Public comment opportunities on potential public health privatization

Spokane has two opportunities to learn about the potential potential privatization of public health opioid treatment services. (Photo illustration by Erin Sellers)

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:

Learn about and share your thoughts on the possible privatization of the Spokane Regional Health District’s treatment services division this week!
A sales tax for Spokane will likely go to the ballot, following a vote at tonight’s Spokane City Council meeting
The council will also vote on a resolution encouraging Mayor Lisa Brown to direct Spokane Police Department to start arresting people for camping in line with Prop 1
Development code goes brr — higher height restrictions in the Logan neighborhood and the elimination of ALL parking requirements could be approved by the Spokane City Council tonight
The Spokane Regional Health District Board may decide to cut public comment time at their meetings from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.
STA board chair Al French is proposing that the hiring process for the next CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) not include any public comment or participation.

Important meetings this week:

Ask us anything…

About the Spokane Regional Health District potentially privatizing its treatment services division! We’re hosting a modified AMA (Ask me anything) on Reddit today from 3 to 5 pm where you can ask any questions you might have about what privatization could mean, what it might look like, what the impacts could be or honestly anything you’re curious about. We’ll answer the ones we know live and for the ones we don’t know, we’ll bring them to the listening session on Wednesday, and come back to Reddit with the answers after that.

Monday, July 22 from 3 to 5 pm
The r/Spokane subreddit!
Free lol

Town Hall

RANGE has partnered with community advocates to host a Town Hall/ listening session to raise awareness and encourage dialogue about a potential change to the way opioid treatment services are administered in the county as the Spokane Regional Health District contemplates whether or not their Treatment Services Division should be privatized. We want to hear from you — your thoughts, your questions, your concerns, your hopes — at a free town hall this Wednesday from 5 to 7 pm at the Central Library

The main question is this: “Would the community be better served if the Opioid Treatment Program at SRHD was run by an independent organization instead of run by public health?”

We hope you join us this Wednesday as we elevate the community’s voices on this important question!

Wednesday, July 24 from 5 to 7 pm
Central Public Library
906 W Main Ave.

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

The Spokane Police Department will likely be getting some new gear with a few key items on the consent agenda tonight (reminder: consent agenda contracts and purchases have typically already been allocated in the yearly budget and are usually not new or unexpected expenses). Here’s the short list of new gear coming to the cops:

A roughly $164,000 long range drone called the Dragonfish. It can be used for investigations, search and rescue operations, wildland fire operations and reducing the amount of vehicles involved in pursuits when a suspect flees to “reduce risk to the community.”
A nearly $120,000 scanner to evaluate cell tower data and geographic location information
$57,475 software to allow regional policing partners to easily share police and crime reports
New automated license plate readers — if council votes to accept a $150,000 grant to fund it from the Washington Auto Theft Prevention Authority.
Not exactly gear, but SPD will be getting a $1.4 million reimbursement from the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission for expansion costs on the SPD Academy.

While we’re as critical of cops’ spending as the next guy, we do want to note that these purchases are almost entirely grant-funded and have little impact on the General Fund.

Sidewalks back on the agenda

We wrote about this item a few weeks ago, but it was deferred. Now, a vote to repair sidewalks in the city in highly used pedestrian routes is back on the table. There’s a lot of planning still to be done, like deciding which sidewalks to repair and doing cost-effectiveness analysis, but if this resolution passes, the council will be officially asking Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration to start directing Public Works staff to answer those questions and prioritize sidewalk repair. Funds for the program would come from the Traffic Calming Fund.

Sales tax to the ballot

Brown’s proposed regressive sales tax could take up a lot of meeting time tonight as the associated agenda items to get the tax on the ballot are up for a vote. Council has to approve a resolution to add it to the ballot and appoint pro and con committees to write sections in the voter’s guide.

Tax cuts for affordable housing developments

One issue the council seems to be in alignment on — tax cuts to encourage developers to turn underutilized commercial property into affordable housing. Senate Bill 6175, which passed the legislature this past session, lets the city establish a sales tax and use deferral program for developers interested in converting these under-used commercial properties. Council has previously pushed for this bill to be accelerated through the rulemaking process. Now, they’ll likely vote to signal the city’s intent to take advantage of the program, setting a public hearing date for August 12.

Camping enforcement

Conservative Council Members Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart have jointly submitted a resolution “urging the enforcement of the city’s ordinances prohibiting unlawful camping and occupation in public areas.” Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the precedent set by Martin v Boise that said punishing homeless people for camping outside when there is inadequate shelter space is cruel and unusual punishment, Cathcart and Bingle want the mayor’s administration to seek stringent enforcement of camping restrictions — namely, Prop 1, which hasn’t been enforced since it was passed.

