Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down what’s coming up this week in municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can get involved and speak out about the issues you care about.
After a light holiday week, we’re back at it with A LOT, so buckle up. Some of the biggest items that stand out to us are:
- It’s Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs’ last week on the job
- Spokane City Council will vote on special budget ordinances for the police department tonight
- City Council is also requesting an investigation into the long overdue appointment of a non-interim city attorney
- City council will also decide where red light camera money will go
- More behavioral health based housing funding in Spokane County
This week, these groups are meeting:
- Spokane Urban Experience Committee
- Spokane City Council
- Spokane Board of County Commissioners
- Spokane City Plan Commission
- Spokane Regional Transportation Council
- Liberty Lake City Council
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Spokane Park Board
RANGE Office Hours
It’s Office Hours time, where we set up shop somewhere in Spokane and welcome you to come talk to us, ask questions, tell us what we’re missing in our coverage and hang out. We’ll be at our fellow Spokane Workers Coop business, Golden Handle Brewery, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday! Join us!
Thursday, July 13 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Golden Handle Brewing Co.
154 S Madison St #100, Spokane, WA
Urban Experience Committee
Beggs’ last day
Council President Breean Beggs announced in May that he would be leaving his job on July 13 after he was appointed Spokane County Superior Court judge by Gov. Jay Inslee. Now, the city council needs to appoint someone to take his place for the rest of his term, which ends this year. According to a resolution the council will consider this week, they will be appointing someone already on the council, though it doesn’t yet specify who. The Spokesman-Review’s Emry Dinman reported that it will likely be Councilwoman Lori Kinnear, who is council president pro tem. Her term also ends this year and she’s also not running for office again.
No matter who is appointed from the current council, their seat would then have to be filled, so the resolution states that applications for the vacant council position will open on July 18 and close August 4, with interviews on August 24 and a new council person appointed on August 28.
The vacancy will require a reshuffling of the boards and commissions that Beggs serves on. According to another resolution the council will consider, the rest of the council members will be taking on Beggs’ roles in the dozen or so boards he was on. See all the assignments starting on page 53.
More Kendall Yards
The council will get a briefing on the seventh round of development in Kendall Yards, which is set to begin this summer. This includes street improvements, sewer and water infrastructure, stormwater facilities and landscaping generally along West Summit Parkway and along part of North Cochran Street.
Spokane City Council
No more forever interim city attorney?
We reported in May that Spokane’s interim city attorney Lynden Smithson has long overstayed his interim appointment, leading to questions about the legality of any actions he takes on behalf of the city. Mayor Nadine Woodward appointed Smithson as interim city attorney more than a year ago, but city law dictates that interim appointments last no more than 180 days unless the council grants an additional 180 day extension (no extension was requested by the Mayor’s office nor granted by council). Smithson has not been permanently appointed or confirmed, so he has been serving without council approval since November.
This apparently isn’t the only case of an interim appointment overstaying the legal limits set out in city law: the city’s current interim IT director is even more overdue in their position than Smithson, since they were initially appointed in November 2021.
Now, the city council is requesting the mayor either appoint someone new to be interim city attorney and IT Director for 180 days or that she immediately nominate and present to the council for confirmation candidates for the permanent roles.
The resolution, written by Beggs and Zappone, also requests that the Washington State Auditor investigate “the possible improper or illegal use of public funds arising from this situation and provide further guidance to the City on complying with its ordinances for interim director positions.”
Searching the couch cushions for police money
Special Budget Ordinances (SBO), or changes to the city’s annual budget, are pretty common, but this one hits a little different after the city council last week approved a new police contract that puts the city into a budget deficit. This SBO reallocates millions of dollars to the Spokane Police Department to compensate for the massive amounts of overtime this year and to “right-size” the department’s budget. In addition to about $8.8 million from the General Fund being reallocated to police pay, the city is also reallocating the following:
- $4.6 million from the Criminal Justice Assistance Fund originally earmarked for the Trent Resource Assistance Center (TRAC) will be reclassified to the police department. TRAC operations will be funded by real estate excise taxes instead.
- $2.85 million transferred from the Public Safety Personnel and Crime Reduction Fund.
