I believe that when your convictions are impeding on someone else's right to access health care or to be who you are or just like be a person, that is a big problem to me. And that is an issue that we are seeing in the nation but also in our district.
BILLINGHAM: The city is currently trying to rewrite its anti-camping laws. How would you combat unlawful camping and ensure people are getting connected to services?
DIXIT: We know that camping is illegal throughout our city. So that is something that is already law. So I don't think we need to continue doing redundant laws.
I think what we do need to do is enforcement. But what that enforcement needs to do is bring people to services. So I am a proponent of the navigation center, making sure we are connecting people with the services that exist in a central location.
I'm not a proponent of people being incarcerated for being homeless because that is wildly ineffective and way more expensive, especially when our jail is already too full. So if we are going to build a new jail, that's a huge tax on our members. And that's simply not responsible fiscally.
And so I believe enforcement can look like the co-deployment that we are seeing with social workers, having service teams go out to the people where they are, our scatter site model, all of those things are things that work and they're backed by data. So I would support those things.
BINGLE: I appreciate my opponents saying she's pro-enforcement. That's the first time I've heard her on the campaign trail say that she's pro-enforcement.
But one of the things that's important to know is that you can only enforce if you have the laws that are able to be enforced.
So she says that currently camping is illegal. We have had the home ordinance for the last couple months right now and it was such a dismal failure that the mayor and the council majority decided we better get on this before the election. And we've had 120 contacts on the home ordinance with folks who were homeless.
And of the 120 we had—literally, this is not an exaggeration—literally zero except help and go to services. We also had zero arrests. So if you're going to have engagement you must also have enforcement.
But you can't have zero of both. That's why we absolutely must have new laws.
Councilmember Cathcart has a proposal that's coming forward soon. It's a very good proposal. It will be a bipartisan effort that comes forward. We absolutely must have it because what is working outside is clearly not working and anybody with eyes can see it.
BARNETT: How do you think that Spokane should ease the strain on jail capacity and address how much money the city is spending on jail beds?
BINGLE: That's a really good question. So one of the struggles that we're dealing with at the jail right now is staffing and that's outside of the city's control. We do need to partner with the county in whatever ways possible to ensure that we have proper levels of staffing because if you look at what we have at the downtown and at Geiger, we do have a fair amount of jail beds right now.
We just don't have the staff to be able to support it. So we need to do everything we can to partner with our governmental partners to ensure that folks when they are committing a criminal act, we do have a place to take them because the question that we must always answer is where will they go, right? And there must be a place for them to go.
Now, Spokane's jail was built before I was born and it was small then. We absolutely do need a new jail and I would support a new jail measure and I know that that's what the safe task force is working out right now.
So I look forward to their conclusions because we absolutely do need to do something to update the jail, make it better, and have spaces where folks who are in crisis, maybe there's a space for them to go as well instead of getting arrested.
DIXIT: I believe that our jail does need to be renovated because right now it is inhumane the way we are treating people in our community.
And by an example that comes to mind where my friends and community members that a lot of people know when they were arrested on June 11th for protesting and using their freedom of speech. They were booked into that jail and they had to sleep on the floor. And there were three people to rooms, even more people to rooms and all of them were able to describe that and are currently dealing with the trauma of that.
So I don't believe that we have enough beds because clearly we don't. And to increase capacity we have to look at who is being incarcerated, currently. So a lot of people are awaiting trial.
People who shouldn't be incarcerated right now. So how do we make sure that the people who are in our jail system are actually violent offenders or unsafe to the public. And we know that currently the jail is astronomically more expensive than it used to be.
BILLINGHAM: What do you see as the future of public transportation in the city?
DIXIT: I love our public transportation system here in Spokane and I believe our STA progress is going really well with the City Line, working on the Division Bus Rapid Transit. I love the City Line. I live near one and I take it all the time.
I'm endorsed by Transportation WA and Washington Bikes, so I definitely believe in multimodal transit. I am supportive of Zappone's plan for reduced fare for people with low income and I believe we can even go a step further of making it faster and more reliable.
BINGLE: I literally just came from riding with [STA] CEO Karl Otterstrom and looking throughout the city and the service that we're getting in District 1.
District 1 has the highest need and the highest ridership. Now all the buses, all the systems that we have right now are just fine, but there are portions of the district where buses can't go because either there's no roads or not enough ridership. What we need is we need that last mile service.
We need some sort of ability to get to the folks who need to use it. And so for that reason, I support more shuttles, maybe more on-demand calls, maybe more shareable transportation. Those are going to be the things that serve my district.
Next week, Inland Journal is going to be all about housing. We'll have Catholic Charities, Union Gospel Mission, and Hogwash Whiskey Den all in the studio together to talk about the housing-first method of getting people off the streets.
