Death case suspect wins 6-months trial delay

By Tom Bacon, Spokane Public Radio

Lawyers for accused triple murderer and sexual predator Joseph Edward Duncan won their plea (Thursday) to delay the trial date, giving them time to wade through reams of evidence, and possibly, to avoid a long, expensive trial and a cumbersome appeals process altogether.

Public Defender John Adams also made a pitch for a plea-bargained sentence for Duncan, accused of murdering three people in their Coeur d’ Alene home and abducting two young children, Shasta and Dylan Groene.

He said life in prison without parole is much quicker, cheaper and less emotional for the families of the victims:

“If you wanna, you know, have this case in your community for the next 20 years, keep asking for death; if you wanna spend money on it for the next 20 years, keep asking for death; if you want it in Shasta’s life for the next 20 years, keep asking for death: If you want it to all go away, don’t ask for death.”

Adams refused to say directly if he’s talked with prosecutors about striking a plea deal, but he hinted broadly at it:

“There’s always that possibility, isn’t there? I mean, everybody wants to spare the McKenzie family, Brenda’s family, the Groene family of having to go through this, and if a plea is the way to do it, why not?”

Prosecutor Bill Douglas, however, gave that idea short shrift:

“We made our intentions (known) early on, that there would be no negotiations in this case and none forthcoming.”

Douglas had argued that the April trial date had been scheduled last December, and that any delay would add to the emotional burden of 9-year old Shasta Groene and family members of the murder victims.

Judge Fred Gibler, after hearing nearly two hours of testimony behind closed doors, set the trial date back to October 16, citing the threat of a reversal by an appellate court on the grounds of insufficient time to prepare a defense.

Gibler must also rule on a motion to move the trial out of Kootenai County, probably by sometime next summer.

Consultant says mental health agency leaks cash

By John Vlahovich
Spokane Public Radio

The agency overseeing Spokane County’s Medicaid mental health treatment services is bent, but not necessarily broken. That’s according to an accountant who recently studied the financially troubled Regional Support Network operation.

Dale Jarvis of MCPP Healthcare Consulting says his financial analysis of Spokane County’s RSN, as the agency is popularly called, found that between 1999 and 2005 it spent $3.5 million less on mental health services than it received in federal and state Medicaid reimbursement.

So what caused the agency to run a $2.6 million deficit last year? Jarvis said he found an apparent lack of knowledge of federal and state rules, and of financial planning within the RSN leadership.

Where the agency got into budgetary hot water was in its building-related spending, especially when it bought and renovated the new Community Services building on Spokane’s South Hill.

This and other problems have resulted in the RSN currently facing the possibility of losing future state Medicaid reimbursements, although legislative efforts to delay this are occurring in Olympia.

Jarvis says the RSN financial management system needs changing. Among other things, Jarvis says the RSN should gradually switch its mental health service providers to fee-for-service style payments. In other words, pay providers only for services they document as having provided to patients.

WASL alternative bills headed for House vote

By John Vlahovich
Spokane Public Radio

Washington House Education committee members Wednesday morning forwarded a pair of bills that nibble around the edges of the state’s student assessment controversy. One allows alternatives to the existing WASL test, the other sets up a study of the WASL.

The main complaint voiced prior to this morning Education committee vote on the bill to allow alternative methods of student assessment was that it shortchanges many Washington students.

The bill authorizes State School Superintendent Terry Bergeson to offer a trio of alternatives.

That’s not enough, said Sharon Santos, a Seattle Democrat. Too many students won’t qualify for one of the allowed alternative assessments.

“They are going to have to be forced to use the existing paper and pen assessment of student learning and if they can’t demonstrate their mastery of the subject matter with that single measure then they have to endure, not us, not the superintendent, the label of failure twice,” Santos said.

Students would have to fail the WASL twice before they could take an alternative.

Although other Education committee members echoed Santos’ view, they agreed to recommend passage by the entire House. The measure already has cleared the Washington Senate.

Committee members also recommended passage of a companion measure requiring a two-year study of possible options to the WASL test.

Republican Gigi Talcott, from Lakewood near Tacoma, said the study goes hand-in-hand with the WASL alternatives bill.

“If we were only doing a study this year, this would be a huge disappointment. But we have made great progress in making pathways for the class of 2008 that hopefully will make it to the governor’s desk and into the students’ lives,” said Talcott.

Legislators want an interim report of the study’s findings by the end of this year with the final report and recommendations due at the end of 2007.

Group wants every Washington voter to re-register

By Austin Jenkins
Northwest News Network

A new organization called "Freedom Washington" plans to file an initiative to the people. It would require all voters to re-register.

Backers of the initiative say Washington's voter rolls are in shambles and the only way to clean them up is to start over. If passed, the initiative would deactivate all of the nearly four million voter registrations in the state.

