Hundreds of thousands in legal defense costs for city

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.

SPECIAL NOTE THIS WEEK: Our reporter Erin Sellers is posting live updates about the federal conspiracy trials against the Spokane 3, which has free speech implications for all Americans. Read their first dispatch here and follow their reporting here. Now to the meetings.

Some things that stick out to us this week include:

The city of Spokane may soon spend hundreds of thousands of extra dollars on a variety of lawsuits it’s defending from a diverse array of accusers.
Compassionate Addiction Treatment, or CAT, may get an influx of funding over the next two years to run its emergency shelters.
The Board of County Commissioners will accept nearly $800,000 from the federal government for local law enforcement agencies to police the FIFA World Cup events happening in Spokane in June and July.
The Spokane Transit Authority will likely exempt itself from maintaining a public records index under a state law that says exemptions can be declared if an index would be too financially burdensome.
The Spokane School District is looking to limit immigration enforcement at schools.

Important meetings this week:

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

City dedicating hundreds of thousands to variety of lawsuits

The city is looking to hire outside legal counsel for a series of lawsuits brought against it for a range of alleged abuses from very different plaintiffs. If approved, the city will have to spend hundreds of thousands more than it had planned. Here are some the more prominent cases:

At the end of 2024, Spokane police snipers stationed on a hill near Garland apartment complex killed Joshua Musselman, who was on the landing of his third-floor apartment. Musselman’s family is suing for wrongful death. The council wants to dedicate an additional $100,000 to fight the suit, bringing the total contract amount with Keating, Bucklin & McCormack, Inc., P.S. to $150,000.
Worship pastor Sean Feucht sued the city in 2024 because the council had denounced then-Mayor Nadine Woodward for appearing at a 2023 concert with him and the dominionist pastor Matt Shea after Shea had compared the deadly wildfires that year with gay marriage. He claimed the city had defamed him, and the council wants to spend an additional $50,000 on Pacifica Law Group’s defense, bringing the total to $300,000.
Matt Shea himself also sued the city over the same event, and the city wants to dedicate another $50,000 to Pacifica, bringing the total amount of that suit’s legal costs to $200,000.
And it wants to spend an additional $350,000 on a pair of suits filed by Andrea Kernkamp and Michael Bacon who say the Spokane Fire Department violated their rights by requiring them to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The total amount the city would spend on those lawsuits would come to $785,000.

New ‘opportunity zones’ may be coming to Spokane

Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Council Member Paul Dillon are sponsoring a resolution that would recommend low-income areas of the city for a federal investment program. So-called “opportunity zones” “are federally designated areas meant to spur investment in low-income communities by providing capital gains tax benefits to investors in designated census tracts,” according to the agenda item. They are designed to bring private capital into places where there aren’t natural incentives to invest. The council has identified nine areas of the city to be eligible for the program. Here are some of them:

The area just north of the river on the west end of Spokane, including parts of Kendall Yards.
Parts of the Logan neighborhood.
Much of the East Central neighborhood.
Parts of downtown between the river and I-90.
Parts of the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood.
The area of the Cliff Cannon neighborhood south of I-90.

New appointment to Ombuds Commission

The council will likely vote to confirm Justin Ackerman as a commissioner on the Ombuds Commission, which governs the city’s police ombuds office.

Agenda here
Monday, May 18 at 6 pm
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane City Council Study Sessions

Agenda here when available.
Thursday, May 18 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Urban Experience Committee (Spokane city)

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Meeting moved back an hour

The committee will meet at 1 pm, rather than noon.

CAT funding may increase by nearly $300K for next two years

Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT) may get an influx of new funding for running parts of the Scattered Site Emergency Shelter Project, bringing the total the city gives CAT for the program to $860,167. According to the amendment document, the Washington Department of Commerce is adding $63,277 for fiscal year 2026 and $573,445 for fiscal year 2027.

$60K tourism and cultural investment grant

The Tourism and Cultural Investment Committee is recommending a series of $10,000 grants for the following local programs:

South Perry Street Fair
Terrain 17 AND Brrrzaar
Grainmaker Fest
Feast Fest 2026
Boomjam Music & Arts Festival
Punk Rock Flea Market Spokane

Agenda here
Monday, May 18 at 12 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Housing Authority Board

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Monday, May 18 at 3:30 pm
Meeting Room at 25 W. Nora Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Public Library Board of Trustees

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Tuesday, May 19 at 4:30 pm
Hillyard Library
4110 N Cook St, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Bicycle Advisory Board (special meeting)

🌶️/5 peppers

Special meeting for bike facility tours

The board will tour bicycle facilities and talk about opportunities for building more facilities in the future. The tour will start at the Manito Shopping Center Parking Lot near STCU, go to Ben Burr Park and end at Republic Pi Pizza. There will be no virtual attendance and no public comment.

Agenda here
Tuesday, May 19 at 5:30 pm
Manito Shopping Center Parking Lot
810 E 29th Ave, Spokane

Spokane Ombuds Commission

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here when available
Tuesday, May 19 at 5:30 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

HCD looking at more than $2M in funding for homelessness services

The Housing & Community Development Department is expecting to receive $2,043,372 from the state Department of Commerce to add to its homeless services portfolio, which will bring the fund up to $14,348,833.89 for the period from July 2025 to June 2027. The department is recommending the board divvy the funds up according to the following schedule:

Emergency Shelter: $1,106,055.85
Homelessness Prevention $465,768.47
Transitional Housing $299,927
Outreach $335,073
HMIS $140,148.60

Agenda here
Tuesday, May 19 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

Board to approve more than $725K for World Cup security

The FIFA World Cup is coming to Seattle in June and July — and the Spokane County sheriff is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide security. The BOCC is set to approve the funding Tuesday. The sheriff’s office received a grant of $726,158 from the Department of Homeland Security to help with security during the six matches that will take place at the Seattle Stadium during the event, which is one of the largest sporting competitions in the world. It’s not clear in the agenda material whether they’ll do security at the free Spokane watch parties or potential practices in Spokane or actually go to Seattle. But the agenda item says deputies will “support the safe execution of World Cup activities and bolster security capabilities at official FIFA-designated locations,” according to the agenda sheet.

