A Perspective on Power
In 2016, when I first started writing these emails I assumed that the job of county commissioner in the State of Washington was to oversee the parts of each county that weren’t controlled by a municipal government. Living in the City of Spokane, I thought, erroneously, that I really didn’t need to pay much attention to who the Spokane County Commissioners were or what they were doing.
Reading the Spokesman Review did very little to dispel my misconception. Most of the reporting seemed to focus on controversies involving the City of Spokane’s mayor and city council, not the county commissioners. The seven member Spokane City Council meetings are held in the evening when it is convenient for citizens to attend. In contrast, County Commission legislative meetings are held in the afternoon, are usually short, and public testimony is sparse.
Until January 2023, Spokane County’s county commission, like county commissions in the vast majority of Washington State’s counties, was composed of only three commissioners, commissioners who tended to vote 3-0 on most issues. There was little controversy or even discussion in the commissioners’ public meetings that might draw news coverage. (See P.S. for reasons why this was so.)
In 2023, following redistricting and the November 2022 general elections, the Spokane County commission was expanded to five members (once again, see P.S. for more background). The three prior commissioners, Al French, Josh Kerns, and Mary Kuney all kept a seat but (at least on paper) represent smaller districts (new Districts 5, 3, and 4, respectively). Commissioners are no longer elected countywide in the general election, but rather only within their respective districts. In 2023, the original three were joined by Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan (new Districts 2 and 1, respectively). New Commissioner Districts 2 and 1 lie almost entirely within the City of Spokane. (See map). If my naive concept of what county government does were accurate no such representation for the citizens of Spokane would be needed (or desired).
So what do Spokane County Commissioners actually do? They do far more than just sit on the dais and vote at commissioner meetings. They sit on a wide variety of state and county boards and commissions along with both elected and salaried officials from the both the county and the municipalities, along with citizen volunteers and representatives from interest groups. For a list of some of these boards and commissions, explore here. As a more concrete example pertinent to one County Commissioner (from Tim Connor’s writing concerning the West Plains PFAS story—the topic for Wednesday):
Until Al French was replaced on the Spokane Regional Health District board by new county commissioner Amber Waldref earlier this year [2023] he held at least three key positions related to this [PFAS] story: county commissioner, airport board member (including the positions of vice chair and board secretary) and health district board member. French is also the chairman of “S3R3 Solutions” a state chartered “community empowerment zone” created to promote development and employment in the “West Plains Airport Area.”
If you dig into the details of many of these boards and commissions, how they are constituted and who serving on them has a vote, you find that these details are subject to decisions made by the county commissioners. A particularly egregious example of this concerned a change in the composition of the Spokane Regional Health District Board of Health during the Covid pandemic. Commissioner French, leading his two relatively like-minded fellow commissioners, entirely remade the SRHD Board to his political liking. (See my comments and Shawn Vestal’s article here—no paywall.) This is the sort of thing that typically happens behind the scenes with little public awareness.
Salaries, term limits, and what they mean to the accumulation of power
The salary of the City of Spokane’s six City Council Members is $49,799, whereas the salary of each of the five serving on the Spokane County Commission is far more robust at $128,000. (That latter salary is similar to the salaries of other County-level elected officials like Treasurer and Assessor.) Back in 2014 for an article on the political career of Al French by Daniel Walters Mr. French was “Asked if he has more influence as [a Spokane County] commissioner than he would as mayor [of the City of Spokane], he doesn’t hesitate: ‘Yes.’” Mr. French fully understood back then, having previously served as a City of Spokane City Council Member, was that not only are Spokane County Commissioners much better paid, but Commissioners wield proportionally far more power with less opposition—and much less irksome news coverage—than any City of Spokane elected official.
Finally, County Commissioners are not term-limited. City of Spokane elected officials either leave with their accumulated expertise after their two allowed 4 year terms or they must seek another elected office. County commissioners may continue to amass power and knowledge of “the ropes” for as many terms as they can stay elected
If any of you harbored the same naive concept of county government as that with which I was afflicted, I hope this provides some civic orientation. We ought to pay much more attention to the County Commission and its role—and urge the local media to do the same. This is an election year—and two of the five commissioner seats are once again in play. Pay attention.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. How county governments in Washington State organized and function is spelled out in the WA State Constitution (Article XI) and Title 36 of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). According to those rules most Washington State counties (including Spokane County before 2023) are run by three county commissioners. Each commissioner comes from one of three distinct commissioner districts within that county. Within each district a top-two partisan primary election determines who advances to the November general. In the November election the top two elected from each district stand for election countywide. In a county in which one party’s voters are dominant, this formula tends to yield a three person commission all of the same party. If one of the three commissioners has been in office a long time, has a dominant personality and an opinion on everything, that person, hearing little if any dissent, will tend to bulldoze the votes of the other two commissioners.
This dynamic of single person dominance is (unintentionally, I think) bolstered by Washington State’s Open Meeting Act. The law (act) prevents (at least theoretically) two commissioners on any three member commission from discussing commission business—except in the setting of an open public meeting. Faced with a dominant personality like that of Spokane County Commissioner Al French it takes a lot of confidence to even ask an innocent question in an open meeting—for fear of being publicly belittled.
Partly in recognition of this dynamic, in 2018 the Washington State legislature passed a law modifying the composition of county commissions and election of county commissioners for counties exceeding a certain population. Specifically, the change in state law moved Spokane County from three to five commissioners—and, importantly, mandated that they be elected solely from the district in which they reside. Tellingly, Commissioner Al French did everything he could to keep the law from going into effect, including bringing a lawsuit on behalf of Spokane County (nominally and probably at county, i.e. taxpayer, expense) challenging the constitutionality of the new law. The lawsuit went all the way to the WA State Supreme Court—where French and his fellow plaintiffs lost.
Since January of 2022 we have had a five member county commission in Spokane County, including two new commissioners, Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan, who are not afraid to graciously express their opinions in public meetings. Undoubtedly, it helps that pairs of commissioners are now legally allowed to casually talk over county business—and learn from each other—when not under the spotlight of a public meeting. Lately, I have attended a number of the Tuesday at 2PM county commission legislative sessions. The change in tone from the dominance display of the three member meetings is palpable—and welcome. A growing number of citizens attend these (usually very short, often less than a half hour) 2PM Tuesday meetings in the basement of the Spokane County Public Works Building just east of the Courthouse. I recommend stopping by. It is a window into how things work.