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:
- Mead School Board will vote on a resolution tonight that would state their support for forcing transgender high school athletes to compete under their “biological sex.” Though their resolution couldn’t limit athletic participation this year, it’s intended to put pressure on the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to change their policies next year.
- During their Briefing Session, Spokane City Council will debate multiple proposals for how to spend down ARPA funds they clawed back from projects that couldn’t be completed in time, and at Legislative Session, will vote on a proposal for spending those dollars.
- At the Public Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainability Committee meeting, Spokane City Council will get a presentation on the Right-of-Way Initiative, which relates to homelessness and housing.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee
- Board of County Commissioners - Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Plan Commission
Spokane City Council
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
It’s set to be a relatively slow week at Spokane City Council — a much needed one after last week’s spicy meeting — but there are still a few interesting things up for a vote!
Commission Appointments
Lauren Pangborn, who is also a RANGE columnist, is set to be appointed to the Transportation Commission as the representative of the Bicycle Advisory Board. (Let this serve as a reminder that columnists don’t speak for RANGE, but it will mean Lauren will have all kinds of first-hand info for her columns on urbanism and transportation!)
Also up for a vote are four appointments to the brand new Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board. Those appointees are:
- Kerry Brooks, a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Eastern Washington University
- Kevin Fagan, the operations manager at Resource Synergy, an organization in Spokane helping organizations reduce costs and improve their environmental impact.
- Lea Molina, Environmental Justice Program Manager at Asians for Collective Liberation
- Hala Zahalqa, a Palestinian Fulbright scholar and freelance architect and environmental designer.
Spending ARPA dollars ASAP
Spokane City Council is trying to spend down all their American Rescue Act Plan (ARPA) funds, and it’s getting down to the wire, so expect to see more special budget ordinances (SBOs) to ensure the monies get attached to projects that can actually spend them by the end of the year.
Tonight, we’re seeing an ordinance to reallocate funds categorized as an emergency, which would speed up the process to spend the money. The council is voting on whether or not to claw back $443,754.11 from projects that weren’t able to get contracts done in time, including $100,000 that was previously allocated to improvements for the Office of Police Ombuds. There are a few proposals in the agenda for how to quickly spend that $443,754.
- The first proposal would spend would direct $177,616.11 to Spokane Fire Department’s Fire Station 1 for HVAC replacement, $6,138 for sales taxes on the WUI Fire software contract, $200,000 on the Latah Valley Tax Increment Financing (TIF) analysis and sub area planning and $60,000 for a memory garden.
- The second proposal, an amendment from Council President Betsy Wilkerson, is mostly the same but slightly reduces the amount of money getting clawed back from accessory dwelling unit permits, and in turn, slightly reduces the amount of money being directed to the HVAC replacement.
- The third proposal, an amendment from Council Member Michael Cathcart, would claw back an additional $875,000 previously directed to “property acquisition related to homelessness outside the expanded downtown plan area,” and put it towards city-wide Clean and Safe efforts, including RV and junk vehicle removal?.
- The fourth proposal is also a Cathcart amendment, clawing back just $100,000 from the property acquisition related to homelessness, and putting that $100,000 towards city clean-up outside the downtown core.
Agenda here
Monday, October 21 at 6 pm
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane City Council Study Sessions
Agenda here when available.
Thursday, October 24 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Automated traffic cam updates
The PIES Committee will be discussing a new ordinance that would flesh out where automated traffic safety cameras can be placed and how the revenue could be used, in order to get the city in alignment with a new law by the Washington legislature, HB2384. The biggest change we noticed in the proposed ordinance is a detailed list of permissible uses for any funds generated by those automatic traffic camera tickets, where before the allowed usage was much more vague. The list of permissible uses under the new ordinance would include:
- Roadway infrastructure improvements with a demonstrable connection to safe systems improvements
- Operational expenses with a demonstrable connection to pedestrian and bicycle safety
- Sidewalk repair and safety programs
- Funding of personnel for community outreach and to encourage citizen input into safe streets measures and projects
- Funding of engineering and project personnel to ensure timely design and construction of safety infrastructure
- Implementation of programs, including grant applications, that follow the USDOT “Safe System Approach,” including focus on driver safety, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and post-crash care
- Implementation of adaptive design strategies into the city’s transportation infrastructure
- Other measures, programs and improvements approved by the City Council and permitted by state law.
