SPOKANE, Wash. — The Mayor’s Office and Spokane City Council are at odds over a few of Mayor Nadine Woodward’s interim employees who have never been submitted for council approval, including the mayor’s interim city attorney.
“If this interim city attorney stays in office until the end of the mayor’s term, that will be 19 months and that’s just a clear violation of the city charter and the ordinance,” Council President Breean Beggs said.
Under city charter, the mayor appoints individuals she sees fit to positions across her administration, either for an interim or permanent role. For 180 days, these positions do not need to be confirmed by the city council; but, within that time, the city charter stipulates that the mayor must submit those employees for approval.
The council then votes on whether they believe the employee is a good fit for the job. If it’s a yes vote, that employee is certified. If they vote no, the employee must be replaced by a new candidate after those first 180 days.
The key role causing dispute between the mayor and council members is Woodward’s interim city attorney, Lynden Smithson. Smithson was appointed May 31 of last year, after former city attorney Mike Ormsby retired. Since then, Woodward has never submitted Smithson for approval by council – he served his first 180 days, and then 200 more, as an interim employee.
“With the city attorney, that’s been a challenge because council has told us they don’t have the votes to confirm him,” Woodward said. “We have to be more flexible, if we have good people who are in the interim position, let them be in that position as long as it takes to either confirm them or find someone else.”
Council President Breean Beggs said he thinks it is a very good possibility council would not confirm Smithson, due to personnel reasons regarding Smithson’s ability to serve as city attorney.
“I think that’s a fair prediction, but she hasn’t put that person forward, so we don’t know that for sure,” Beggs said.
In January, per council’s request, Woodward’s team opened registration for the city attorney position, but Woodward said there was only one applicant – and that was Smithson. Woodward has made it clear she has full confidence in Smithson’s capabilities, seeing that he has almost 20 years of experience in Spokane’s Prosecutor’s Office.
“I’ve got six months left on my first term, and so I think moving forward, council should keep Smithson in that position and not try and remove him. If they had confirmed him, we wouldn’t even be in this situation, but moving forward I’m not going to remove him and not have somebody in that role,” Woodward said. “We need a city attorney, so, I’m going to keep him in that position.”
On the city council’s side, even though Woodward believes Smithson would not be confirmed, Beggs said that is no excuse to blatantly break city law.
“Council is just insisting that the mayor follow the law, and especially for the chief law person at the city, the city attorney, it seems like that would be the person you would most want to follow the law on,” Beggs said.
Last fall, the city council introduced proposition one to the ballot, which would have essentially flipped the power of who appoints city attorney. Beggs said the council should have the power to appoint, and the mayor would approve.
“Council wanted to change the way we hire the attorney, voters didn’t approve it, so now they’re upset and they’re not wanting to confirm Smithson,” Woodward said. “Do what’s best for the city, let’s take politics out of it, he’s doing a great job, he should just be confirmed.”
Beggs added if Woodward does not submit Smithson for approval soon, council may need to take a vote on possible next actions at a future city council meeting.
