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:
- Spokane City Council is set to approve traffic safety projects tonight, but after two pedestrian fatalities in the last week, advocates fear efforts are “too little, too late.”
- The Office of Police Ombuds will present on police accountability data from January 2025.
- New rules are being considered by the Community, Housing, and Human Services Board for how the city considers addresses in hiring and how it defines shelters that fall under city regulations.
- Spokane Public Schools will discuss their ongoing partnership with the city Parks Department — which has so far resulted in a collaborative levy proposal to go before voters this fall — at a special session.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council
- Public Safety and Community Health Committee
- Board of County Commissioners - Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Liberty Lake City Council
- Community Housing and Human Services Board
- Spokane School District Board of Directors (Special Meeting)
- Spokane Public Facilities District
- Spokane Human Rights Commission
Office Hours are back!
The sun crawled out of its hidey-hole this weekend, and we’re going to be brave and poke our own heads out of the cave we’ve been holed up in for the winter.
That’s right: RANGE Office Hours are back, baby! We’ll be hanging out for coffee, community and co-op-crafted baked goods this Saturday from 9 am to 11 am at Great Harvest Bakery, 2530 E. 29th Avenue. We'll talk shop, take story tips, answer questions about the state of the world (more realistically, the state of the Inland Northwest) and just hang. We hope to see ya then ❤️
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Traffic safety projects
After a deadly summer spurred action from both the council and Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration, traffic safety is back on the agenda. Council is set to approve over $2 million worth of adaptive design projects to be paid for from the Safe Streets for All Fund (formerly known as the Traffic Calming Fund), approve applications for projects to be completed in 2026 and approve an additional $138,876 of funding from the West Quadrant Tax Increment Financing district to use on projects for the 27 by 2027 Urban Mobility Network.
These projects come just in time, too; last week, two pedestrian Spokanites died after being struck by cars. But traffic safety advocates — one of whom witnessed one of the fatal crashes — say these efforts are “too little, too late.” We anticipate there will be a renewed push from advocates for quicker, more decisive traffic safety improvements from the city, especially as Jon Snyder, the brand new Director of Transportation and Sustainability, started work recently.
Growing pains
Last week, the Spokane Plan Commission heard a presentation on the 2025 Land Capacity Analysis, which was to determine how much growth Spokane can expect, and how much room we have to house that growth. This week, council will discuss the analysis and vote to acknowledge the completion of the analysis, which found we’ll need an estimated 22,359 housing units to accommodate both new residents and Spokane’s current unhoused population.
Spokane skyscrapers incoming?
The “Interim Zoning Ordinance for Height Limits” we covered a few weeks ago, when it was in committee, is getting its first read at a council meeting. Here’s a refresher on the deets:
If passed, the ordinance would eliminate height limits in downtown Spokane, allowing for taller buildings and more dense development. How tall, you ask? According to the text of the ordinance, “there shall be no maximum height limit,” for any properties that fall within the boundaries.
Though political polarization may be at an all time high, Spokane’s City Council has been extremely successful at crossing party lines when it comes to passing urbanist laws. This ordinance will likely be no different, co-sponsored by conservative Council Member Jonathan Bingle and progressives Zack Zappone and Kitty Klitzke. Bingle has been a big proponent of killing height restrictions downtown, and more progressive urbanists tend to be on the same page: building up instead of out could mean less sprawl, more affordable housing and density, which is better for businesses and transit.
While it’s an interim ordinance with an end date — currently September 24, 2025 — there is also a stipulation to hold public hearings and consider extending the timeline, pending public input processes. The ordinance is scheduled for a vote on March 10. More info in an article from The Spokesman here.
Next week’s sneak peek:
- A vote on the interim zoning ordinance to encourage density and allow really tall buildings downtown
- A vote on the mid-biennial budget review process that we covered here.
- Not much else! There’s no scheduled first readings, Special Budget Ordinances or Hearings. It should be a pretty quiet Monday next week unless anything big changes.
Agenda here
Monday, February 24, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Public Safety & Community Health Committee
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Police accountability report
The Office of Police Ombuds will be presenting a monthly report on their activities for the first month of 2025. They usually have their presentations linked in the agenda (which makes our job easier) and we noticed a few key things.
