Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can keep track of and fight for the issues you care about.
Here are highlights of what’s coming up:
- Spokane City Council could vote to remove the racist Monaghan statue as part of traffic safety clean-up downtown.
- At the Urban Experience Committee, the council will discuss an ordinance that could give the Parks Department the power to designate some parks property as “non-public,” which would prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from doing arrests without a judicial warrant in city parks.
- Mead School District Board of Directors is having a workshop on changes to their transgender students policy, which the state has repeatedly told them is illegal.
- Spokane Valley City Council could approve a regional homelessness collaboration with Spokane city and Spokane County. They’re also talking about spending public safety funds “to cover current estimated legal costs associated with Council Member [Al] Merkel.”
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council
- Urban Experience Committee (Spokane City Council)
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Board of Spokane County Commissioners (Briefing and Legislative Session)
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Spokane Plan Commission
- Spokane Airport Board
Weekend Reads
We republished a few must-reads over the weekend: a piece from The Spokesman-Review on systemic failures resulting in the death of a twelve-year old child at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, and a column from The Appeal on the importance of mentorship from incarcerated people beyond just “scared straight” programs. Got a few extra minutes this Monday morning? Give ‘em a read!
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Carbon Capture, Climate Commitment, say that 5x fast
The city has received a $650,000 grant from Washington’s Department of Ecology — which comes from the pool of money generated by the Climate Commitment Act’s carbon credit bidding — to pay for a carbon capture study at the Waste-to-Energy facility. This might sound kind of boring, but it’s becoming increasingly necessary: in 2027, the Waste-to-Energy plant will have to start bidding for carbon offset credits itself, which could cost Spokane taxpayers a pretty penny.
Spokane has been lobbying the state to give the Waste-to-Energy plant an exemption on having to bid for credits, because the potential alternatives to the plant are much less environmentally friendly, like paying to send our garbage to a landfill in Adams County. The bill to exempt the Waste-to-Energy plant failed this year, which means Spokane is running out of chances at the legislative level. The results of this study could be critical in continuing to push for the credit exemption.
Monaghan removal, at last?
Tonight, council could approve a resolution sponsored by Council Member Kitty Klitzke to authorize the removal of the downtown statue John R. Monaghan, which is accompanied by racist plaques proclaiming Samoan people as a “savage foe” and depicting them primitively.
Advocates from the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community here in Spokane have been calling for its removal for quite a while, but there had been no movement since last January, when city council created a formal process to review offensive landmarks. Now, the Monaghan family has agreed to move the statue to the family mausoleum, and it’s going to happen in tandem with city construction to make the intersection the statue currently looks over safer.
Block party summer
One of the promises from Mayor Lisa Brown’s most recent safe streets press conference could get one step closer to fruition tonight, as council holds a first read on the ordinance to make it easier for neighborhoods to shut down their streets for block parties. Are you already dreaming of partying it up with your neighbors this summer? Because we are!
Next week’s sneak peek:
- Council could approve two consent agenda contracts to continue fighting unlawful death suits against the city: another $100,000 to fight a suit from Robert Bradley’s family, bringing the total to $600,000, and another $50,000 in a suit from the estate of Clovy Jamarillo, bringing that total of $200,000. Later in the meeting, the city is set to approve a $90,000 settlement with Kelli True, for “an incident that occurred on November 13, 2024.”
- The two conservatives on the council, Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart, have an ordinance up for a read that would reinstate Proposition 1, exactly as it was written in the voter-passed initiative. Council Member Zack Zappone has an amendment, which if approved, could replace Bingle and Cathcart’s ordinance with the new language put out by Brown’s administration — making camping on and obstruction of public property illegal citywide, but with lighter consequences for violations.
- The block party ordinance could get approved, as it’s scheduled for a final vote!
Agenda here
Monday, May 12, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Urban Experience Committee
🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Scatter-site update
Want to know how the scatter-site shelters across the city are functioning? Zeke Smith, Executive Director of Empire Health Foundation, who has the contract to oversee the implementation of the new scatter-site model, will be giving the monthly update on shelter operations at noon.
