Steve Corker
Spokane City Council
District 3 Position 1

Public safety is now, and will continue to be, the number one priority of the City of Spokane. Fifty-two percent of the City's General Fund is devoted to police and fire services, totaling more than $57,000,000.

Our biggest public safety concern continues to be the dramatic increase in meth use and production, with its terrible impact on the health of those affected and on theft of personal property to support such addition.

I am also proud of the action taken, over the objection of our then Mayor, to add $500,000 to the City's Police Department budget for 2003. As a result of those added funds, additional personnel were added to the Department that year.

Our community policing programs, Block Watch, C.O.P.S. stations, and our Citizen's Academy, are just a few of the outstanding programs promoting community awareness and citizen involvement in protecting our homes and neighborhoods. These programs will continue to have my full support.

The outstanding efforts of our Police and Fire Department's men and women deserve full support from the Mayor and the City Council.

I was disappointed when former Mayor Powers did not want to pursue Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance transport services by employees of this City's Fire Department. Estimates as high as $2.3 million in additional revenue to the city could have been realized by such action.

I want to explore every way possible of increasing revenue to support our public safety efforts.

I am proud to have worked with the administration and my fellow City Council members on securing support for our combined Communications Building, a joint City/County project. This new facility will ensure the best possible communications environment to serve our emergency needs.

Our newly instituted independent municipal court system will help us face financial challenges, now and in the future.

Electronic home monitoring is proving to be a cost saver. Last year, more than 11,000 days of electronic home monitoring saved taxpayers hundreds of thousand of dollars in jail costs. The offenders pick up the cost of that monitoring. Let's expand this program.