Spokane’s district residency requirements may disqualify Spokane City Council candidate Alejandro Barrientos for the District 2 seat he’s running for. The city’s charter requires candidates to live in the district they’re seeking to represent for a full year immediately preceding the time the candidate files to run, but divorce documents filed last year show Barrientos told the courts he was not living in his District 2 home during that time period.
Barrientos and his ex-wife Eva Vigouroux had three shared properties before their divorce: a condo in District 1 in downtown Spokane, a house on the South Hill in District 2 and a property in Idaho.
In order to be qualified to run, Barrientos would have to have lived in District 2 since May 5, 2024 — a full year before he filed.
Where Barrientos was residing in that timeframe is complicated.
In June of 2024, Vigouroux had certified in a court document that she was living with their two children at the house in District 2. In the dissolution of marriage petition Barrientos filed to the courts that same month, he certified that he and his soon-to-be-ex wife were living in separate households and had been since May 2024.
The parenting plan the two submitted in June of 2024 also outlined the days the children would spend with Vigouroux versus the days they would spend with Barrientos, showing they were living in different households when they filed for divorce and were planning to continue in separate households. A final order submitted in October of 2024 continues to list Barrientos and Vigouroux as having separate homes.
A month before he filed to run in May of 2025, Barrientos purchased a new home, back on the South Hill, where he has been living since.