“The city of Spokane remains committed to finding compassionate and effective solutions to homelessness, evidenced by substantial investments in shelter facilities, social services, and affordable housing initiatives,” the resolution states, then asks Mayor Brown to direct SPD to do a full enforcement of ordinances preventing camping. Most of these ordinances come with a citation for those arrested.

The resolution also requests that the administration do this while “maintaining respect for individuals experiencing homelessness.”

Also included in the nonbinding resolution is an ask that the administration collaborate with service providers, social service agencies and religious organizations to coordinate homelessness services, and a request for a monitoring and evaluation system “to assess the impact of enforcement on public safety, health and the well-being of individuals experiencing homelessness,” though it is unclear what that system would look like or what criteria it would be measuring.

It also asks the mayor to recommit to the idea of a regional homelessness authority, which seems to have kind of petered out in the new year.

We anticipate this will be an extremely interesting conversation as the council weighs an already under-staffed police force and the idea that you can fine people out of homelessness with the will of the voters, who overwhelmingly passed Proposition 1, to ban camping in most of the city.

Human rights for homeless people

In what is a bit of an ironic twist, the council will vote on both the resolution to encourage enforcement of Proposition 1, and an ordinance to affirm the “human rights and basic dignity of individuals experiencing homelessness.” The ordinance was initially adopted as a resolution by the Spokane Human Rights Commission back in 2023 and could now become the law of the land across the city. It would cement housing status as a protected category, meaning employers could not discriminate against unhoused people. It would also protect the property rights of homeless people. We are unsure what it would look like if both the Prop 1 Resolution and this ordinance pass: how would the city balance protecting the property of unhoused people with increased sweeps and arrests for camping?

Gun violence bill is back

We thought we’d seen the last of Council Member Paul Dillon’s gun violence prevention bill when it passed on July 8, but two weeks later and it’s back, baby. After conversations in a recent Briefing Session, there is a need for small tweaks to the wording of the ordinance, so it’s back for an amendment. It seems like the changes are cleaning up the section regulating open carry in what were previously listed as “public assembly venues,” but under the new wording, will be called “public assembly facilities.” That term now comes with a definition: “a stadium, convention center, arena, performance or entertainment venue or other similar facilities located within the city and operated by a municipal or public corporation or governmental entity.” It also states that the ordinance does not prevent public assembly venues from implementing even more restrictive firearm regulations, for example, preventing concealed carry as well.

Great news for urbanists

The city council is voting on a number of changes to the Spokane Municipal Code today, which are already starting to receive praise from urbanists on Twitter (again we will not call it X.) One of those changes would eliminate parking mandates in the city. This would mean new housing projects or commercial buildings would not be required to provide *ANY* parking spots. Also on the list of changes are an increase in maximum building height in the South Logan Transit-Oriented Development zone to encourage density.

Agenda here
Monday, July 22 at 6 pm
Council Chambers, Lower Level City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd. Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here

Finance and Administration Committee

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

This is already a long CIVICS so instead of our usual paragraph-long write-ups, we’re attempting something different (and shorter): a briefer highlight reel.

The administration has chosen a Chief Information Officer — Laz Martinez. Martinez is already the Interim Director of the Innovation Technology Services Department, so this will be a promotion. Martinez still needs to be appointed by council, but that process starts with committee discussion.

The city council could weigh in on a new process from the Department of Homeland Security that would allow noncitizen spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residence status without having to leave the country, keeping families together. The Council will discuss a resolution to officially endorse this process and add federal relief for immigration legal assistance to the city’s list of federal legislative priorities.

The council receives a ton of resolutions and formal requests from various city boards and commissions, but somehow has no clear internal process for how to respond to these requests. They’re trying to improve on this and have been working for six months to make a more formal response process. They’re starting that up this week by including all resolutions and formal requests received from internal boards in the committee packet, which enters them into the public record.

Things being entered into the public record this month include three resolutions from 2023: a resolution asking council to implement another development moratorium in Latah Valley (which they ultimately did), a request for changes to the General Facility Charge process and resolution asking for more transparency on how the Traffic Calming Fund is being used and a resolution for council to reject any uses that aren’t city council approved traffic calming projects (like the police budget.)

Agenda here
Monday, July 22 at 1:15 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd #3324. Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here

City Council Study Sessions

Agenda here
Thursday, July 25 at 11 am
Council Chambers, Lower Level City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd. Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here

Spokane Valley City Council

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Regional emergency communications update

The Valley’s city council is set to get an update on Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC), which is where most of our area gets its 911 and Crime

Check calls routed through. While Spokane Valley technically isn’t a direct member of the SREC, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department is, so the Valley pays its share to SREC through the contract with the sheriff. In 2023, the SREC charged the sheriff’s office about $3.2 million and of that, the city was charged a little over $1.3 million, according to the agenda. The update will mostly include an overview of the SREC’s work in the past year.

