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Report from Olympia | October 12, 2015
Dear
Friends and Neighbors,
Greetings to everyone across the 4th Legislative District.
It’s been a pleasure seeing so many of you at meetings and events around our district
over the past few months. Special thanks go to those who made time in their
busy schedules to meet at our recent coffee one-on-one to discuss issues facing
our district. Your input will be very helpful as we plan for the 2016
legislative session.
Please keep reading for more about some of the issues impacting
our state. If there is anything I can do for you, or if you have questions
about anything in this e-newsletter, please give me a call, send me an e-mail
or come and meet with me. My 4th Legislative District office is in Suite 305 at
11707 East Sprague Avenue, in the Spokane Valley City Hall building. It is
staffed by my legislative assistant, Mike McCliment. The phone number is
921-2460.
Thank you, as always, for the honor of serving as your
state senator
Best Regards,
Senator
Mike Padden
It was an honor to
speak with former state Senator Lois Stratton at the Oct. 3 gravesite service at Holy Cross Cemetery for former state Senator Margaret Hurley (pictured right). She passed away at the end of August, less than
two weeks before her 106th birthday.
Margaret served the people of Spokane in the 3rd Legislative
District in the House of Representatives from 1953 to 1979, and the Senate
between 1979 and 1985. We met and worked together during my initial service in
the Legislature in the ’80s.
Margaret was born in Minnesota but had lived in
Washington since age 2. When she turned about 13, her family sold its small
farm and moved back to Spokane so she could attend Holy Names Academy, one of
Spokane's Catholic schools for girls.
Margaret had a lifelong love of learning, which she brought
to her career as a teacher and to her work in the Legislature.
She was a remarkable leader and a woman of principle.
Margaret was a Democrat who spoke up forcefully for the right to life for the
unborn child.
She is survived by two sons, Patrick, of Coupeville,
Washington, and John, of Olympia; one daughter, Mary Margaret Hurley of
Freeland, Washington; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
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Former Representative
Duane Sommers (pictured left) also passed away in late August, at age 82. He served in the
House from Spokane County’s 6th District from 1986-1992, and again from
1995-2000; our service as state representatives overlapped both times.
Duane was an interesting fellow with a background to match.
A Spokane native, he earned a degree in bacteriology from Washington State
University and also graduated with an Army officer’s commission; after active
duty in Korea and elsewhere he remained in the Army Reserve (eventually
retiring as a lieutenant colonel) and earned a master’s degree in public
health. That brought him to Olympia and many years with the state Department of
Health in Olympia. Duane retired after several years after returning to Spokane,
and a few years later won election to the House on his first try. Like Margaret
Hurley, he also was a strong defender of the unborn.
Between Duane’s two stints in the House he was chairman of
the Spokane County Republican Party, and after retiring from the Legislature he
served part of a term as the county assessor before stepping down to take care
of his ailing wife.
You can read Duane's full obituary, by clicking here.
It was a privilege to know and work with these two
principled public servants.
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Originally
published in the Spokesman-Review on
October 4, 2015
by Senators Mike
Padden and Sharon Brown
The people of Spokane and Kennewick have a right to voice
their opinions at legislative hearings, but for many citizens, participation in
their state government is simply not practical or affordable.
… During this year’s legislative session, we worked with
Senate administrators, local leaders and other experts to conduct a pilot
program to allow remote testimony.
The results from the pilot program are highlighted in a
report completed this summer. Nineteen videoconferences to Olympia took place
during the 2015 session. Six policy committees utilized remote testimony, with
44 people signing up to testify. Six remote facilities were used, including
locations at Spokane Community College, WSU-Spokane and Columbia Basin College
in Pasco.
Click
here to read the full opinion piece.
Even though we are in the interim period between legislative
sessions, our Senate Law and Justice Committee has continued to keep a packed
schedule, working on issues important to Washingtonians.
On Sept. 24 we held a work session at the University of
Washington School of Law on a number of important issues, including:
-
Uniform
Power of Attorney Act (Senate Bill 5635);
- Current
issues in eminent domain;
- Certificate
of Restoration of Opportunity; and
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Freedom
of speech on college campuses.
Eminent domain – meaning the power of the state to take
property, against the owner’s will, for public purposes – is always a lively
topic. William Maurer, managing attorney with the Institute for Justice,
testified before the committee about the “outrageousness” of what happened
after the notorious U.S. Supreme Court Kelo
decision.
The Kelo decision, now a decade old, stripped away the
federal protection for private-property owners. Maurer pointed out that after
taking Mrs. Kelo’s private property to sell to a private developer, the
government of New London, Connecticut actually failed to develop the property.
“Even when government takes private property for proper
public use, it has a terrible track record as a land developer,” said Maurer.
“The awesome power of eminent domain should only be used sparingly, carefully,
as a last resort, and only when it is needed for a true public use.”
The committee also heard testimony on the issue of freedom
of speech on college campuses. Bethany Lusch, a pro-life student at the UW,
spoke out about the challenges faced by the Students for Life group on campus;
its members have been shouted down, had their fliers torn down, and had displays
vandalized. She called for additional protection for students on college
campuses.
Representatives from the University of Washington and Washington State
University spoke about their respective freedom of speech issues and
policies.
Also speaking during the work session was Joe Cohn,
legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education.
The
entire work session is available to be viewed at TVW online.
On Oct. 22 the Law and Justice Committee will hold a work
session at Walla Walla University in College Place. The agenda is not final,
but so far it includes:
-
an
update on the development of a breath test for THC (marijuana);
- a
report from the state Traffic Safety Commission on marijuana-impaired driving;
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an
update on a lawsuit being closely followed by those of us fighting against sex
trafficking, involving the Backpage.com website;
-
a
discussion about testimony by informants and criminal accomplices, a subject
that led me to introduce Senate Bill 5067 earlier this year; and
- reviewing
the effectiveness of the “collaborative law” approach for reaching settlements,
which was authorized by legislation passed a couple of years ago.
 Click here to watch a KREM report on new state effort to combat repeat DUI offenders
Thanks to a $150,000 state grant to Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell's office, Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor
Katie McNulty has been tapped to help train prosecutors across the state in trying
DUI cases. You can learn about the new program, aimed at taking repeat DUI
offenders off our streets, by clicking
here.
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