Is SCRAPS needlessly euthanizing animals?

The animals would like to know the answer too. (Photo illustration by Valerie Osier)

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 of the items that stick out to us this week include:

Your garbage truck may come an hour earlier
Spokane city council members want to clarify euthanasia rules for SCRAPS
They’ll also discuss whether to censure Mayor Woodward
Spokane Valley’s plan for homelessness

This week, these groups will be meeting:

Also, last week was a doozy. While the RANGE team was in Chicago at a summit for Documenters, some important news happened: a court commissioner took the anti-camping ballot initiative off the November ballot and hours later, a judge put it back on, Spokane’s housing and homelessness department lost two key officials, and the mayor wants to pause finding a new shelter operator for Trent.

You may have noticed we reported and posted a story on the ballot initiative on Thursday and now it’s gone. That’s because we were working from the plane on our way back and by the time we landed, it changed completely, so we decided to take the story down to avoid causing confusion. We’re glad our friends at the Inlander were able to stay on top of it ♥️.

Spokane City Council

More money in emergency housing funds

The Washington State Department of Commerce Emergency Housing Fund awarded $3.9 million to Spokane’s Community, Housing & Human Services (CHHS). CHHS plans to subgrant the funds to the Young Women’s Christian Association, Catholic Charities, Volunteers of America, Family Programs, Women’s Hearth, Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners, the Salvation Army and Truth Ministries. Spokane City Council will vote on accepting the funds at Monday’s meeting.

Repping the culture

City council expects to approve the disbursement of $531,000 awarded to 34 nonprofits that applied for 2023 Cultural Incentive Grants. The grant money is intended to support cultural community events put on by these organizations and can be applied to events going back to January 1, 2023. Amounts awarded to each organization span from just under $4,000 to $25,000. Awardees include the Spokane Hoopfest Association, the Hispanic Business Association of Spokane, Terrain Programs and Feast Collective.

Trash collection might start earlier in the morning

City Council will be doing a first reading of two ordinances: one ordinance would increase business registration fees from $127 to $131 in 2024 as part of their annual review. The council will also have a first reading of another ordinance that requests that solid waste collection begin one hour earlier to protect employees from heat and wildfire smoke exposure. Since these are first readings, the council will not be voting to enact either ordinance until a later date.

Spokane City Council is also scheduled to have a study session Thursday at 11 am. These are more informal meetings where councilmembers discuss things and receive presentations, but they don’t take any action. Find the agenda here once posted.

Agenda here
Monday, September 11 at 6 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.

Urban Experience Committee (Spokane city)

Clarifying euthanasia rules for SCRAPS

Councilmembers Michael Cathcart and Karen Stratton want to change city code to make it clear that Spokane County Regional Animal Program (SCRAPS) is to only euthanize impounded animals when they are severely injured or sick and not only because the shelter doesn’t have capacity for them. This is in line with Washington state standards on euthanasia. According to the resolution cover sheet, “the ordinance is proposed in response to considerable community outcry over SCRAPS euthanasia practices and policies, which appear to be inordinately influenced by lack of capacity rather than animal health.”

After the agenda was posted Friday with these claims, the county and SCRAPS Director Jesse Ferrari promptly released a statement saying that no evidence has been brought forward to support this claim and that the organization does not euthanize animals because of capacity.

“Humane euthanasia is only employed as a last resort,” Ferrari said. “SCRAPS has attempted to address the constituent concerns brought forth by Councilmembers Cathcart and Stratton by initially inviting them both to the facility in May 2023 for a firsthand look at SCRAPS’ operations, and to review our policies in action. To date they have not taken us up on that invitation. SCRAPS is confident we are meeting our agreed upon contractual obligations.”

The city has a contract with SCRAPS through December 2025 and the resolution says that any operational impacts are unknown, but they’ll be on SCRAPS. It does note that it’s possible the changes would end up with greater costs to the city from longer animal stays. Up until now, the city code lacked a clear statement against euthanizing animals solely because of capacity, so SCRAPS defaulted to Spokane County’s code.

