Do the People of Spokane, Washington, Have the Right to Cast a Vote on a Community Bill of Rights? (Part Two of Two)

Paul Cienfuegos’ February 10th, 2015 Commentary on KBOO Evening News

(His weekly commentaries are broadcast every Tuesday evening. You can view or listen to them all at PaulCienfuegos.com, CommunityRightsPDX.org, or subscribe via ITunes. You can listen to this one HERE.)

Greetings! You are listening to the weekly commentary by yours truly, Paul Cienfuegos.

Today is part two of a two-part series. Last week, I shared the remarkable story of the Envision Spokane campaign and its three attempts thus far to get their Community Bill of Rights in front of the voters. In November 2009, they garnered 24% of the vote. In November 2011, they garnered more than 49% of the vote. And in November 2013, when it looked quite likely that they would finally win, a large number of corporate associations and others sued to keep them off the ballot in what’s referred to as a pre-election challenge. Then just twelve days ago, on January 29^th, a higher court ordered the Community Bill of Rights to be placed on the ballot at an upcoming election. Check out last week’s commentary for more details about the proposed law.

Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin is the attorney who argued the winning case, and I feel blessed to have him as my very brief guest on today’s commentary.

Welcome Lindsey. I’d like to start by asking you to lay out the basic case that you made to the State Appellate Court as to why the voters in Spokane, Washington, should have the right to pass a Community Bill of Rights which the corporate opponents have claimed is both an illegal and an unconstitutional ballot initiative.

(Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin’s comments have not been included in this transcript, but can be heard in full HERE.)

Thank you Lindsey for sharing your thoughts about this big legal win concerning the Spokane Community Bill of Rights. You can find out more at EnvisionSpokane.org.

You’ve been listening to the weekly commentary by yours truly, Paul Cienfuegos. You can hear future commentaries every Tuesday on the KBOO Evening News, and a growing number of other radio stations. I welcome your feedback.

You can subscribe to my weekly podcast via I-Tunes or at CommunityRightsPDX.org. You can follow me on twitter at CienfuegosPaul. You can sign up for my newsletter at PaulCienfuegos.com. THANKS FOR LISTENING! And remember: WE are the people we’ve been WAITING for!