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. We’re short-staffed today with a reporter on vacation and a reporter at the courthouse covering another federal trial, so enjoy an abbreviated CIVICS edition today — there’s a lot of bullet points
Some things that stick out to us this week include:
- The city of Spokane could pass a law heightening punishment for street racers and a resolution declining to disperse affordable housing funds this year, instead saving those funds to afford $2 million in 2027.
- The council could decide to not disburse money from the HEART fund for affordable housing this year and instead save it for next year.
- At the Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee, the council will discuss expanding the Spokane Police Department’s contract with Axon, for more body cameras and TASERs, among other things.
- The County Commissioners are planning to ask a state commission for permission to levy a regressive 0.1% sales tax — despite foregoing the annual property tax increase a few months ago that would have cost homeowners about $2.
- The Board of County Commissioners also plan to send Al French back to the Spokane Regional Health District to balance out the appointment of a tribal representative, placing all five county commissioners on the board.
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
It’s set to be a pretty short meeting overall, but there’s a few items worth noting on the docket for tonight’s city council meeting:
- If the consent agenda is approved, the city could spend $136,361 on project design, project management and modular furniture for a redesign of the fourth floor of City Hall.
- Also in the consent agenda, after a deferral, is the agreement to sell the building that houses the city’s Public Defender’s offices — located at 824 N Monroe — for over $2 million, with the option to lease it back for up to nine years.
- Later in the meeting, the council could pass a resolution stating their intent to not disburse money from the HEART fund (previously known as the 1590 Fund, named for the state bill authorizing a local sales and use tax for affordable housing) this year. The funds they would be able to award this year are limited, the resolution states. Instead, the council plans to wait for spring 2027, when they anticipate being able to award around $2 million to primarily affordable housing projects.
- The council could also pass an ordinance further penalizing street racing and aggressive speeding, while also allowing the police department to make citations under the law based on video evidence where speeders’ license plates can be identified like dashcams, cell phone video and the speed cameras already installed in school zones.
Agenda here
Monday, June 8 at 6 pm
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
There are two big items up for discussion at the PIES committee. The first is an amendment to the city’s contract with Axon — the police technology company that provides the department with body cameras and other tech — that would increase the number of body cameras worn, provide Axon Records licenses to the City Prosecutor’s Office for free (no mention of the Public Defender’s office…) and buy more TASERs, among other things. This would cost the city a quarter of a million this year, and about half a million per year in 2027, 2028 and 2029. It was previously budgeted for. Interesting note — Axon has made news for testing facial recognition technology on police body cameras in Canada late last year.
The other major item up for discussion is an update to the ordinance that guarantees that 1% of the value of executed construction contracts on qualifying capital improvement projects is spent on public art. The mayor’s administration hopes to strengthen the ordinance by “integrating it into the Citywide Capital Improvement Program, clarifying eligible projects, and providing flexibility to the Public Art Fund to support new public art projects and support the maintenance of the City's existing public art inventory.”
Agenda here
Monday, June 8 at 12 pm
Council Chambers
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Plan Commission
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Wednesday, June 10 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Spokane County is eyeing down a projected $20 million budget deficit. Despite that, last year they voted against the annual state-approved 1% property tax levy lid, forgoing about $1 million in revenue and saving home-owners about $2 a year. Instead, the county is now looking at adopting a more regressive 0.1% sales and use tax, which will be spent on “criminal justice purposes.” There are no additional details as to what exactly the tax would be spent on, but the county will be briefed on the tax this morning, which first requires an application to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.
At the briefing session, they will also discuss the request from Juvenile Courts to allocate up to $30,000 in grant funding to pay for youth polygraph examinations.
Agenda here
Tuesday, June 9 at 9 am
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
At their afternoon legislative session, the county commissioners plan to:
- Approve the 0.1% sales tax application to the state commission they discussed at the morning briefing (see above for details).
- Approve $2,148,988.97 in state funding to be spent on emergency shelter services ($1,048,220.50), homelessness prevention services ($465,768.47), transitional housing services ($299,927) and outreach ($335,073)
- Pass a resolution to send a letter to the City of Spokane Valley by the end of the month, letting them know that the county will no longer lease the Spokane Valley Precinct Building. They’re planning to be out of the building by the end of 2026. This will save the county $175,000, but it’s unclear what it means for the future of policing in Spokane Valley — they currently contract with the county, who dresses sheriff’s deputies in Spokane Valley Police uniforms and provides law enforcement services.
- Appoint County Commissioner Al French the Spokane Regional Health District board to counter-balance the upcoming appointment of Nathan SiJohn from The Healing Lodge of The Seven Nations — an Urban Indian Organization entitled to health board representation under state law. This would place literally every single County Commissioner on the Health District board. Notably, French also “led the effort” to fire former health officer Bob Lutz, who was recently awarded a $1.65 million settlement in his wrongful termination suit.
Agenda here
Tuesday, June 9 at 2 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Airport Board
🫑/5 peppers
The Spokane Airport, which lobbied against the city of Spokane’s increased parking tax implementation, continues to have discussions about their parking garage expansion at the board level.
Agenda here.
Thursday, June 11 at 9 am
9211 W. McFarlane Road, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🫑/5 peppers
It’s an executive session within a work session, so you won’t yet know what’s discussed and you won’t have a chance to comment on it, but the Mead School district is planning to spend 15-20 minutes discussing a potential “Sale of Real Estate,” at tonight’s meeting.
Agenda here
Monday, June 8 at 6 pm
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead
Watch via Zoom here.
Central Valley School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
State audit finding
The CVSD board will get a report on a Washington State Auditor’s Office fiscal audit for 2024-2025. Districts undergo these audits annually and get back two reports: the Financial Statement and Federal Single Audit Report and the Accountability Audit. The district got a “clean” Financial Statement Audit and a “clean” Accountability Audit, but got dinged for its Title I program.
The auditors said, “the District did not have adequate internal controls for ensuring compliance with federal eligibility requirements.” According to the meeting agenda, staff responsible for allocating Title I funds didn’t know they were supposed to allocate them to schools with poverty rates greater than 75% and only allocated those funds to the elementary schools in the district with rates less than 75%. Staff also thought the district met the Title I requirements for allocating funds because OSPI approved the district’s Title 1 application. In response, the district agreed that one school with a 75%+ poverty rate was not served. But, the district also said that OSPI approved the application, including how they said they were going to allocate funds, and the office didn’t raise concerns then. Either way, they asked OSPI if they needed to make any changes or corrections for the current year and the office said to wait until the following year to make corrections.
The district also noted that no school going into the 25-26 fiscal year was above the 75% threshold, so it shouldn’t be a problem going forward.
Agenda here
Monday, June 8 at 6 pm
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
East Valley School District Board of Directors
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Tuesday, June 8 at 6 pm
3830 N Sullivan Rd, Bldg 1, Spokane Valley
Spokane Valley City Council
🌶️/5 peppers
Spokane Valley City Council won't have their regular evening meeting, but they will have an all-day budget workshop starting at 8:30 am, with various staff presentations and discussions scheduled throughout the day. No public testimony options, but legally, you can definitely hang out and watch the whole workshop if you have the time for it.
Agenda here
Tuesday, June 8 at 8:30 am
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley
Virtual attendance here.
