Spokane Mayor David Condon issued the following statement about the action taken today by the City to protect the citizen initiative process:
“I am a firm believer in the citizen initiative process. Initiative 2015-2 steps outside of that process and knowingly ignores the analysis by the hearing examiner. The City took action today to protect the integrity of the citizen initiative process as outlined by the ordinance the Council President and I championed and the majority of the City Council supported.
This action specifically asserts that the fourth prong of the initiative regarding corporate powers exceeds the scope of local initiative powers because the City lacks the legislative authority to reduce federal and state constitutional rights or otherwise enact laws that conflict with superior laws. The complaint makes no challenge to the other three prongs of the proposed initiative.
This flaw was noted and explained by the hearing examiner in his April 14, 2015 opinion. The initiative sponsors were informed by the City Attorney’s Office that if they decided to revise their initiative to correct the error noted in the hearing examiner’s opinion Spokane Municipal Code requires them to start the initiative process over. They chose to ignore his analysis and proceed.”
