No Planning for Spokane City Bond Issue

When a multi-million dollar bond issue is placed on a ballot there are usually constituents ready to persuade voters that spending that kind of cash is a good idea. Not so with the City of Spokane’s $19.5 million dollar proposal you’ll see on March 10th.

The City’s calling it a capital improvement measure that is vital to public safety. Storing criminal evidence, euthanizing wayward pets, providing judges nicer offices and building a better police shooting range are nice ideas. But there’s been zero ground work laid that might persuade the needed 60% majority that these four things out rank the City's other needs.
Here’s what $19.5 million buys: A new police department evidence building, a new municipal court building, a new animal shelter and a new law enforcement firing range. See the problem? A campaign centered on crime, courts, cops and euthanizing wayward cats and canines is a tough sell. This bond issue has no natural support beyond the City Council and the Mayor who historically only campaign for their own re-election.

Voters also don't really know whether these projects are even necessary because the City has no strategic capital spending plan. This means we have no idea what else might be needed or how these four multi-million dollar items rank in priority. It's almost as if they've been picked out of thin air. City Councilman Mike Allen has been pleading with his colleagues for more than a year to create a strategic capital improvement plan before putting anything else on the ballot. Allen believes, correctly, that deciding what projects the City needs and then prioritizing them will at least give voters a reason to consider saying yes---especially in the current economic client. But his pleas have been ignored.

Bond issues are tough to begin with let alone when they're thrown to voters with no campaign plan, no fund raising strategy and no messages that resonate with voters. And did I mention that School District 81 is running a $28 million bond issue that same day?

It’s a good thing I’ve never written fiction because I’m not clever enough to make up this stuff.

Something New

I really had to stop and think for a bit when my friend Mark Keas of MDI Marketing asked me a couple of weeks ago whether I’d be interested in playing a reporter on a TV commercial for a local car dealer. Don’t misunderstand: I have no problems with commercials---they paid my salary for about 30 years. And while I gladly took the loot the ads provided I didn’t have to worry about whether they were clever, effective, ethical or actually worked. That was always someone else’s problem. But I quickly concluded that taking a chance and trusting another professional’s judgment was the right thing to do. So now the microphone---a rather large one at that---is in the other hand.

Was it a tough decision? No. I’ve seen Mark’s work, his client is reputable and I was familiar with the production crew. It really came down to whether a former news guy was ready to step back in front of the camera but on another side of the business. I was also curious to see what it was like pitching a product instead of just reporting on one. I’ve been out of the news business for two years now and the spot was not pretending to be part of any identifiable newscast so I had no ethical dilemma. And selling something instead of just talking about it?

The comments have been generally positive---the lighting was good, we had a well written script, the crew was easy to work with, Mark’s idea was clever and the editing was superb. I even had one person say he bought a car because of the commercial. So I’d definitely like to shoot another spot if the client and the agency are happy.

But all through this I’ve kept in mind what my old EWU Professor Howard Hopf said on numerous occasions: “It ain’t creative unless it sells!”

So my question is: Are we creative?

Ridpath Creditility Gap

Did anyone ever believe this?

Snow Storm Communications

Communication is a wonderful thing.

If you remember, the City waited for more than a day last winter to fire up the plows when the snow began falling heavily. The delay caused crews to fall hopelessly behind, people began screaming and Mary Verner took five days before even addressing the issue publically.

Fast forward to this week: The record snow fall caused gridlock in Downtown, businesses closed and the city took on the eerie feeling that reminded me of when Mount St. Helens erupted. But while it’ll be extremely difficult to get around for the next several days and many schools and businesses are still locked up there’s not the public stress and outcry that we saw last year.

Why? Two things are different. First the City pulled the trigger early and threw everything it had at the storm. The second and most important difference is that Administration told us that it was on top of the situation and has kept us fully informed for the past two days. Almost hourly updates were posted on the City’s website which included plowing maps, weather reports cameras showing city streets. The Spokane Police Department used its RSS to push out information that was invaluable to everyone. And the Spokane Fire Department regularly updated its website to let us know where the biggest problems were.

With winter not even officially here yet we could see much more of this over the coming months. But as long as local governments continue to communicate and make progress on the problem residents will be supportive.

Now if we could only get Diamond Parking to let us know when its sidewalks will be shoveled…

Success in an Uncertain Climate

The rest of the country may be wringing its hands wondering what to do during uncertain economic times but not here in Spokane. Many groups are moving forward on large, very cool projects that clearly indicate that we are definitely not the same community that all but folded its tent during the severe economic down turn in the early 80s.

Just a few years after Expo 74 downtown began shutting off the lights as skywalks fell vacant, companies moved out of the core and governments sat by and watched. Now we see public, private and non-profit agencies pushing forward with projects worth millions of dollars that just a few years ago didn’t appear as if they’d get off the ground. The difference between now and then: strategic partnerships, better planning and good communications.

A great recent example is the emerging University District. When he was still at the City of Spokane, Tom Reese led the initial planning stages for the U-District that laid the foundation for others to carry out the vision. The Downtown Spokane Partnership and WSU-Spokane joined forces and enlisted the help of local governments, Spokane’s legislative delegation and private companies to create a specific U-District plan. The payoff came last week when Arthritis Northwest, WSU-Spokane, the DSP and Denver based developer NexCore announced the construction of a three-story, 60,000 square foot medical building---the catalyst that will launch the entire development of the 55 acre U-District.

Several years, a few false starts and hours or work were needed to accomplish this goal. The key was having a vision, creating plans to achieve it and having backup ideas just in case the first plans didn’t work out---which is exactly what happened. Other local groups with great ideas such as Mobius and the Parks Board can learn from this successful effort as they push their projects forward.