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.
It’s an EXTREMELY light Civics this week, as many public bodies in Spokane County are taking a spring break, but there are a couple of things are going on:
- Spokane Valley is performing the regular update to its rule book.
- The Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board is hosting a presentation on how to thin out forests to reduce the danger of the fire season.
That’s literally all, folks, we’ll see you next week!
Important meetings this week:
Spokane City Council
0/5 peppers
This is a no-pepper week for the Spokane City Council, as they’re canceled for Spring Break! It’s almost like they’re hibernating to gain the strength for what is shaping up to be two incredibly spicy meetings on April 14 and April 21.
Next week’s sneak peek:
- Alleged domestic terrorist Matt Shea’s lawsuit against the city continues, and the council is set to spend an additional $100,000 fighting it with a contract in the consent agenda, bringing the total to $150,000.
- The council will vote on a resolution that would ask voters to decide in November if Spokane should rejoin the county aquifer protection area. If passed by voters, this would cost homeowners $15 a year, with the funds going to protect the region’s drinking water.
- According to data from the Census Bureau, a quarter of Spokane residents are insured through Medicaid. This is one of the “whereas” clauses — which state the reasons action is necessary — listed in a resolution up for a vote next week that, if passed, would state that the city formally opposes any cuts to Medicaid funding from both the federal government and the state.
- The ordinance that would ban employers from discriminating against potential hires because of their lack of a permanent address — designed to remove barriers for people who are unhoused to get employment — will be up for a first read. Check out our more in-depth CIVICS breakdown of the legislation here.
- We’re calling it now, the spiciest item of next week is going to be Council Member Paul Dillon’s ordinance “affirming protection of LGBTQIA2S+ Communities” in Spokane. We broke it down a few weeks ago, but there are a few amendments on the table that could alter it. One is from Dillon himself, which seems to have just made some small language tweaks, but three others, proposed by Council Member Jonathan Bingle, seem so antithetical to the ordinance that they’re basically proposing something entirely different.
- Bingle’s first proposed amendment replaces Dillon’s ordinance with an entirely new one, called “an ordinance relating to protection of all Spokane residents and Establishing Respect for Parental Rights, Religious Freedom and Medical Ethics,” and includes clauses lining out parents’ rights to raise their kids without “coercion or interference from government actors.” Bingle’s version also doesn’t include any of the protections laid out in Dillon’s.
- The second amendment adds a whole section governing who can use what bathrooms on city property, and if you weren’t picking up on Bingle’s whole vibe before, it’s pretty clear here: he wants to mandate that what bathroom someone uses is determined by their sex assigned at birth. The ordinance doesn’t make it clear how exactly Bingle plans to check or what enforcement mechanism he thinks would be appropriate. It also muddles its own definitions of gender and sex, stating at the bottom that the purpose is to “require transgender persons using restrooms in City-owned or occupied buildings to use restrooms designated either ‘male’ or ‘female’ in a manner consistent with their birth gender,” but in other places, states bathroom use would be governed by sex, not gender.
- The third amendment would ban transgender people from playing on the sports team that aligns with their gender at city-sponsored sports events. There was a bit of a Freudian slip in the box at the bottom that speaks to a different intent: “If adopted it would establish a City policy to prohibit the participation of transgender women in city-sponsored sports events.”
Usually, amendments are considered and then adopted or declined in the Agenda Review that happens at 3:30 before the meeting that day. But because Bingle’s amendments were filed late, they would require a majority vote to suspend the rules to even consider them, and to be frank, it seems extremely unlikely the progressive supermajority would do that, so it’s probably not worth trans people and allies stressing about.
Agenda here
Monday, April 7, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Valley City Council
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Changes to council’s governing document
The city council is considering a new slate of changes for its regular review of the rule book that governs the body, known as the “Governance Manual.” New rules being considered include:
- Giving the mayor the last word and allowing them to correct “misinformation” in the council member reports.
- Barring the use of personal electronic devices during council meetings unless they are needed to accommodate a disability.
- Reducing the amount of time council members have to address violations of the Governance Manual they are accused of.
- Creating a way to fine council members monetarily if they violate the Governance Manual.
Agenda here
Tuesday, April 1 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Spokane City Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers for global warming, 🌶️/5 peppers for the actual meeting content
Consultants to review city’s mandated climate planning
As the climate warms and wildfire season becomes longer and more dangerous — it’s basically year-round in places like California — cities are focusing on how to reduce the danger of a damaging wildfire, like the one that destroyed parts of Medical Lake in 2023. This costs money, so Spokane hired a wildland urban interface manager in 2022 who has been soliciting grants to do things like thin out trees and brush in heavily forested areas and educate homeowners who live in fire prone areas on how to prevent their homes from catching fire. The climate board will host a presentation about this program at its Thursday meeting.
Agenda here
Thursday, April 10 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed
here.
Spokane Public Facilities District
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Agenda here when available
Wednesday, April 9 at 12:30 pm
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Board Room
720 W Mallon Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here.
