This week is light on public meetings because of the July 4th holiday, so we’re going to take a portion of CIVICS and recap some pretty important decisions our public officials have made in the past week. This includes the new park trespassing ordinance that passed Thursday and a spendy new contract for Spokane’s police union that could require a new property tax.
The meetings still scheduled for this week are:
We also cover:
- Holiday closures and trash pick up changes
- The new parks trespassing ordinance
- The new police department contract
Holiday closures
Although Monday is allegedly not a public holiday, Tuesday is! Some important city closures and schedule changes include:
- Trash pick up will be a day late after July 4
- Street parking is free on holidays, but time limits still apply
- Spokane city libraries and aquatic centers are all closed, but splash pads and parks are open.
- City Hall, city facilities, the Waste-to-Energy facility, Spokane Municipal Court, MySpokane 311 and the Development Services Center will all be closed.
- Spokane County offices, including county libraries, SCRAPS, public safety and Public Works, are all closed.
It’s illegal to be in parks after 11 p.m. now
We’ve been following the parks trespassing ordinance since it was first proposed in May and in case you haven’t seen yet, the harsher version of the ordinance was passed by City Council last week. This ordinance makes it a misdemeanor and possible to get arrested for being in a city park during the hours of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. (midnight to 5 a.m. for Riverfront). The harsher version of the parks ordinance was sponsored by Council Members Karen Stratton, Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart passed with Council Member Lori Kinnear breaking the tie. Read the Spokesman’s rundown here.
More money for police
In today’s episode of “This is the Opposite of Defunding the Police,” at a special City Council meeting on Thursday, the council approved a new contract for the Spokane Police Guild for the next four years, giving big pay increases and changing the powers of the Office of the Police Ombudsman (OPO), the entity that can investigate the police department.
According to Emry Dinman’s reporting in the Spokesman, the city can’t afford the new contract that costs between $33.9 million to $35.9 million just in wage increases over the next four years. In order to pay for this, the city council is planning on asking voters to pass a new tax, likely a property tax levy. The wage increases are supposed to help the department staff up and avoid paying too much in overtime.
And as we mentioned in last week’s CIVICS, the contract also removes some key powers of the OPO, namely the ability to make a publicly released closing report of complaints, recommending discipline for officers or having any of their independent investigations result in discipline of the officers involved.
Read Emry’s reporting here.
Community, Housing, and Human Services Board
Agenda here (once posted)
Wednesday, July 5 at 4 p.m.
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
Spokane Human Rights Commission
Agenda here (once posted)
Thursday, July 6 at 5:30 p.m.
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
