Spokane could ban warrantless ICE arrests on city property

*A sign at the “No Kings” protest on June 14. (Photo by Sandra Rivera)*

Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can keep track of and fight for the issues you care about.

Here are highlights of what’s coming up:

The Spokane City Council has a new draft of an ordinance that would criminalize homelessness citywide.
They’re also voting on an emergency ordinance to ban warrantless ICE arrest in “nonpublic,” city property, which would include events at the parks and city streets.
It’s 4th of July this week, which means there’s a lot of city closures — including libraries and aquatic centers — and a lot of meeting cancellations, hence the shorter CIVICS.

Important meetings this week:

But, before we get into it:

Here’s what we know about the Idaho fire and shootings

To bring you up to speed, about midday on June 29, police say, a gunman set flame to the dry forest on Canfield Mountain just east of Dalton Gardens between Coeur d’Alene and Hayden. As the blaze spread and firefighting crews were investigating how to fight it, he opened fire on them, killing two and wounding one, who was in critical but stable condition Sunday evening. Local, state and federal law enforcement immediately responded and a short time later the shooter was dead. We don’t know whether he died from police gunfire or from shooting himself. Police recovered the body before the fire reached it. Here is what we know:

There is no evacuation ordered at the moment, but the fire is still burning. Kootenai County Sherif Bob Norris advised local residents to monitor the Kootenai County Alert Center for up-to-date information.
Several news agencies, including the Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press, have identified the suspect as 20-year-old Wess Roley; we’ll be digging into his story in the coming days.
About 300 law enforcement agents responded to the scene, including at least one Spokane-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Most were stationed for several hours at Cherry Hill Park, on the east side of the ridge, opposite the attack scene.
RANGE saw the following law enforcement agencies on scene: the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; US Border Patrol; US Marshals; Washington State Patrol; Idaho State Patrol; Spokane County Sheriff; the Kootenai County Sheriff; Liberty Lake Police Department; Spokane Police Department; Post Falls Police Department; Kellogg Police Department.
The shooter’s body was located via a stagnant cell phone signal by a federal surveillance helicopter at 3:16 pm and “scooped up” about an hour and a half later, according to Norris.
Though investigators are still trying to determine a motive, Bruce Mattare, the chair of the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners, referenced Coeur d’Alene’s long history with white supremacy in a press conference. He said his comments were inspired by media speculation that the shooter could be influenced by white supremacy. Here is a lengthy quote from Mattare, which references activity by the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist hate group that was headquartered in Hayden and was later dismantled largely by grassroots activism:

“June 29th, 2025 is a day that we will not forget in this community. It is the day evil showed his face, and we lost two outstanding professionals of the highest quality. I cannot fathom why anyone would commit such a heinous act. This kind of senseless violence is unheard of here. This is not who we are as a community, and when you hear how others portray the people who live here on the news, it's not true. What happened here decades ago is not reflective of fine people who live here today. I want everyone to know that this is a wonderful place to live.”

July 4th Spokane City Closures

Straight from the mouth of the city (and by that, we mean we copied-and-pasted the city press release) here are the closures you should plan for on Friday:

“In observance of the Independence Day holiday on Friday, July 4, City Hall will be closed along with other City facilities, including the Waste-to-Energy facility. Garbage, recycling, and food & yard waste services will be a day late after the Fourth of July holiday, with normal Friday services planned for Saturday.

Here are some additional Independence Day closures and cancellations:

On-street paid parking meters and kiosks will not require payments but remember even when parking is free on holidays, all parking rules, including time limits, still apply.
All Spokane Public Library locations will be closed.
The Spokane Municipal Court and Community Justice Services will be closed.
Spokane 311 employees will not be available for in-person, phone, or online customer service inquiries. The public can go to Spokane311.org 24 hours a day to submit a request.
Development Services Center employees will not be available.
The City’s six aquatic centers will be closed.”

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Camping to be illegal citywide

Last week, we had a lot of whiplash from the way the council handled Mayor Lisa Brown’s slate of homelessness ordinances: passing a few and voting down the one that would criminalize camping citywide but give a seven-day grace period for someone to move, then choosing late in the evening to reconsider the ordinance but with an amendment dropping the grace period to three days, then finally, voting to defer the ordinance in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The deferred ordinance is coming back for a vote tonight, but it looks a little bit different. After stakeholder meetings with folks from Experience Matters, the Downtown Spokane partnership and more, there are a few amendments up for a vote at the 3:30 pm Agenda Review session, with the new draft coming for a vote at the 6 pm legislative session.

Council Members Paul Dillon, Zack Zappone and Lili Navarrete have filed a joint amendment that would change some of the language around obstruction. In the new draft, the 7-day notice that became a 3-day notice at the last meeting is now just “a notice.”

The text of the ordinance no reads, “A notice shall be posted prior to a citation issued under SMC 12.02.1007(B) so that the Spokane Homeless Outreach Team or a City-designated service provider may offer navigation and relocation assistance to services including but not limited to an emergency or permanent housing solution, day center, crisis stabilization or crisis relief center, or substance use treatment facility.”

