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# $400K in new city legal costs
- URL: https://www.rangemedia.co/400k-in-new-city-legal-costs/
- Published: 2026-11-10T20:10:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-10T20:28:37.000Z
- Description: CIVICS: Plus, more budget discussions and a hearing for public defender caseloads.
- Author: Aaron Hedge
- Tags: CIVICS

It’s a day late this week because the team took Monday off, but here we go: Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can get involved and speak out about the issues you care about. 

Some things that stick out to us this week include: 

- The council will likely allocate $400,000 for new legal costs associated with two prominent ongoing lawsuits and legal representation for labor negotiations.
- The Spokane City Council is still asking the public for feedback on its proposed budget for 2027 and 2028.
- The Board of County Commissioners will schedule a public hearing for December 1, when it will consider new county rules for public defenders to comply with new state caseload standards.
- The Spokane Regional Transportation Council will likely adopt a new fee schedule for public records.
- The Spokane Valley City Council will likely approve $1.4 million in tourism promotion to boost its sporting events in 2027.

## Spokane City Council

**🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers**

### Budget hearing

Last week, the council heard from the public about its two-year budget, which will cover 2027 and 2028\. It’ll hold another public hearing this Wednesday, November 11, and another November 18\. Its vote will be scheduled soon after that.

If you have opinions on what the city should spend its money on, this is the meeting for you. The council will take commentary on the city budget. It’s going to be a tight year with cuts likely, so if you have programs you want to make sure are prioritized, now is the time to tell your local government!

### $400K in new legal costs for existing cases

The council is set to approve $400,000 in new legal spending for two lawsuits and for labor negotiations. It will allocate $100,000 to a case brought by Spokane firefighters who sued after the fire department fired them when they refused to be vaccinated for COVID-19, bringing the full cost to $1,250,000\. Next, it will add $150,000 to defend against a lawsuit against the city filed by the ACLU of Washington and Jewels Helping Hands over the city’s homeless camping and rights-of-way restrictions. The total cost would come to $400,000\. Finally, it will allocate another $150,000 to legal costs associated with labor negotiations, bringing those costs to $750,000.

### Legislative agenda

The city will enshrine its asks to the state and federal governments for funding and policy support. The top item is a request to the Trump administration to declare a disaster in the recovery from the Spokane Complex fires, which would free up response money. On the state level, the city wants funding to secure the transfer of the Thorpe Property to the City of Spokane and to pass the Vibrant Cities Act, which would allow the city to exempt new buildings and building improvements from local property taxes in order to encourage denser development and prevent land speculation, or holding land without developing it in hopes it will appreciate.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/citycouncil/documents/?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Wednesday, November 11 at 6 pm* 
> *Council Chambers* 
> *808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane* 
> *The meeting is also live streamed* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/citycable5/live?ref=rangemedia.co)*.* 

## Spokane City Council Study Sessions

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/citycouncil/documents/study-sessions/?ref=rangemedia.co) *when available* 
> *Thursday, November 12 at 11 am* 
> *Council Chambers* 
> *808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane* 
> *The meeting is also live streamed* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/citycable5/live?ref=rangemedia.co)*.*

## Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee

🌶️🌶️🌶️**/5 peppers**

### Airport budget

Spokane Airports officials will present their budget for the next year, which covers Spokane International Airport, the Airport Business Park, Felts Field and the Rail-Truck Transload Facility. The overall budget will be 19% smaller than last year’s, likely due to less spending on a suite of expansion projects that have dramatically transformed the SIA campus over the last several years.

There is no item in the budget to cover the massive environmental cleanup the state Department of Ecology requires the airport to carry out to address its [forever chemicals contamination](https://www.rangemedia.co/airport-ceo-lawmakers-banning-toxic-pfas-chemicals-larry-krauter/) of the aquifers that feed drinking wells on the West Plains.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/bcc/committees/public-infrastructure-environment-and-sustainability/?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Tuesday, November 10 at 1 pm* 
> *Council Chambers* 
> *808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane* 
> *The meeting is also live streamed* [*here*](https://my.spokanecity.org/citycable5/live/?ref=rangemedia.co).

## Spokane Public Facilities District

**🫑/5 peppers**

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://www.spokanepfd.org/?ref=rangemedia.co) *when available (no agenda as of Tuesday at noon)* 
> *Wednesday, November 11 at 12:30 pm* 
> *Board Room, 720 W Mallon Ave, Spokane* 
> *Virtual attendance* [*here*](https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6730871979447016541?ref=rangemedia.co)*.*

## Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session

**🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers**

### Public hearing for public defense caseloads

The county will set a public hearing for December 1 to review significant changes to its standards for public defenders, the most significant of which respond to a state supreme court decision last year that limits the number of cases any defender can do in one year. Specifically, the new limitation says a defender cannot defend more than 47 felonies or 120 misdemeanors, less than half what was previously allowed. The changes up for discussion revise existing policy that says a defender can’t do so many cases that it would erode the quality of their work. The new policy says they can’t break the supreme court’s new rules.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://spokanecowa.portal.civicclerk.com/?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Tuesday, November 10 at 2 pm* 
> *Commissioners’ Hearing Room* 
> *1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane* 
> *The meeting is also live streamed* [*here.*](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85674845677?ref=rangemedia.co)

## Spokane Regional Transportation Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️**/5 peppers**

### New fees for public records

The council will vote on a new fee schedule to pay for administrative costs related to public records requests. While in-person records inspection would remain free, the agency will charge 15 cents per page for paper copies, 10 cents for scanned pages and 5 cents for copies that are uploaded to a cloud service.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://www.srtc.org/srtc-board-of-directors/?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Thursday, November 12 at 1 pm* 
> *21 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504, Spokane* 
> *The meeting is also live streamed* [*here.*](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88995178182?pwd=SFRkSlRQSHE3UlFpQ3ZFeHJvbWMxdz09&ref=rangemedia.co)

## East Valley School District Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️/**5 peppers**

### New levy funds to be allocated

The district will increase its budget by more than $14 million in 2027 after voters approved an excess tax levy to benefit the district’s general fund.

### Emergency over roof leak at East Valley High School

The district will declare an emergency to fix a water pipe that burst at East Valley High School that sent “a significant amount of water” into classrooms. The emergency declaration allows the district to wave the bidding process to hire a contractor to fix the pipe.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://go.boarddocs.com/wa/evsd361/Board.nsf/Public?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Tuesday, November 10 at 6 pm* 
> *3830 N Sullivan Rd, Bldg 1* 
> *Spokane Valley.*

## Spokane Valley City Council

**🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers**

### City expects to spend $1.4 in tourism marketing in 2027

As part of next year’s budgeting process, the city council is set to approve $1.4 million to fund its Tourism Promotion Area, largely structured around sporting events at its cross-county running facility The Course. You can read more details about the promotion area on the agenda.

> *Agenda* [*here*](https://www.spokanevalleywa.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes-Videos?ref=rangemedia.co)  
> *Tuesday, January 7 at 6 pm* 
> *10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley* 
> *Virtual attendance* [*here*](https://spokanevalley.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view%5Fid=3&event%5Fid=568&meta%5Fid=83544&ref=rangemedia.co)*.*