The resolution is set to be voted on by the council on September 18. It has an emergency clause, which means it would become effective as soon as possible.

Pedestrian street for 29th Avenue in Lincoln Heights

The city council will soon consider a change to the Plan Commission’s work plan that would designate 29th Avenue from Martin Street (near the Thai Bamboo restaurant) to Fiske Street (after the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center) as a “Pedestrian Street.” This designation just means that any commercial and residential development along 29th Avenue supports a walkable environment.

The Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council asked for this change after identifying it as a priority for the neighborhood and the Planning Services director agreed to add it to this year’s plan. According to the resolution, the plan for that district since 2016 has been to make that business core more pedestrian friendly and less dependent on cars.

A traffic-calming program

In the innocuously titled item “Budget Agreement Between City Council and Public Works,” the city’s public works department is asking the council to establish a full program dedicated to traffic calming with an annual budget of $400,000. Since 2010, the money to build and maintain traffic calming infrastructure, like curb extensions, bike lanes and medians, has come from money generated by red light and speed radar camera tickets. But now the department needs an established program (and budget) to keep going.

They’re asking for two main things: a reserve budget to fund the extra maintenance staff time it takes to maintain traffic calming features and the purchase of equipment needed for this infrastructure, including street sweeping and snow-plowing equipment. The budget for the equipment is a one-time cost of $550,000. This initial program is expected to operate until the end of 2024 and then be assessed for effectiveness, according to the resolution.

Censure for the mayor

Councilmembers Zack Zappone and Betsy Wilkerson are leading the charge to censure Mayor Nadine Woodward for appearing on stage with “former Washington State representative and alleged domestic terrorist, Matt Shea, and known anti-LGBTQ extremist, Sean Feucht” at a Christian nationalist revival event three weeks ago.

Shea and Feucht prayed on stage for Woodward’s re-election campaign. Woodward quickly claimed she was only there to pray for fire victims, but Shea said she agreed to be at the event before any fires started. The fallout has been swift, with Spokane faith leaders and council members calling Woodward out and the Rolling Stone even writing about it.

In practicality, a censure doesn’t do a lot. It’s an action from an official body saying they don’t approve of what a person did, but the resolution notes that the action is meant to show all Spokanites, specifically members of the LGBTQ community, that the city council doesn’t tolerate hate or discrimination.

The vote to approve the censure is set to happen September 25. Read more about the censure from the Spokesman’s Emry Dinman.

Agenda here
Monday, September 11 at 1:15 p.m.
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 Valley City Council

Public hearing for the 2024 budget

Now’s the time to get your comments and concerns in early for Spokane Valley’s 2024 budget. The Valley’s city council is holding the first of three public hearings on the $105 million budget on Tuesday. They’ll be holding presentations and hearings on the budget until they vote on it November 21. See the whole budget, including highlights at the top, here.

The Valley’s got a plan for homelessness

Three items in this meeting are about homelessness and the Valley’s plan for it. In the first item, the city council will be voting on creating an Interim Homeless and Housing Task Force of seven voting members. This interim task force will be in charge of providing recommendations for the adoption of a 5-year homeless and housing plan for 2024 and making recommendations for how the permanent task force will be composed.

The second item will appoint most of the voting members already chosen:

Spokane Valley City Council member position – Pam Haley, Spokane Valley Mayor
County representative position – George Dahl, Housing & Community Development Administrator and/or Chris McKinney, Homeless Programs Manager
Business representative position – Lance Beck, Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce
School representative position – John Parker, CVSD Superintendent
Housing Authority representative position – Arielle Anderson, Director of Housing Assistance Programs
They still have not chosen the people for the two Lived Experience positions.

The task force will first meet in late September or early October.