In order to reactivate, voters would have to show proof of citizenship and a photo ID. Bob Williams with the Evergreen Freedom Foundation says his main concern is weeding out illegal immigrants.

"What happened is under the Motor Voter act we gave driver's licenses to illegals. So we believe that there are thousands and thousands of non-United States citizens on our voter rolls. That is wrong," he says.

In order to qualify for the ballot, Freedom Washington would have to collect nearly a quarter million signatures by July. Secretary of State Sam Reed says forcing all voters to re-register violates federal law. His office is currently in the process of scrubbing a new statewide voter database.

Shelters open voluntarily during recent cold snap

By John Vlahovich
Spokane Public Radio

Several Spokane homeless shelters opened overnight warming centers last week as nighttime temperatures plunged to near zero, made worse by high winds last Friday and Saturday.

Ed McCarron of the House of Charity says his institution opened its first floor Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to more than 20 homeless individuals each night.

McCarron says staff members made special efforts to let Spokane’s homeless population know House of Charity would open its first floor as a warming center.

The Spokane city council late last year appropriated $5,000 to repay organizations that open warming sites. City officials are still finalizing its warming shelter policy.

But even without formal agreements with the city, the House of Charity, Women’s Hearth and Salvation Army shelters have voluntarily opened warming sites when weather conditions warranted.

School levy ballots go out this week

By Doug Nadvornick, Spokane Public Radio

The ballots will be sent this week for the March 14^th school election in Spokane County. The election will conducted entirely by mail.

Fifteen county school districts will put basic operations levies before voters. Several districts will also offer additional measures.

The Central Valley School District is looking to build a new elementary school and a new middle school in the eastern part of the district.

Spokeswoman Melanie Rose says a $55 million bond issue would pay for those and to renovate three grade schools.

“Opportunity Elementary, which is pretty much in the heart of our district, was built 37 years ago, has never been remodeled,” she says.

“Opportunity Elementary would be remodeled, along with Ponderosa Elementary, down in the far southwestern corner of our district. And then, we would also remodel Greenacres Elementary, which is on the east side of Sullivan. It’s one of only two elementary schools right now that we have to serve all of the homes that are going in that area.”

Six other Central Valley schools would get new cooling systems and technology. If the bond issue is approved, the measure would add $60 to the annual tax burden for the owner of a $100,000 home.

Central Valley’s second measure is a maintenance levy that would provide funding to supplement the district’s basic state funding. It would replace the current levy that expires at the end of the year.

The Spokane School District also has a maintenance levy on the ballot. It would last for three years and replace an existing levy.

Superintendent Brian Benzel says the district started its public information campaign a few weeks early to adjust to the new vote by mail system.

“One of the concerns we have about, will people know what they need to know in time to vote, because we have seen a lot of people turn their ballot right around,” he says.

“Instead of peaking with our election, we’re getting up to a plateau around the 20^th of February and needing to sustain an information sharing campaign during that three week window.”

Ballots for the Spokane County school measures must be returned to the elections office or postmarked by March 14^th in order to be counted.

Senate approves medical malpractice bill

By Doug Nadvornick, Spokane Public Radio

The Washington state Senate today (Wed) moved quickly in unanimously approving a compromise medical malpractice bill. The vote on the Senate floor came just a few hours after a Senate committee acted on the same legislation and two days after Governor Chris Gregoire proposed it.

It was perhaps the closest 48-to-nothing vote in Washington Senate history.

Usually a bill that wins that kind of margin gets great praise. Not on Wednesday.

“I’m gonna vote for this bill, but I do not believe, as the proponents say, it does much to advance patient safety. Quite the opposite and we need to keep working in that regard.”

That comes from a member of the bill’s sponsoring party, Democrat Brian Weinsteen from the east Seattle suburbs.

When Weinsteen finished, a fellow east King County Senator, Republican Cheryl Pflug, took the microphone.

“The bill before us is going to generate some great press releases and there’s going to be a lot of talking about the legislature addressing medical malpractice”, she said.

“But time is going to tell whether or not we actually, with the passage of the few good things in this bill, and there are a few good things and they’re certainly worth voting for, but they’re not monumental.”

Indeed, the Senate vote seemed more a giant sigh of relief than a rousing endorsement. Lawmakers have, for several years, vigorously debated medical malpractice, but never agreed on a specific bill. Last year, the public endured a long election campaign waged by supporters of two competing medical malpractice initiatives, and then defeated them both.

So when Governor Chris Gregoire announced on Monday an agreement by the major players in the malpractice debate, Bellingham Republican Senator Dale Brandland was ready to give in.

“I gotta tell ya, folks, in the four years that I’ve been here dealing with med mal, I’m tired of saying no. I’m very pleased to be able to stand up before this body and say ‘yes’ to something that will move us in a positive direction.”

