SPOKANE, Wash. — Breean Beggs was sworn in as the new Spokane City Council President on Monday, officially transitioning from his previous role as council member after winning a close election.
He actually took on many presidential duties weeks ago after outgoing president Ben Stuckart offered them up as a way to help ease the transition.
Beggs said in an interview with KREM that already he's learned just how intensely the council president has to be during meetings. Those who have attended might also notice a change in the way meetings are run: Beggs tends to shy away from open conflict compared to Stuckart.
"In terms of really arguing with people or engaging, that's really not the place," Beggs said. "I also just don't take things personally. ...It helps, again, being a lawyer, having taken a lot of shots at me... so if someone is rude to me or the council, as long as they're not outside the rules, OK. That's their issue, not my issue."
Beggs says the focus of the transition has been establishing a productive, collaborative relationship with the incoming mayor, Nadine Woodward.
"What I realized is either one branch can kind of stop the other. We [the council] can deny funding, the mayor can just not hire people," Beggs said. "So we can stop each other. But if we want to do anything great we have to do it together."
The main evidence of that productivity so far has been progress on establishing a police precinct in the core of downtown Spokane, something both Woodward and Beggs have promoted for months alongside council member Lori Kinnear.
"This will be a very visible place with police cars parked outside, and officers walking in and out, right in the heart of downtown. And people will just have a sense of it," Beggs said. "Mayor Woodward has also said that she agrees with us that we need to get [officers] out of their cars and actually patrolling by foot."
He says the first big challenge the new council and administration will face is at long last negotiating a new contract with the Spokane Police Guild.
"That's three or almost four years overdue," he said. "So we have to figure that out shortly, and I believe with a new mayor we'll be able to do that."
Woodward has also indicated she wants a positive relationship with the council to be a focal point of the administration.
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Although they have already established significant common ground, Woodward and Beggs are still on different places on the political spectrum.
"We'll probably disagree at some point in time," Beggs said. "But I think that... since we don't have that history and those scars from past battles, we will be able to recapture our collaboration even if we disagree on one particular thing."
"Everybody almost voted for one of us," Beggs said, referring to himself and Woodward. "So as long as we're working together, everybody is on the same team in Spokane, and we've never been more together."
Woodward will be sworn in as mayor on Dec. 30 at the U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park at noon.