This spring, the Washington Legislature changed how local governments structure public health boards.
“Gov. Jay Inslee praised the bill as he signed it, saying it would ‘take politics out of public health,’” the Spokane newspaper said (here).
Little did he know.
The Spokane County Commissioners, all Republicans, used the bill to throw all of the City of Spokane’s health board members off the panel. They did it by shrinking the board from 12 to 8 members. Under state law, the commissioners are 3 of those members, and they’ll appoint 4 of the others.
From now on, Spokane, eastern Washington’s largest city, with about 42% of the county’s population, will have zero say in local public health decisions and policies.
Photo: The Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) office building in Spokane