Business Association cites lack of information about costs to low-income neighborhoods, businesses and local economy
Spokane, WA - 07/10/09 - Today Robert E Lawrence, President of the Greater Hillyard Business Association (GHBA), sent letters to each Spokane City Council member, urging their action to avoid the future costs of litigation, increased costs of services and community distress by withholding support for the Envision Spokane “Bill of Rights” initiative. GHBA voted unanimously Wednesday to send the letter.
The letter notes that GHBA in cooperation with Bemiss, Hillyard and Whitman neighborhood councils and community organizations, sent representatives to Envision Spokane meetings last year to assess the efforts and likely contributions to Spokane’s lower-income neighborhoods. When the representatives reported that some of the initiative’s proposals appeared to have already been decided, and that others affecting the neighborhoods were unclear, GHBA and the other neighborhood organizations discussed themselves the merits of the proposed “rights” in the initiative. The GHBA letter notes that while some ideas strengthening neighborhoods’ control made sense, others appeared not to have considered costly implementation hurdles or enforcement problems—and that this analysis was critical before approval could be granted. GHBA and the councils withdrew their representative and their support of the process.
GHBA’s letter reminds council members that the Envision Spokane initiative is an “all or nothing” proposition: that an entire list of “rights” will face an up-or-down vote in the election. Because of the costs, both in financial and community-distress terms have not been disclosed to the voters, GHBA urges the City Council to disapprove the initiative as misleading.
A copy of the letter to City Council members is below:
Dear Councilman Al French
During the past year, the Greater Hillyard Business Association has followed closely Envision Spokane's activities, and at their invitation (and with the cooperation of the Hillyard, Bemiss and Whitman neighborhood Councils), we appointed a representative to attend a number of their meetings. Our purpose was to determine the likely results of the Envision Spokane effort, and to assess its value to the neighborhoods and district that our organization is dedicated to support.
After attending a series of meetings, our representative reported that the likely result would be a "Bill of Rights" for the citizens of Spokane. This "Bill of Rights" had certain predetermined components long before it had reached its final form. We discovered that there were some ideas discussed that made some sense--strengthening the roles of neighborhoods relative to the departments of the City, for one. A mandatory neighborhood review of proposed changes to neighborhood zoning was another.
But we also concluded that some of the proposed elements had little to do with the realities of the neighborhoods we are striving to help. We discussed the idea that when declaring "rights," there seems an accompanying obligation to identify related "responsibilities." In mandating health care, asserting rights to the environment, and in other cases, this obligation has not been addressed. Nor have the costs in these asserted rights been addressed; we believe them to be excessively high, in a time when many of our neighbors are unable to meet basic living costs.
This initiative appears to us to be incomplete, in both its inception and in its lack of analyses of costs to the citizenry. We foresaw this early in the process, and withdrew our representative (as did the three neighborhood councils) from the Envision Spokane process.
Envision Spokane petitions an entire agenda of "rights" to be in an up-or-down vote--all or nothing. We believe it will be a source of future litigation and distress for the City. GHBA's membership urges you to take whatever steps are available to spare our neighborhoods these likely results.
Robert Lawrence
GHBA President
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Contact:
JR Sloan
Economic Redevelopment Director
(509) 467-2241