Spokane mayor recall moving closer to reality

SPOKANE — A bid to recall Mayor James E. West over a sex scandal has garnered nearly 74 percent of the signatures needed to place it on a special election ballot this year.

County elections workers said yesterday that they had verified signatures from 9,251 registered city voters on recall petitions, or 73.6 percent of the 12,567 needed to place the issue up for a vote on Dec. 6.

Elections Manager Paul Brandt said the county will probably have verified the required signatures by tomorrow. County Auditor Vicky Dalton would then certify the recall petition Friday morning, with formal notice going to recall author Shannon Sullivan and West that day.

West would have seven days to submit a response to the recall ballot language, which can be up to 250 words long. He has been accused of misusing his office to get sex from young men.

Dalton plans to hold the election on Dec. 6, the last day allowed by law, to give her staff time to recover from the Nov. 8 general election. Dalton has said it will be an all-mail vote.

Sullivan has stepped away from the recall battle and a small group of activists will take on the political campaign against West.

Neil Beaver, former coordinator for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Spokane, said the recall effort needed to stick to a simple message involving the sex scandal. Bringing in questions about other city controversies "is just going to clutter it up," he said.

Former City Councilman Steve Corker agreed. Recall supporters ought to emphasize that voters should base their decision on allegations that West misused his office, he said.

"I don't know of a person in this town that doesn't know the issues," Corker said.

In a series of stories starting May 5, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that West sought dates from young men over a gay Web site and offered them gifts, trips and City Hall positions. The FBI is pursuing a public corruption investigation, which involved an August search of the mayor's home.

In a separate investigation, the City Council is looking at whether West violated city workplace policies, including prohibitions against using city computers to obtain or transmit obscene or pornographic material.

West has admitted "poor judgment" but has denied breaking any laws.

Neither side has raised much money. Rita Amunrud, spokeswoman for the yet to be named recall campaign committee, said the group has no money but some offers of in-kind contributions, such as labor.

Its predecessor, the Recall Signature Team, raised and spent about $3,500 in cash, and had about $21,600 in donated legal work.

The most recent reports filed by West's group, Committee for Spokane's Progress, listed $1,150 in campaign contributions, and more than $85,000 in expenses, most of it legal fees for efforts to block the recall petition.

On Monday, the City Council stepped up its pressure on West by voting to hire an outside lawyer to argue for the release of West's hard-drive computer information.

Council members approved a $5,000 increase in a $15,000 contract with a Bellevue law firm that was previously hired to investigate the mayor's workplace conduct.

West is fighting release of the computer records, in part because they include "highly offensive" private material, West has said in a sworn affidavit. Investigating attorney Mark Busto has requested release of the information as part of the council-sponsored investigation.

A hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 12 before Judge Richard Miller in Adams County Superior Court. Council President Dennis Hession said the requests by the council investigator and the newspaper have been consolidated into the Oct. 12 hearing in which West is seeking to prevent the release of the information by the city attorney