$1M+ contract exceeds county engineer’s estimate

The county is set to award Halme Construction $1,130,394 to improve sections of Coulee Hite Road, near Deep Creek, for railroad safety. The amount far exceeds — nearly doubles — the county engineer’s estimate for the project of $656,009. The agenda does not say why the award is larger but that the Washington Department of Transportation has committed to funding the “overage.”

Board reappointments

The BOCC will likely reappoint:

Nancy Vorhees to the Joint Spokane County & City of Spokane Airport Board.
Colin Charbonneau to the Criminal Justice Treatment Account Panel

Agenda here
Tuesday, May 19 at 2 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

West Valley School District Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Funding school improvements

The board is holding a special meeting this afternoon to review and approve a bid for improvement projects at Orchard Center Elementary School, West Valley City School and Centennial Middle School.

A document attached to the agenda appears to compare two bids. One is from Halme Construction with a base bid of roughly $2 million. The other is from Liberty Northwest Construction with a base bid of about $1.8 million.

Some of the improvements include replacing asphalt at Orchard Center Elementary School’s southwest parking lot and updating irrigation at West Valley City School’s West Playfield, according to the document.

Agenda here
Monday, May 18 at 3:30 pm
District Conference Center
8818 E. Grace, Spokane

Spokane School District Board of Directors (regular and special)

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Limiting immigration enforcement & supporting Native students

During its regular meeting on Wednesday, the board will hold a first reading for several policies and may approve them. The list includes two new policies: Native Education and Limiting Immigration Enforcement in Schools.

The Native Education policy would “ensure that all Native students have equitable access to all programs, services, and opportunities offered within the district.”

Requirements for SPS include:

Consulting annually with local Tribal governments as well as other regional Tribal Nations with ties to the area to discuss “educational programs, services, and agreed upon educational and social-emotional outcomes.”
Support for Native language programs, language certification and offer credit for dual-credit and world-language through collaboration with Tribal Education departments.
Ensure that procedures allow Native students to be excused for absences related to cultural or spiritual ceremonies and that they can complete missed work without facing penalties.

The Limiting Immigration Enforcement in Schools policy requires school officials to request a valid court order or judicial warrant from anyone wanting to enter school grounds, talk to students or arrest someone.

School officials would also need to record the name, agency and badge number of anyone trying to enforce immigration law and forward the request to the superintendent.

The superintendent or their designee would determine whether the person has a valid court order or judicial warrant.

The full policies are attached to the agenda.

Budget forecast

The board’s special meeting will include a presentation that gives an update on enrollment, information on the preliminary budget and the 2028-2030 levy. Another presentation will focus on reviewing 2025-2026 priority strategies and begin discussion of the priority strategies for next year.

Agendas here
Wednesday, May 20 at 6 pm
200 N. Bernard, Spokane.

Spokane Transit Authority Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Bus stop projects need easements, property agreements

The authority is actively making improvements to at least 11 bus stops that may need access to properties that are outside the public right of way. That means it might need to create temporary easements allowing it to do construction or allow public access through properties that don’t belong to it. Read about them on page 99 of this document.

STA may not maintain public records index

The state public records act requires public entities to keep public records indexes unless doing so poses an “undue burden” on the agency or government. STA staff are asking the board to allow the agency to use this exemption. A public records index lists some of the documents a public entity has to disclose to people who request them. The resolution that would implement the exemption would not make it so STA doesn’t have to disclose records. The public can request records here.

Agenda here
Thursday, May 21 at 1:30 pm
STA Boardroom
1230 W Boone Avenue, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Valley City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Ellis to present FIFA law enforcement plan

Spokane Valley Police Chief Dave Ellis will present the city council with his plans to police events surrounding Seattle’s FIFA World Cup matches, including sending officers to watch parties in June and July. The department will also help monitor practice for Team Egypt at Gonzaga University. Law enforcement agencies around the county are prepping for similar operations.

Agenda here
Tuesday, May 19 at 6 pm
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley
Virtual attendance here.

Liberty Lake City Council

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Comprehensive plan up for city approval

Every local government in Washington has until the end of this year to establish comprehensive plans for developing their communities, and Liberty Lake is set to submit its plan to the state. City planners are asking the council to finalize the plan so it can do so. Comprehensive planning is governed by a state law called the Growth Management Act, which the legislature revised this year to require governments to start measuring their carbon emissions so they can move to reduce them in the future. It also said they must make resiliency plans to deal with the inevitable effects of climate change. Liberty Lake’s plan establishes 2022 as a baseline for emissions and encourages businesses to engage in climate friendly practices. The plan is a massive document that will define the way Liberty Lake develops until 2046.

For/against committees for tax measure

Liberty Lake is asking its voters to raise taxes to pay for more police in a measure that will appear on November ballots. To do so, it needs to create committees that will describe the arguments for and the arguments against the tax, which they’ll discuss at Tuesday’s meeting. The agenda item does not say who is up for consideration for each committee.