A notice will not be required in advance to remove an unauthorized encampment if there is a “reasonable belief,” that the encampment “presents an immediate threat and/or an unreasonable risk of harm to life, public health, or safety, or public property which shall include, but is not limited to:

physical threats or violence.

criminal activity not inherent in the act of unauthorized camping (e.g., drug use or sales, theft, sex trafficking)
a condition that significantly increases the likelihood of disease or the spread of disease (e.g., rodents, exposed meat, human waste)
a condition that presents a significant risk of bodily injury or death (e.g., discarded needles, vehicular traffic, weapons)
any other substantial threat to public health or safety
damage (including potential or foreseeable damage) to the natural environment of environmentally critical areas
significant amounts of trash
any knowing obstruction of access to or use of any portion of public property, or any camping in or upon any public property unless authorized by a local or state emergency declaration or pursuant to a permit as set forth in SMC 12.02.1007 A and B
occupation of an area in which the public is not allowed to be present during the times camping is occurring
directly adjacent to streets and moving vehicles.”

Those last three are what stood out to us the most, because these changes essentially say, “When people are camping on public right-of-way and they aren’t doing other crimes, we’ll do our best to give them notice to move and case manage them, unless they’re knowingly camping on public property or next to streets and moving vehicles, where much of the city’s camping happens. Then we’ll just tell them immediately to go somewhere else, or get arrested!”

The new amendment also states that the city will prioritize encampment removal for anything within 1000 feet of schools, parks, day care centers or childcare facilities, and emergency shelters — the original parameters of the voter-approved, Washington State Supreme Court-overturned Proposition 1.

We’ve been told this is a compromise amendment, but it does seem like most of the compromise here has been done by the side that previously advocated for compassion and giving people time to move (although, to where?) rather than face citations or arrests that could hinder their ability to seek housing or employment in the future.

No ICE on city property?

The complete text of this ordinance was not included in the agenda, which means we’re working off what we’ve been told the ordinance does by Dillon, but an emergency ordinance that would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement from executing warrantless searches or arrests on any city-owned “nonpublic,” property is up for a vote tonight.

What does nonpublic property mean, you ask? Luckily, the definitions section was included in the agenda, so we know how the city is defining it:

“Any area of a city facility property, or public right of way that is not generally open and accessible to the general public or for which public access is temporarily restricted, such as a permitted special event that requires express permission from the permit holder to enter, an area requiring a valid ticket for a bona fide attendee or passenger, or an area where permission to enter has been given by a city employee or an employee of a tenant in a city facility on an individual basis.”

Dillon told us that definition also expands to public right-of-way areas, like streets, and events or festivals in ~~the park or~~ streets that require the festival to get a city permit and also requires tickets — for example, ~~Pride or~~ Tacos y Tequila.

If this ordinance passes, it could be a huge step in protecting immigrants in Spokane from warrantless arrests — a large problem nationwide as statistics show ICE has mainly arrested people with no violent criminal charges, and has even arrested citizens in some cases.

Edit: this section has been edited to reflect changes made to the ordinance.

Expanding human rights commission, or slowing down human rights?

Up for a vote today is an ordinance from Council Members Jonathan Bingle and Lili Navarrete, which would expand the duties of the Spokane Human Rights Commission “to include automatic review of proposed changes to Title 18 of the Spokane Municipal Code and related provisions.”

If passed, it would require the commission to review and comment on any legislation that would regulate discriminatory practices and claims before council could discuss legislation in committee, and before they take final action on the proposed ordinances.

Navarrete and Bingle added new provisions to the ordinance after its initial committee hearing that could slow the passage of new legislation intended to address issues related to human rights and discrimination: council members would have to provide a copy of each ordinance a minimum of 15 days before it would appear at a committee, and the commission would have up to 45 days after to provide written comments.

Normally, a piece of legislation appears at a committee and can be voted on and passed as early as two weeks later. If the council chooses to wait to move on an ordinance until they receive feedback from the commission, it could delay the passage of the ordinance by a month, which is a big con. However, the council could choose to bypass the requirement with a majority vote.

Don’t forget to exercise your right to public testimony, if you feel so called! You can sign up to speak at tonight’s meeting here before 6 pm.

Next week’s sneak peek:

Next week’s meeting is cancelled for “Fourth of July Week.” We’re betting council members wanted to take a long weekend with their families.

Agenda here
Monday, June 30, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Liberty Lake City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Regional library kerfuffle and reshuffle

Regional library goings-on have been wildly complicated as of late, with book bannings and restrictions for youth ramping up across the border in Idaho. The Cooperative Information Network (CIN) is a library consortium that spans the border, with libraries in both Idaho and Washington participating. But changes at Idaho libraries are impacting Washington patrons, and now minors’ cards will no longer work at every library in the system.

Liberty Lake Library is part of the CIN, but tonight, with the council’s permission, they could follow the lead of Coeur d’Alene Public Library and authorize the Library Director vote in favor of dissolving the CIN at the next CIN meeting. This came at the request of the Library’s Board of Trustees, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of cross-border library information and materials sharing: the goal is for a new, reformed consortium to be brought forward that Liberty Lake could join at a later date.