Quotes and Notes

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Badraun's gone

During a New Year's Eve day special session, retiring Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Judy won the City Council's 4-2 dismissal of longtime Planning Commissioner Steve Badraun. Depending on one's point of view, the dismissal of Badraun from the volunteer post he'd held for a dozen years was either:

A) Necessary because of Badraun's actions, like complimenting a female city employee's looks and missing three recent planning meetings (though he still has a better record than two other commissioners); or,

B) The railroading of a political dissident. Badraun ran for mayor against civic volunteer and downtown business-owner Sandi Bloem this fall. Bloem won. Part of Badraun's platform was speaking out against the in-breeding of downtown business interests and city politics.

This omBUDsman's for you

Is anyone else wondering when Doug Floyd, the Spokesman Review's newly appointed ombudsman, is going to discuss the 800-pound gorilla sitting on his lap? The whole reason for his appointment, ostensibly, was to repair the damage to the daily's credibility over its handling of the River Park Square project when it was in its crucial phase about five years ago. On Sunday, Floyd discussed how his paper's editorial page should let people know when its regular columnists are on vacation. This is not exactly what anybody had in mind. Floyd's a good journalist, and he could do a credible job on this admittedly tough assignment, but will he ever get around to tackling the topic that everyone has expected him to deal with?

Cell tower solutions?

Tired of living in the shade of that

cellular phone tower? At their Monday meeting (Jan. 14, at 6 pm) the Spokane City Council will consider some newly proposed tower regulations. They'll also let the public speak about the issue.

A cell tower committee has been working on the regulations for most of a year. Naysayers maintain that the committee was stacked with industry people, who were conveniently posing as regular-joe engineers and lawyers. The proposed regulations aim to "protect the community's natural beauty, visual quality and safety" -- but still let telecom towers loom overhead. A tall order? Yes. Impossible? One hopes not. Download the proposed regulations at www.spokanecity.org/documents.

What am I reading?

Q & amp;N -- "Quotes & amp; Notes" -- is a column of politics and public doings in the Inland Northwest. We're looking for the deeds of heroes and knaves and even the snappy comments of the village idiots. They all have a place in Q & amp;N.

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