In Spokane city, the council has until the end of the year to decide if it will fully join the SREC.

Agenda here
Tuesday, July 23 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave. Spokane Valley, WA 99206
Virtual attendance here.

Spokane Housing Authority Board

🌶️/5 peppers

Agenda here
Monday, July 22 at 3:30 pm
Offices of the SHA
Meeting Room 25 W. Nora Ave. Spokane, WA 99205
The meeting is also live streamed here

Central Valley School District Board of Directors

This meeting is canceled because there’s no quorum, meaning there won’t be enough board members in attendance to take a vote.

Agenda here
~~Monday, July 22 at 6 p.m.~~ Canceled

Board of County Commissioners Briefing Session

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Opioid service proposals before BOCC

Spokane Treatment & Recovery Services (STARS) and Maddie’s Place have submitted proposals to provide services related to the addiction in Spokane. STARS asked for $1.2 million to create a sobering and triage center, and Maddie’s Place asked for $600,000 to provide housing for parents and caregivers caring for infants with neonatal alcohol syndrome.

Agenda here
Tuesday, July 23 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

No shooting area public hearing

The BOCC may host a public hearing on a proposal to establish a no-shooting area on Half Moon Prairie between Division and Hatche roads and Fender Road and Gem Lane in North Spokane. The area of the zone is about 116 acres.

The Comprehensive Plan — the county’s long-term vision of how it wants to develop — is due to be in place in 2026 and it is slowly developing. On Tuesday, the BOCC will consider factual changes submitted by the Building & Planning Department to the Planning Commission. Responding to changes in the Growth Management Act, the county is expanding public participation in the Comprehensive Plan. This hearing is one of many opportunities for the public to show up and be heard.

New union deal for county lawyers

The county’s Department of Human Resources is asking the BOCC to approve a memorandum of understanding with the union representing its lawyers that would entitle them to a 40-hour work week, rather than the 37.5-hour work week currently practiced. The proposal would cost the county about $272,000.

$2M for laptops?

Last week, the Spokane County Information Technology Department briefed the BOCC on a request for $2 million to buy better laptops for county employees. This week, the board will vote on whether to approve the purchase. The upgrade is from consumer Lenovo laptops to business laptops, which feature improved “durability, longevity, security, mobility and longer active periods,” according to a presentation to be delivered at the briefing.

Agenda here
Tuesday, July 23 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 School District Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

If the price is right

This week, the Spokane School District Board of Directors has a special meeting that is not open to the public as they will hold an executive session during the meeting. The point of this executive session is to consider purchasing property for the district, which cannot be open to the public to ensure that property costs remain the same in the area that the board will discuss for purchase.

Agenda here
Wednesday, July 24 at 7 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Plan Commission

Agenda here
Wednesday, July 24 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Regional Health District Board

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Halving time for public comment?

The Spokane Regional Health District Board has previously allocated 30 minutes for citizen input at each of their public meetings. Now, the board may adopt a resolution which will cut that time in half, so the public will now have only 15 minutes to share their concerns and opinions with the board. This doesn’t mean that public comments will always be stoped at 15 minutes, however, as the chairperson or a majority vote of board members can approve additional time. Comment length will remain the same — capped at 3 minutes per person, but this can change if more than 5 people (formerly 10 people) sign up for comment. In that case the chairperson will choose the order and time limit for each speaker. As a rule of thumb, commenters who have not previously spoken at board meetings will be given preference. Commenters who are not able to speak in the first 15 minutes will still have the chance to do so at the end of the meeting, unless the chairperson orders otherwise.

Agenda here
Thursday, July 25 at 12:30 p.m.
Auditorium, First Floor
Spokane Regional Health District
1101 West College Avenue

Spokane Transit Authority Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Susan Meyer, who has been the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (STA), announced her retirement earlier this year. The STA’s executive committee just started discussing the hiring process for her replacement which, spoiler alert, will include exactly zero opportunities for public comment or participation, if the recommendation from STA board chair Al French passes. This is in pretty stark contrast to the city of Spokane’s recent search for a new police chief, which included a public forum for top candidates to interact with (and answer to) the public they are supposed to be serving.

The board is set to vote on what the CEO Search Task Force and process will look like at this week’s meeting, and we anticipate this may see some public pushback.

Agenda here
Thursday, July 25 at 1:30 pm
STA Boardroom
1230 W Boone Avenue, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Public comment opportunities on potential public health privatization

Ask us anything…

Town Hall