Speaking of traffic calming…
There is also a proposed resolution coming from Council Member Zack Zappone that would implement even more traffic calming measures on the Post Street Bridge. The resolution states that despite the “narrow, one way lane,” on the bridge, and already existing traffic calming measures, “the straightaway design of the traffic lane contributes to higher than needed speeds that pose a threat to the pedestrian and bicyclist traffic that is more heavily focused as part of the overall purpose of the bridge.” If passed, this resolution would request the city administration put in a stop sign at the south side of the bridge and speed tables (kind of like a wide, flat speed bump) in the automobile lane to further slow vehicular traffic.
Right of Way updates
Earlier this year, Spokane received funds from the Washington Department of Commerce that were intended to be spent on cleaning up right-of-way areas. Part of the city’s initiative on how to spend those funds was paying for Empire Health Foundation to run the Cannon Street Shelter as a navigation center pilot project — helping 30 unhoused people deemed “high utilizers” of the system by the city to navigate into transitional and permanent housing options.
There’s no information in the agenda, but Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services division director Dawn Kinder will be presenting info related to the Right-of-Way initiative as well as a Special Budget Ordinance draft. We anticipate this will be important, potentially containing information about the efficacy of EHF’s pilot navigation center and next steps.
Agenda here
Monday, October 21 at 1:15 pm
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
Agenda here
Tuesday, October 22 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
Agenda here
Tuesday, October 22 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
Property tax vote
We covered the Spokane Valley City Council’s property tax proposal to leave dollars on the table and only collect the exact same amount of property tax as they did last year in an earlier edition of CIVICS. Though the Spokesman-Review published an article stating this policy had already been approved, the actual vote is scheduled for tomorrow night, and the only vote held on the policy so far has been to advance it to a second reading.
Most of the board seems in favor of it, with the lone complaint being from Council Member Rod Higgins, who says it’s “false savings” because the city still has no real plan for how to pay for the increase in police officers they’re trying to achieve.
Agenda here
Tuesday, October 22 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Mead’s coming for trans athletes
On page 129 of Mead’s School Board agenda, titled “Title IX Regulations Supporting Fairness in Competition and Student Safety,” is a resolution that would ask the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) to consider banning “biological males” from participating in “biological female competition categories,” and stating that the Mead School District “recognizes the inherent biological and physiological differences that exist between male and female students.”
This resolution is extremely similar to resolutions with identical names that have been discussed at both College Place Public School District and Moses Lake School District, continuing the local trend of conservative-controlled school boards copy/pasting language from other conservative-controlled boards across the state. Mead also signed onto proposed WIAA handbook amendments submitted by the Eastmont and Lyndon school districts that would create a third division for transgender athletes. This policy discussion at Mead is coming off the heels of the Westboro Baptist Church’s recent protest of East Valley School District’s transgender athlete, who has been the subject of internet harassment since she became the first Washington transgender athlete to win a state high school track championship
According to the 2023-24 WIAA handbook, “All students have the opportunity to participate in WIAA athletics and/or activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity.” If passed tonight, this resolution from Mead wouldn’t change that policy or limit athletic participation for any transgender athletes that may currently want to compete for or against Mead schools, but it would be a clear show of disapproval, and would continue to pressure WIAA to ban transgender athletes from competing in alignment with their gender.
Agenda here
Monday, October 21 at 6 p.m.
Union Event Center
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead, WA 99021
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane School District Board of Directors
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Wednesday, October 23 at 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Plan Commission
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Supporting an urban mobility network
Spokane is considering a project to build an urban mobility network — 27 miles of new, “high-comfort” bikeways that would stretch across the city, with a focus on calm, low-traffic neighborhood streets (find a map of the proposed network on page 96 of this document). This network could significantly improve connectivity for bicyclists and pedestrians, according to the agenda. This week, they’ll consider adopting a resolution to show their support for the concept.
Agenda here
Wednesday, October 23 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