First, complaints for January 2025 are up 140% from January 2024. As a percentage, that’s a huge jump. In raw numbers, though, it’s more modest: there were 7 complaints in the first month of 2025, compared to 5 in January 2024.
Another thing we noticed was that one of the complaints the Ombuds received was for the arrest of a man at the Spokane City Council meeting on January 25, which we’ve been doing some reporting on. It will be interesting to see if the council discusses the incident in depth with the folks from the ombuds office.
Public safety tax update
Remember that public safety sales tax voters passed last fall? Well, we’ll all be getting an update on it today. There isn’t much we could find in the agenda, but we’re hoping for a detailed report on how much has been collected and how exactly it’s been spent.
Agenda here when available.
Monday, March 3 at 12 pm
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️/5 peppers
Agenda here
Tuesday, February 4 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
$10M collective bargaining agreement with Deputy Sheriff’s Association
Spokane County is looking to ink a new collective bargaining agreement with the union that represents sheriff’s deputies. The Human Resource Department says the agreement will cost the county $9,927,340.18.
$1M expansion of Valley Transfer Station
The county may buy a six-acre parcel of land that would allow it to expand the Valley Transfer Station on Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley. The purchase would cost the county $1,150,000 from its Fund 435, the solid waste fund. The transfer station accepts trash from individual people and commercial operations and disposes of it for a fee.
$775,000 for new behavioral health facility
Commissioners are set to approve a contract between the Spokane Regional Behavioral Health Division, Spokane County Community Services and Spokane Treatment and Recovery Services that would allow the agencies to fund a new sobering center. The money would come from opioid settlement funds the county received through a lawsuit brought against pharmaceutical companies by the Washington Attorney General’s Office.
Board appointment
The BOCC is set to vote Sedona Anderson onto the youth member position on the Spokane County Fair & Expo Center Advisory Board.
Agenda here
Tuesday, February 4 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 Valley City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Special meeting time
The Spokane Valley City Council will meet at 8:30 am rather than its normal 6 pm time, with a lunch break from 12 to 12:45 pm. They’ll be getting presentations from city staff all day on items related to the budget, but nothing is up for a vote.
Agenda here when available
Tuesday, February 4 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Liberty Lake City Council
🌶️/5 peppers
City golf pro contract up for approval
Liberty Lake is set to sign a three-year contract with its Golf Pro, Chris Johnston, who is paid a .5% portion of green fees, a 1% portion of driving range revenue and proshop merchandise and a 90% of the lesson fees. These are larger portions of each revenue stream than in previous contracts, when the Golf Pro was paid 80% of the lesson fees and .25% of green fee revenue. Both revenue streams earned Johnston about $20,000 last year.
City may cancel little league fees
Little League baseball is paying more for park fees this year in Liberty Lake, and they don’t like it. So the local leagues went to city council to ask if the fees could be waived, which the city will consider Tuesday. The goal is to “avoid disruptions” in the season for the leagues and for the city staff to “develop a method to charge consistent rates for this service going forward.”
Agenda here
Tuesday, March 4 at 7 pm
22710 E Country Vista Drive, Liberty Lake, WA 99019
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane School District Board of Directors (Special Meeting)
🌶️/5 peppers
Partnership study in special sesh
The regular meeting agenda for the Spokane Public School District Board of Directors looks pretty chill, but the special meeting at 4:30 pm had one interesting item up for discussion: a presentation on the results of a joint study to explore how SPS and the Spokane Parks Department can work together to “maximize resources,” and “deliver real benefits to families across Spokane.”
This is tied to an ambitious new joint levy proposal from both SPS and the Parks Department, which will appear on voters’ ballots this fall. The presentation includes details on the joint projects that would be accomplished, should both levies pass, which include facilities improvements at schools, parks and school sports complexes.
One of the more exciting parts of the proposal for people who live near the north and southwest city limits: brand new parks in the North Indian Trail, Shiloh Hills and Latah/Hangman neighborhoods. You can learn more about the joint levy here.
Special meeting agenda here
Wednesday, March 5 at 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Public Facilities District
?/5 peppers
Agenda here when available
Wednesday, March 5 at 12:30 pm
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Board Room
720 W Mallon Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here.
Spokane Human Rights Commission
?/5 peppers
Agenda here when available.
Thursday, May 2 at 5:30 p.m.
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