Lastly, the council is set to get an update on the Spokane Valley Homeless Action Plan, which has been in development since the city put out a community survey in 2021. This plan is meant to be a roadmap for the city to address, reduce and prevent homelessness.

It’s so far unclear how this plan and the task force will interface with the currently on-ice Spokane Regional Homelessness Authority, but since the authority isn’t forming yet, this gives the Valley a way to move forward.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 12 at 6 pm.
CenterPlace Great Room
2426 N Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, WA 99216
Virtual attendance here.

Board of County Commissioners

Planning to present a plan from the planners

The Spokane County Planning Commission has been hard at work with land-use planning, and they’re ready to present some recommendations to the county, so the commissioners are voting on a resolution to hear their plans at a future County Commission meeting. Amendments to the plans for capital facilities, which include roads, water and sewer systems, parks, solid waste facilities and jails are on the agenda, as is a note to initiate the creation of a Bike and Pedestrian Plan. The agenda didn’t give much detail at all, and with “capital facilities” being a broad label, it’s difficult to narrow down what amendments could be coming down the line, but if this resolution gets passed, we’ll see the plan presentations on Tuesday, September 19.

Environmental Services are out, Public Works is in

The Environmental Services Department has been folded into the Public Works Department, so the County Commission is considering changes to the language of multiple Spokane County Code chapters to better reflect this merger. It’s a lot of striking “environmental services director” from the record, but the code will also include adding changes to the Sanitary Sewer Code that are designed to hold business owners accountable to safer, more environmentally friendly disposal practices for fats, oils and grease. There will be a public hearing on the proposed amendments on September 26 at 2 pm, at the Commissioner’s Hearing Room.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 12 at 2 pm
Public Works Building
1116 W Broadway, Spokane, WA
Commissioner’s Conference Room, First Floor

Plan Commission (Spokane city)

Code clean up continues

The Plan Commission continues its Residential Development Code clean up process, including an upcoming September 13 workshop on “objective design standards.” These standards include things like what windows count towards the total number of windows a house must have (fun fact, windows on a garage don’t count, but pedestrian-facing windows on a front door do). The commission is also doing what they call Paper Cuts Code Clean Up, which are line edits on codes to bring them up-to-date with any state or city legislation. For example, cutting or adding language to ensure that codes now reflect the change in parking minimums handed down from the Spokane City Council.

Agenda here
Wednesday, September 13 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center, City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance here.

Spokane Regional Transportation Council

Regional transportation priorities

The regional transportation council has prepared its recommendations on project prioritization moving into 2024, so if you’re curious about potential construction and the hundreds of millions of dollars going into it, the list might be of interest to you. Adding bicycle lanes and pedestrian access seems to be a priority in this list. The controversial Division corridor conversation looks like it will continue as transportation projects like Division Bus Rapid Transit Improvements (which includes the language “dedicated business access and transit lanes”) and Division Street Active Transportation Access Improvements are also in the plan. We wonder if that means we’ll be seeing more of Larry Stone-funded “Stop Division Road Diet!” billboards and Hulu ads.

Back to basics - bicycles

If you’re sensing a theme, you might be onto something…bikes are back in style. The SRTC is voting to adopt the Regional Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress Analysis, which was finalized in August. The stress analysis studied which routes caused bicycle riders the most stress, and results from it could inform decisions on bicycle lane additions and other traffic changes to improve bicycle system planning.

Agenda here
Thursday, September 14 at 1:30 pm (note the time change!)
SRTC, 421 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504
This meeting is also available virtually here

Mead School District Board of Directors

Agenda here
Monday, September 11 at 6 pm
Union Event Center
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead, WA 99021
Watch via Zoom here.

Central Valley School District Board of Directors

Agenda here
Monday, September 11 at 6:30 pm
Learning and Teaching Center (district office)
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.

Spokane Park Board

Agenda here (once posted)
Thursday, September 14 at 3:30 pm
City Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201.