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I attended a meeting of Spokane Area bloggers that are a community under the umbrella of Launchpad INW. I just posted this comment in their discussion thread:
I moved to Spokane for its many fine amenities/attributes. The only downside is it’s company town nature that is an impediment to real growth of existing and new businesses that will increase the prevailing wage base for all citizens.
With the advent of the new/alternative/social media, such as this forum, the information and thought of the day can no longer be restrained/filtered. Once informed the citizens of Spokane can hold their elected/appointed officials accountable for their less than stellar performance to truly make this an All American City.
The recently settled multi-million dollar AMR billing fraud class action suit is just one example of the waste and fraud at the expense of the Spokane taxpayers/citizens. Former Sheriff Tony Bamonte of Breaking Blue fame was one of the plaintiffs that stuck with this for some five years after the City failed to act in a reasonable manner on behalf of its citizens.
Read Tim Connor’s article at the Center for Justice’s website:
Scandal on Wheels
Published on December 4, 2010
AMR to pay nearly $2 million to settle class-action claims.
Of course the recent spate of officer involved shootings (OIS) should be of concern to all Spokane residents. My biases definitely lie with the police rank and file. Some of these shootings have the element of suicide by cop. Having said this, it’s very important that these OIS investigations are A+ level work product. Not only whether these OISs were criminally justified or not but from the internal affairs aspect, were they within police policy, procedure and practice. The internal affairs investigation/review (IA) is a critical aspect of these investigations to determine if policy/procedure/training are in need of changing to prevent or lessen the occurrence of similar events in the future. And lastly, to minimize the financial risk in subsequent civil actions. Local law enforcement has been less than transparent in this regard and the community is beginning to question whether these investigation are A+ level work.
For those interested in aspects of Spokane politics/government that are seldom reported by our local media for various reasons, I would highly recommend f the work of Larry Shook. Larry Shook is an award winning investigative reporter and former publisher of Spokane Magazine. Larry doesn’t post on a regular basis to his blog but what he does post is thoroughly sourced/researched with linked references:
Of course I will do a shout out for my blog that I post to on an infrequent basis.
I’m an old shop worn gum shoe that retired to Spokane that perhaps has too much time on his hands. My sig other would really like to see me gainfully employed. Hopefully I will be challenged by membership in this group to post more regularly. Gee I may even make this a post:-)
UPDATE I:
I posted this additional comment in reply to another poster:
Thx Tom,
This aspect of the social networking/media is what Clay Sharky led with his book, Here Comes Everybody. It was this sharing of information between members of the Boston Area Catholic Churches that broke the back of the decades old dirty little secret of pedophilia by priests. The Church up until that point had been successful in compartmentalizing the flow of information that concealed the extent and subsequent cover up of these crimes.
UPDATE II:
A related bit from a comment on my FB page by Bob Apple a member of the Spokane City Council:
Bob Apple replied to my FB post and snipe re snow removal in Spokane:
“…The S-R article threads offer a useful debate site for substantive discussions that so far our political leaders have ignored and buried their heads in the sand while debating extensively the esoteric sustainability issues of our world, bike lanes, and dithering on how to best remove the snow in a timely manner as if it’s a surprise that it snows in Spokane.”
Bob Apple commented on your link.
“I’d like to review officer involved shootings but none of the final reports are ever provided and not because they haven’t been asked for. Apparently our City Administrators would only like us to talk about bike lanes and snow removal issues and really disregard anything having to do with labor issues. Problem is even snow removal has become a labor issue and were labor claims its barganing unit employees should be doing snow removal and our City officials can’t contract out work with private sector conracts and now apparently your City Council is, nolonger able to even hear about it. It all boils bown to the Mayor we have as expressed in City Charter and in determining who really runs our City?”