Community Service

There has been many questions about my service to the community since I have never served in any function in Spokane City government.  I  believe that each person can have his/her own form of serving the community and many of those functions have nothing to do with government.  The following are the things that I have done that I consider to be service to the community.  Before I graduated from Brewster High School I had joined the local county/city fire department where I served for approx 5 years as a volunteer fireman.  After I moved to Spokane, I considered joining the county volunteer fire department but decided that it would not work with school, work and family since I would not be able to dedicate enough time to the department.  Shortly after that my boys joined cub scouts where I served several different functions.  I served as a den leader for two years and the pack leader for one year before my boys started soccer through the SYSA.  I also worked for the YWCA for one year developing curriculum for teaching homeless and domestic violence victims how to use computers and Microsoft office products.  I also worked directly with homeless and domestic violence victims to find community resources as well as jobs.  I hope that this answers some questions regarding my stance on community.  I have always been and will always be community orientated.  My future plans include working on a few mountain bike trails in the area to prevent erosion and provide an environmentally friendly family activity.  Speaking of mountain biking,  if you have a family with bikes, Riverside State Park is a great place to go ride.  You do not need any special equipment to go ride and have a great family day.  For the more advanced riders, you can ride up and over beacon, through downtown in less than two hours.  Great ride  with beautiful views. 

Christopher Fenton

Why am I running for Mayor?

                I am running for Mayor because I am fed up with the status quo of city government.  There have been long standing problems that have not been dealt with because of poor execution on the part of management.  There are issues that are continuing to fester even though the city has had many years to deal with them such as the police force, budget, waste to energy plant and fleeing business’s.  This is exactly what I intend to correct.  I will run the city with nothing being put off because it is not politically beneficial.  Putting things off and hoping that they will not become an issue until after the next election is not an acceptable option in my book.  I have no aspirations to be in politics long term, if I am elected, I am giving myself 4 years to implement new processes to decrease waste, create a more business friendly environment to increase jobs and bring new industries to Spokane.  I also intend to strengthen our police force so that they are capable of responding to all calls including property crime.  We will leverage the local resources to entice new business to come to Spokane.  We have a very capable workforce that is not being properly represented by the government that they depend on.  I do not however intend on increasing the size of government.  I believe government should provide a good business environment through reasonable regulation and connecting new business with local resources such as suppliers of parts or services but it is not to provide financial backing to any private project.  If a project makes good business sense then private investors will present their own funding without putting public money at risk.  Anything less than the completion of the above will be viewed as failure in my eyes.  My wife, children and the community of Spokane deserve nothing less.

Spokane Need Living Wage Jobs

The city of Spokane needs more living wage jobs that are provided by private industry rather than government.  This is only going to happen if you have a city administration that is knowledgeable in technology and knows about various industries such as bio-technology.  We have a considerable base to build on with three universities in the area that could partner with business.  We also have a large number of college graduates that come to Spokane for college but then leave after they graduate because they cannot find work in their area of study.  One possible source of new industry that could move to this area would be the renewable fuels industry such as ethanol.  The waste to energy plant is an obvious asset that the city has failed to leverage.  The excess steam that leaves the turbine could be used to operate a pilot level cellulosic ethanol plant.  This would bring high wage jobs to the area as well as present the opportunity for partnership with local universities for research into the optimization of the production of ethanol from feed sources such as the grass waste that is picked up from all of the residential areas.  This would save the city money, because we currently pay to ship all of the green waste collected in the green garbage bins out of town, and this would bring a new industry with high wage jobs to the area. 

Spokane Police and Crime

My purpose for running for mayor is to solve some problems that have been getting worse and the city administration is neglecting them or not willing to be honest with its citizens.  First I will give you a little information about me.   I am married, have two wonderful boys.  We attend Spokane First Nazarene.  I graduated from Whitworth University with a B.S. in Bio-Chemistry.  I enjoy solving complex problems with no easy solution, which is why I enjoy science so much.  My family and I enjoy the outdoors.  We like to go camping and mountain biking.  We typically ride several times a week out at Riverside State Park and on Beacon Hill during the warmer months.  I did however get two 16 mile loop rides in during February where I rode from my home, up over Beacon Hill, through downtown and back home.  I love riding through downtown, the smells, the sounds, and the beautiful Riverfront Park. 

Now back to the issue of Public Safety. To keep it simple we need more police, yet the city continues to cut funding.  Crime is up in Spokane and when there is a crime in progress and you call the police, I believe that the police should have the ability to respond. From the image above you can see that the police force has declined from 2008 and 2009.  (All of my data comes from www.fbi.gov)  At the time I obtained the data, they did not have completed 2010 reports.  

Now look at the Property Crime Chart.  Property crime in the city of spokane is up sharply.  Now if you take a look at the 2011 Proposed Budget, Pg 5, there is another cut of 45.5 position in the Police Department.  What do you believe will happen with crime then.  

In 2010 I called the police several times with no police officer coming to the scene.  One of the calls was about a large group of high school age boys rioting through the Logan neighborhood.  They were throwing things at our house and houses all along the street.  They were kicking over people garbage cans and kicking cars.  With this particular instance, I did however get one officer to call me and he stated that they "do not pull an officer off the street for something like that".  I believe that this is unacceptable.   

The second call that I mentioned was about graffiti.  Everywhere I drive in Spokane I see graffiti.  How do you believe this looks to tourist that visit our beautiful city?  When you travel to a different city and you drive through a part of town that has a lot of graffiti, what goes through your mind?  In my mind I see a place that probably is not safe.  One possible solution to this would be the creation of a work study group.  Work study is in most cases 65% paid by the state.  This would provide the city with very cheap labor while assisting students with going to school.  It would give them work experience and it will help clean up our city.