The bill flew through the Senate, going from a hearing in committee on Monday to a vote in committee on Wednesday morning to a vote in the Senate before lunch on Wednesday. The House will get the bill next.

Medical malpractice breakthrough touted

By Doug Nadvornick, Spokane Public Radio

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire today (Monday) announced what she calls a breakthrough in an attempt to reform the state’s medical malpractice system.

Gregoire says, after weeks of negotiations with representatives of doctors, trial lawyers and insurance companies, all parties have agreed to support a compromise bill. Among other things, that bill would give the state insurance commissioner the authority to review and approve requests for increases in medical malpractice insurance rates. It would allow doctors to apologize for medical mistakes without worrying that their statements will be used as admissions of negligence. It would also make changes that encourage arbitration and other ways of keeping disputes from going to trial.

Gary Morse from Physicians’ Insurance, the major malpractice insurer in Washington, says his company supports the compromise, even though it will mean more work and expense.

“Well, our company will have to engage in some revamping of our computer system,” Morse said. “We will have to begin to collect some data that we have never collected before. We will have to change our timelines and systems for non-renewing policies. We will have to make certain that we provide more complete information to policy holders our reasons for non-renewal, reasons for premium increases, reasons for reductions in coverage.”

The compromise bill received a hearing in the Senate Health Care Committee today. Several who testified said it’s a bill that should still be refined, but that it’s a positive breakthrough in a years long battle over medical malpractice.

Last fall, Washington voters defeated two malpractice initiatives, one proposed by doctors, the other by lawyers.

Wells makes offer to purchase downtown Rookery block

By John Vlahovich
Spokane Public Radio

Spokane has received one – possibly two – offers on the partially demolished Rookery block buildings downtown.

John Pilcher of the city’s economic development office Monday afternoon told city council members he’d received an official offer prior to the 1 p.m. deadline.

The offer is from Spokane developer Ron Wells.

But Pilcher says there’s another party who has expressed interest in buying the historic structures.

“We do have one proposal and, obviously, if that one meets the requirements of the RFP, we’ll move forward with that,” he says. “But there is another party out there that’s trying to seek an effort to make a submission and we can allow that to happen. But again the one who responded by the 1 p.m. would certainly have precedent and we’d certainly have authority to work with them.”

Spokane is asking $4.8 million for the property. The city council agreed to a plan to save them from the wrecking ball under which the city would front the money. They imposed the condition that money spent is immediately reimbursed.

Pilcher says that city legal staff is reviewing the Wells offer and that he expects to be able to provide details within a few days.

CdA school facility levy vote

By Tom Bacon, Spokane Public Radio

Coeur d’ Alene School District voters will decide March 14^th whether to ante up money for construction projects.
The election is colored by worries about property tax loads and uncertainty about what the state legislature will do to enhance school funding.

If Coeur d’ Alene voters agree with the school board call for a new levy to replace an expiring 4-year assessment, they’ll approve just under 40-million dollars over the next four years at a beginning tax rate of a dollar-63 per thousand dollars of value.

The levy avoids heavy interest costs of a bond issue:

“It is a means for us to kind of pay-as-you go in terms of our
construction and remodeling and renovation monies.”

Steve Briggs there, chief financial officer of the Coeur d’ Alene district.

He said the levy has become the primary vehicle for capital projects, such as a new Lakes Middle School, which is the centerpiece of the call for money:

“We’ve been using that in the Coeur d’ Alene school district for a number of years, since the 1990s, and it’s a way we have been able to fund our construction, remodels, new schools and the like.”

The expiring levy in Coeur d’ Alene was initially set at a dollar-99 per thousand, but rapid growth has cut that to a dollar-29. The new levy would slightly raise the rate to an initial dollar-63, meaning a probable hike of just a few dollars a year to start with:

“Look at the year we certified for last September, and you take the projection that we believe we’ll be certifying for next September, for about every hundred-thousand dollars of taxable value, it would be just under a 34-dollar-a-year increase.”

The wild card in that computation, however, is the legislature’s action on hiking the property tax exemption on homes.

Briggs said the board and the district Long Range Planning Committee tried to strike a comfortable balance between spending money demanded by rapid growth and the tax burden imposed on property owners:

“One message that we’re trying to send is, we still have the building projects to deal with, we still have the needs of the district, but the board is very sensitive to what’s happening in terms of property taxation and levies, and I think they’ve been very responsive to that issue.”

Whatever happens to tax rates, property values and exemptions, Briggs said the levy income is capped at 39-point-eight million dollars.

The proposition needs 55 percent voter approval to pass. Only if the tax rate goes above 2-dollars a thousand does the requirement for a two-thirds majority for passage come into play.