- The last $144,000 of grant money awarded for “one-time costs related to law enforcement and criminal justice legislation enacted between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021”
Money from traffic cameras
The council will consider a slate of resolutions related to traffic cameras and the funding they generate. The first will approve the installation of more speed radar cameras around schools, hospitals and parks, following recommendations from Neighborhood Councils and Spokane Public Schools.
The next is a proposal from the Spokane Police Department to use the revenue collected from these cameras in the Traffic Calming Measures (TCM) Fund to pay for overtime for traffic enforcement by police officers. The department wants $48,600 for 12 speed measuring devices installed on police patrol vehicles and $75,000 for targeted speeding patrols.
According to the resolution, the Traffic Calming Measures Fund has historically been used for capital improvements to streets and city infrastructure and for the police personnel costs to administer the traffic camera programs. Usually traffic calming measures are changes to the street design that make drivers follow the speed limit and make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. In 2022, the city allocated money from this fund so police could do targeted patrols on North Division specifically to deter street racing, but this budget agreement doesn’t specify why each precinct needs targeted patrols. This would mark the beginning of a pilot program that the department would run until the end of 2024. If they judge the program to be successful, SPD wants to expand it, with a total of 102 of these devices at the cost of $400,000. The resolution doesn’t say how much overtime costs would balloon to in that case.
In the next resolution, the city council will consider moving traffic calming projects to a four-year cycle rather than an annual cycle and take the feedback from outreach to neighborhood councils to prioritize a list of traffic calming projects. They’ll also allocate TCM funds of up to $500,000 each year for projects that neighborhoods prioritized and with recommendation of the traffic calming subcommittee and approval of council. See a list of the projects on page 458 of the agenda.
Hearing for the proposed Don’t-Be-Homeless-Near-Kids law
The hearing for a proposed ballot initiative that would make it illegal for anyone to camp or store personal property within 1,000 feet of any public or private school, public park, playground or licensed child care facility. Basically, it would make it a misdemeanor to be homeless in much of Spokane. The petitioner of the law, Brian Hansen, submitted a petition with 7,397 signatures. Read our run-down of the law here.
Final reading palooza
We’re going to do a speed-run of all the ordinances that are having a final reading tonight because there’s A LOT and we’ve covered most of them before.
- Short-term rental ordinances: The ordinance would require permits and licensing fees for short-term rentals in Spokane and put limits on where and how many can be in certain properties. Read Carl’s deep-dive into Spokane’s short-term rental regulations here.
- Changing the redistricting process: Councilmember Michael Cathcart is proposing a new process for redistricting to make the redistricting committee community members selected by the council and mayor. This resolution would put that on the November ballot. Read more here.
- Events for the library: This resolution affirms that the Spokane Public Library and its partner organizations won’t have to pay for traffic control costs when closing down Spokane Falls Boulevard for events.
- New motto: This resolution will make “In Spokane We All Belong” the new official city motto. See why our motto isn’t technically “Near nature, near perfect” here.
Agenda here
Monday, July 10 at 6 p.m.
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 County Commissioners
Agenda upgrade
A new agenda format for the county is just rolling out and it’s a huge upgrade over past agendas. Now, for each item there’s a one-page cover sheet that gives a clear summary of what the agenda item does and its budgetary impact. Nerds that we are, we’re very excited about the possibility of better agendas. Read more about the ongoing push for clearer, more accessible agendas from Colin Tiernan in the Spokesman-Review.
Behavioral Health Support
The county is providing additional funding to Volunteers of America for behavioral health support for folks in their transitional housing programs. This $121,500 program will help the agency hire two specialists and will be funded through the local Mental Health Sales Tax. Providers across the housing spectrum have been sounding alarm bells about the much higher levels of residents experiencing mental and substance use challenges, especially since the pandemic. Because of that higher need, agencies are looking for programs like this one to bring more integrated services to people in their housing programs.
Diversion dollars
The county is getting more than $300,000 from the state Department of Social and Health Services to provide better pretrial diversion services in order to keep people out of the waiting queue for competency restoration — the process where someone is deemed to be in a fit mental state to stand trial. The idea of this program is to reduce the criminalization of mental illness.