Civil infractions
Right now, the city has a fairly complex model for civil infractions with differing levels of civil infractions and associated penalties. An ordinance submitted by Adam McDaniel, Brown’s policy advisor, and sponsored by Council Members Zappone and Paul Dillon, would simplify the city’s civil infraction system. Basically, it would make it so that all civil infractions are the same “level” of infraction, consolidating multiple penalty schedules into a single schedule. McDaniel wrote that this “will improve Code Enforcement and Municipal Court administration and disposition of civil infractions.”
ICE-B-Gone
A new ordinance from Council Member Lili Navarrete’s office is up for discussion today that would create a mechanism the Park Board or Park Director could use to “temporarily or permanently designate portions of park property as non-public.”
You might be thinking, “Now, RANGE, more public space is always a good thing! We pay for that with our taxes!” But the agenda sheet says the intent of this particular ordinance is to create a way to stop "warrantless entry by law enforcement.” For example, if a local nonprofit serving refugees or immigrants wanted to hold an event in the parks, that event could be a target for ICE, because it’s in a public space where a judicial warrant wouldn’t be necessary for an arrest. But if the Parks Board could designate that park property as “non-public,” during the event, it would make it illegal for ICE to serve any attendees with non-judicial warrants at the park.
The ordinance draft states that, “Permission to access any portion of a city park with a Non-Public designation without a judicial criminal warrant for the purpose of executing federal civil immigration enforcement operations shall only be provided with the express, written approval of the Park Board or Parks Director.” This would put the responsibility on the Parks Director to deny entry to ICE officers without judicial warrants.
The ordinance is intended to address safety concerns for the community, the sheet states. If it passes, it could be the city’s next move to go beyond symbolic support of immigrants.
Agenda here
Monday, May 12, at noon
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Work session - Transgender students policy
Mead School Board is having a work session (which means no public comment) this week, and we noticed a few items of interest. They’re continuing to discuss their transgender student policy, which they were scheduled to vote on April 28. That vote got suspended after feedback from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). We reached out to OSPI on April 29 to ask what feedback they gave, exactly.
“Through this review, OSPI informed Mead that their Transgender Students policy and procedure do not comply with state law, and we required corrective action of adopting WSSDA’s model policy and procedure, as required in RCW 28A.642.080. The district requested OSPI review the school board’s most recent draft revisions to their policy and procedure, so we provided feedback and reminders about state law by email yesterday,” wrote Katie Hannig, OSPI’s Interim Communications Manager. “We will continue to steadfastly follow the laws of the state of Washington, which provide clear civil rights protections for our transgender and gender-expansive youth that fit inside the protections provided under federal law.”
Hannig added that “any corrective actions that are not complete by the end of the Statewide Civil Rights Review will be addressed in OSPI’s report to the Legislature,” so if Mead doesn’t start following state law, stat, OSPI’s going to tell State Legislature, which holds the purse-strings on funding.
At this week’s work session, Mead is also scheduled to discuss a “2025/2026 WIAA Participation Resolution.” There’s no additional context or documentation, but we’re curious — after the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) declined to pass transphobic policy amendments, maybe Mead is souring on their membership in the statewide organization…
Agenda here
Monday, May 12 at 6 p.m.
Union Event Center
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead, WA 99021
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane Valley City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Moving forward with regional homeless collaboration
This week, Spokane Valley could sign an interlocal agreement with Spokane city and Spokane Valley to enter into a joint agreement to regionalize homelessness efforts. We covered the agreement in-depth here.
Merkel drama eating up SpoVal’s top priority
The Spokane Valley City Council loves nothing more than the police — they say it during most of their meetings and tend to equate public safety with more uniforms on the street. At least until Al Merkel, a freshman council member who made a name for himself by asking blunt questions of city employees and being accused of harassment in the first two years of his four-year term, came into the picture.
