City Council and Big Business

["French" <dfrench@moscow.com>]

Visionaries:

As we mark the anniversary of Moscow City Council's hurried decision to hand over Eighth Street to Gritman hospital, let's reflect on some of the events of the last year. The timing of the Council's action was driven by Gritman's assertions that the hospital was bursting at the seams, diverting patients for lack of beds and insufficient ER space, making a Spring '02 groundbreaking of utmost necessity. Public involvement was kept to the legal minimum. Requests like mine to put the street vacation to a public vote were brushed aside because of the urgency of the situation. There was just nothing to do but get on with it so Gritman could start building.

Within a month of the official giveaway, the Daily News had two interesting articles. One described Gritman's decision to put the expansion plan on hold so it could re-evaluate its facility needs prior to construction. Huh? After spending a purported half-million dollars to come up with the only building plan that could work, the hospital was now going to try to figure out what its needs were? Give me a break. The other article reported that the "diversion status" Gritman played-up in Council hearings was actually caused by understaffing or equipment malfunction, not overcrowding. Even at that, only three patients had been diverted. Some crisis.

With construction now pushed back to Spring '03 at the earliest, two questions must be asked. First, why did Gritman fabricate a picture of such urgency for the Council? I think that answer is easy: To get their land-hungry mitts on the newly re-opened Eighth street before more of Moscow's citizens had rediscovered the advantages of this east- west route through downtown. Second, why were our elected officials so easily taken in by Girtman's propaganda? That one's a little trickier. While it might be most comfortable to blame sheer gullibility, I think the truth is that our city government had made up its mind well ahead of the first public hearing and was glad to have the official decision made as quickly as possible.

Another example of this kind of ramrodding was the Council's March approval of the Palouse Mall's landscape renovation (a plan, by the way, that will increase water use enough that the city refuses to either estimate the use or meter it separately so that it can be monitored). Mayor Comstock forced the Council to vote because the Mall "had to get start planting before summer gets here." This was just another example, you see, of the government getting in the way of free enterprise; and wasn't it a shame that the Mall had been kept on hold so long in its pursuit of such a worthy plan. Never mind that most of the delay resulted from the Mall's refusal to communicate with the city staff overseeing the project. Never mind that the Mall had acted covertly and illegally in its original removal of plant material from public property. Again, the portrayed (and fabricated) urgency of the situation was used to forestall any further discussion of the project. And if you've been by the Mall recently you've noticed how much planting has been done.

Now, you might get the idea that I don't like the hospital or the mall; but that's not the point. They're just big businesses doing what big businesses do: use any tactics to further their financial bottom lines. What I really don't like is our elected officials helping them to do it. City government shouldn't squander public property and resources without the full understanding, participation and approval of its citizens.

But maybe we shouldn't expect anything different. Two-thirds (at least) of our city council represent big business. Half of our council members first joined the body through appointment -- by Mayor Comstock, who seems to favor development at any cost. What we need, I think, is a city government peopled by residents who aren't in the hip pocket of big business. That may be the only way for citizens to have a real voice in how our city is operated. Next November we will have the opportunity to replace four council members who may not represent the best interests of the entire community. I hope the newly-formed Moscow Civic Association will provide a mechanism for locating candidates for council that will represent us all.

Bill French

prairiedoc@moscow.com

202 E 7th St, Moscow

883-3937