In Washington, there’s a huge backlog of cases that prevents the timely restoration of services and just led to a $100 million judgment against the state. Under this program, prosecutors can dismiss “qualifying charges” as long as someone is willing to participate in a diversion program. Today, in a meeting about the proposed regional homelessness authority, Commissioner Al French stated that this judgment could be a major funding source for county homeless and mental health services.
More behavioral health-based housing funding
The state Commerce Department is granting more than $1.5 million for the county to subsidized housing for people with a diagnosed mental health condition. Like the diversion program above, this program is targeted at people being discharged from psychiatric hospitals and is part of the state’s effort to clear its backlog of people awaiting mental health services.
Drone funding
The Sheriff’s Department is requesting $54,000 to continue a software subscription for drone operation.
Trash pickup
The state Department of Ecology will pay the county’s detention services program $216,000 for litter clean-up by county inmate crews.
Agenda here
Tuesday, June 27 at 2 p.m.
Public Works Building
1116 W Broadway, Spokane, WA
Commissioner’s Conference Room, First Floor
Spokane City Plan Commission
Fish farm
Spokane City’s Shoreline Master Plan (SMP), which dictates things like river access and building standards near water bodies, hadn’t anticipated the need to address the potential impacts of aquaculture … until now. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is in the process of developing a fish hatchery on Latah Creek to restore native salmonid species. In order for the process to move forward, the city needs to amend its SMP to allow that use on water bodies within city limits. There will be more opportunities for public comment moving forward but for now the details are pretty straightforward: this amendment would change the existing regulations to allow this hatchery proposed on Latah Creek.
Moving forward on Logan Neighborhood Plan
The long and winding process to develop code updates for the South Logan Transit-Oriented Development project continues with staff set to present updated options for future development of the area based on community feedback. The packet doesn’t say what that preferred alternative will look like, but does include the community feedback, which ranges from self-described NIMBYism of people who don’t want more density in the neighborhood to promotion of better river access and additional density. This area is being targeted for new development in part because it’s on the City Line, STA’s new rapid-transit bus route.
Agenda here
Wednesday, July 12 at 2 p.m.
The meeting is hybrid with access link in the agenda
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd
Spokane Regional Transportation Council
Tragic traffic statistics
The regional transportation council’s draft report on legislative priorities starts with some staggering statistics. According to the report: “Since 2014 roadway fatalities and serious injuries crashes have increased by 62.5% in SRTC’s planning area.” In light of those statistics, and in accordance with the state Target Zero 2030 Plan — which sets the goal of zero traffic fatalities by the end of the decade, the council is calling for increased investments — the council has created a list of 10 priorities. The list starts on page 44 of the agenda packet and includes increased investment in road infrastructure, the integration of transportation and affordable housing strategies and addressing funding gaps from the anticipated loss of gas tax revenues among other priorities.
Shopping list
Also included in this agenda is a list of project proposals at various steps of implementation. That includes the nearly $40 million electrification of STA’s bus fleet, a $202 million plan for bus-rapid transit on Division Street and a much anticipated $18 million plan to improve traffic connections in the US 195 corridor in Latah Valley.
New equity working group
A new advisory group is being created by the SRTC to focus on transportation equity and inclusion. According to the agenda, “[The] Equity Working Group is being formed with representatives from the public to provide a forum for representation at SRTC from our area’s historically overburdened or excluded communities – whose insight is crucial to our region’s success.”
Agenda here
Thursday, July 13 at 1 p.m.
SRTC, 421 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504
This meeting is also available virtually here
Liberty Lake City Council
Agenda here
Tuesday, July 11 at 7 p.m.
In person at Liberty Lake City Hall or Zoom link here.
22710 E Country Vista Dr, Liberty Lake, WA
Spokane School District Board of Directors
Agenda here
Wednesday, July 12 at 6 p.m.
Boardroom, SPS Administration Building
200 N. Bernard
Watch virtually here.
Central Valley School District Board of Directors
Agenda here (once posted)
Monday, July 12 at 6:30 p.m.
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, July 12 at 3:30 p.m.
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd
