[Vision2020] Can Tim Brown keep his focus for 18 months?

[Tom Hansen]

"This first-term member of the council has told the Daily News he won't be running for reelection, and his plan is to move to the Spokane house when his term ends. He's already changed his driver's license and vehicle plates to Washington. He says he is going to register to vote in Washington after this fall's election."

This creates a whole bunch of legal unanswered questions . . . like residency requirements of city council members.  

And what about Idaho's voter ID laws?

Courtesy of today's (July 27, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Can Tim Brown keep his focus for 18 months?
By Lee Rozen, for the editorial board

Tim Brown, vice president of the Moscow City Council, has a long history in this city, having grown up here and owned a business here.

But with 18 months to go in his term of office, he is starting to separate himself from those neighborhoods he's long known and loved.

He sold his business here even before he was elected. Now, he has sold his two residential properties here and is living in a house owned by his sister, who lives in Virginia. Meanwhile, he and his wife have purchased a $650,000 home in Spokane, where she lives all week, and he does on weekends.

This first-term member of the council has told the Daily News he won't be running for reelection, and his plan is to move to the Spokane house when his term ends. He's already changed his driver's license and vehicle plates to Washington. He says he is going to register to vote in Washington after this fall's election.

Those with whom he disagrees politically - there are a few - might like to make something of all that.

The most serious criticism one might make is that he won't have to live with the consequences of any votes he takes or arguments he makes on the council in the next 18 months.

You might note that any former council member could - for any number of personal reasons - find it necessary to move from town shortly after his or her term ends. That's true, but for Brown it's a long-term plan, not a sudden development. It seems likely at least part of his focus today is on where he is going to be living in Spokane and not on where he is living in Moscow.

Besides that, if he's not around on the weekends, not involved in weekend DIY projects here, not shopping here for house stuff, not involved in weekend gatherings or recreation or culture with fellow Moscow residents, there are a lot of conversations about this city's quality of life at the personal level he's likely to be missing out on.

But those are somewhat vague concerns. He brings a lifetime of caring about Moscow to the City Council.

Still, it does look like those days are coming to an end, in his words, "sooner than later." We just hope they last through the end of his term.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown


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