Sign the petition: Keep democracy on the ballot!
Posted 30 November 2023
Zack Zappone is adamant that he never voted on his own district map (details below). Now he wants to take your right to vote away.
Spokane City council has unanimously passed a resolution to allow We the People the opportunity to vote this coming February on how our Spokane City Council districts are drawn and who draws them. They know that items of such importance are best left to the People.
Zack Zappone thinks he knows better than us. He has sponsored a resolution to rescind the previous vote of council (he was absent when the vote occurred) and direct the Spokane County Auditor to remove the vote from the ballot. Taxpayer money and public employee time has already been spent preparing for the vote. The county elections division has already posted the information here.
Zappone has had many months to express any concerns with his fellow council members’ decision to prepare a vote of the People. He has not done so until last week. All of a sudden, Zappone is demanding that some kind of crisis exists that disrupts months of work by our elections offices.
Zappone wants council members to vote for his policy reversal resolution on Monday. Why should Zappone have a vote to take yours away? Especially since he insists that he doesn’t vote on such matters …
Earlier today, the Spokane Ethics Commission webpage posted Zack Zappone’s defense to multiple charges of ethical violations. You can read his lengthy response here.
The cornerstone to Zappone’s ethical defense is that he “never” voted for the city council map that he created that has been the cause of so much controversy.
In his defense brief, Zappone states nine times that he either “did not vote,” “never voted,” “abstained from voting” on the redistricting map that he produced that was ultimately offered instead of the map from the official volunteer redistricting board. He goes to great lengths in one particular paragraph on page six,
“Finally, I never voted for any redistricting map at any time. I did not vote when the Redistricting Commission voted for their final four maps at the August 31, 2022 meeting. I abstained from voting when City Council amended the final map at the October 23, 2022 meeting. I abstained from voting on the final adoption of the map at the November 7, 2022 meeting. It was publicly reported at that time the proposed new map would have a slight benefit to liberal candidates in district 3. Because of all the attention that was on the maps at that time, I chose to abstain from the vote.”