The council is proposing to draw $130,000 from its public safety budget — which would have gone toward police vehicle replacements — to defend a lawsuit from Merkel stemming from an investigation the city commissioned into Merkel’s alleged aggressive behavior toward city employees as he came onto the council. The amount is part of budget adjustments the city wants to make, which also include a $350,000 increase in contract attorney fees associated with legal costs relating to the Merkel case.
Other items in the $989,764 budget appropriations plan include:
- “$350,000 increase in contract attorney services in the City Council Department to cover current estimated legal costs associated with Merkel.
- $223,200 decrease in salaries, payroll taxes and benefits in the Public Safety Department to help offset legal costs related to Merkel in the City Council Department.
- $130,000 decrease in law enforcement vehicle replacements in the Public Safety Department to help offset legal costs related to Merkel in the City Council Department. This represents a reduction of two vehicles being purchased as replacements for current aging patrol vehicles.
- $158,064 increase in the Engineering Department related to hiring an additional Right of Way Inspector position that was approved by council at the April 15, 2025 council meeting. This cost increase is offset by increased Right of Way Permit fees as discussed above.
- $18,000 increase in the Homeless and Housing Services Division related to the outreach services contract. This contract is being paid through a grant from Spokane County.”
Agenda here
Tuesday, May 13 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
County proposes regional safety task force
Commissioners Chris Jordan and Mary Kuney and Sheriff John Nowels have proposed that governments around the region convene a task force focused on solving safety issues in the county. It would be called the Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force. Local business leaders — including Alicia Barbieri of the Goodale & Barbieri Company, Gavin Cooley of the Spokane Business Alliance and Stacey Cowles of the Cowles Company — wrote a letter of support for the effort.
Millions on table for services for unhoused people
The Housing and Community Development Department is anticipating having more than $16 million in federal, state and local funding for programming for unhoused people. George Dahl, the department administrator, will present recommendations for how to allocate that funding between now and 2027. The recommendations include spending the money between three basic categories: affordable housing, community development and homeless services.
Liberty Lake requests $500k reimbursement for improving Cataldo Ave
The city of Liberty Lake is requesting $589,251.57 from the county to reimburse its spending on an extension of Cataldo Avenue, along I-90 from local infrastructure funding.
Agenda here
Tuesday, May 13 at 9 am
Public Works Building Lower Level, Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane, WA 99260
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
🌶️/5 peppers
$1.5M for Elk Chattaroy Road improvements
The BOCC will vote whether to award a contract to Versatile Industries, Inc., for $1,595,126.60 to Elk Chattaroy Road from Big Meadows Road to Cowgill Road. The amount is about $1.5 million short of the total project cost, which will mostly be funded by the state of Washington.
Agenda here
Tuesday, May 13 at 2 pm
Public Works Building Lower Level, Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane, WA 99260
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Plan Commission
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Complete-r streets workshop
The Spokane Plan Commission is going to hold a workshop on the Complete Street Ordinance, which hasn’t been updated since it passed in 2011, which Urbanism columnist Lauren Pangborn covered in a recent piece.
“The ordinance ensures that whenever the city is tearing up a road, it is rebuilt with all the master-planned bicycle and pedestrian facilities,” Pangborn wrote. “But the ordinance is showing its age and city officials think it’s due for an update as best practices in the worlds of bike and pedestrian infrastructure have since evolved.”
With Jon Snyder, one of the authors of the original ordinance, taking the helm as Spokane’s new Director of Transportation and Sustainability, it looks like there’s finally going to be movement on updating the ordinance, starting with the workshop this week and continuing soon with a public hearing, yet to be scheduled.
Agenda here
Wednesday, May 14 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Central Valley School District Board of Directors
Agenda here
Monday, May 12 at 6 p.m.
Learning and Teaching Center (district office)
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane School District Board of Directors
Agenda here
Wednesday, May 14 at 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Airport Board
Agenda here.
Thursday, May 15 at 9 am
Airport Event Center
9211 W. McFarlane Road, Spokane, WA 99224 The meeting is also live streamed here.
