MEET RICHARD
Richard is a thirteen year resident of Spokane. He has a continuous record of civic engagement beginning in 1995 with participation in Spokane Horizons, the foundation of the City's Comprehensive Plan. He next focused on resource protection work with Friends of the Aquifer in 1999, a process that raised awareness of the region's sole source aquifer. This effort in part spawned a $3.5 million aquifer study, completed this year, deepening our understanding of the nature and limits of the region's water supply. Friends of the Aquifer also successfully turned back attempts by two speculative energy companies to use vast amounts of the region's water resource for electricity generation.
Richard has served on the Cliff-Cannon Neighborhood Council Executive Committee for the last seven years. Most recently he has championed compliance with the City's Comprehensive Plan on Street Bond projects, particularly Bernard Street in 2006 and Southeast Boulevard in 2007. Richard filed a Petition for Review to the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board in July, 2006. The Petition challenged the City's Street Development Standards as inadequate to implement the City's Comprehensive Plan. Here is the Board's Final Decision and Order. And here is a recap of the Hearing by John Speare.
PERSONAL
Richard grew up in the segregated South in the 1950’s. His
hometown of Tuskegee was the first in the state of Alabama to see its
public schools desegregated in 1963. Most of his former classmates fled
desegregation for private all-white academies. Richard’s father, who had helped people of
color register to vote, and Richard’s mother, who accepted an
appointment to the school board to replace a member who resigned in
protest of desegregation, kept Richard and his sister in public school.
Richard graduated Tuskegee High in a class of sixteen.
Richard earned a bachelor's degree in 1973 and his MBA in 1986. He has been successful in retail and property management, civic engagement and has spent the last ten years as a full-time parent. His interests include public policy analysis, mountain biking, yoga, transcendental meditation, gardening and cooking.
Richard is married to Betsy Batchelor Rush. They discovered Washington on their honeymoon in 1983. They have two children, Madeleine and Jasper. Both children attend Jefferson Elementary in the Montessori program.