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.
We only write up the items we think you’ll want or need to know about so you can go speak to your elected officials on them. But for every item we write up in CIVICS, there were likely at least 5 other items we read through that didn’t meet that criteria — and that equals hundreds of pages of agendas we read so you don’t have to.
This week is a real doozy, with theSpokane City Council agenda hitting 1,685 pages!) If you think this work is important, please support it by becoming a member at just $10/month.
Some things that stick out to us this week include:
- Tonight, the Spokane City Council will vote on a slate of incredibly important things: new rules, committee assignments, a COPS contract and the 2025-26 Biennium Budget, among other things.
- The Urban Experience Committee will get a presentation on the scattered-site shelter model and how many beds are online or in the works.
- The Spokane County Commission will consider severing ties with an indigenous homeless outreach program run by Yoyot Sp’q’n”I, because the organization had not started operations on time.
- The Spokane County Sheriffs Department got a $1 million grant from the federal justice department to pay for AI programming that will analyze footage recorded on deputies’ body cameras.
- More regulations on camping in Spokane Valley, this time for private property.
Other important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Urban Experience Committee
- Board of County Commissioners - Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Spokane County Planning Commission
- Plan Commission
- Spokane Park Board
- Spokane Regional Transportation Council
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Folks, it’s going to be a long, spicy, Carolina Reaper of a meeting, capping a long day full of other Spokane City Council stuff. The agenda for tonight’s legislative session alone is 1,685 pages, and a lot of those pages are important. Tonight’s votes will set the tone for 2025, with decisions scheduled on the city’s budget, the city’s legislative agenda, council board and committee appointments and the new council rules, as well as the last ARPA allocations and final 2024 budget. We’re anticipating that it will be the rare five pepper meeting and last until 10 pm.
It’s one of your last chances in 2024 to tell the council how you feel and what issues are important to you going into the next year, so we’re going to do our best to give you the tools you need, including a bingo card to help you stay alert and paying attention. We’ve also included a blank bingo card if you want to make your own guesses prior to the meeting and share it on social media!
Consent agenda
There are 29 items on the consent agenda. We’ve pulled a few of the most important items for you to preview:
- A $110,511 contract for Spokane Police Department to purchase a Leica scanner, which is primarily used in traffic investigations to help process the crime scene quickly and provide investigators, prosecutors, and courts with a 3D model of a crash or crime scene.
- A $530,000 agreement with Parametrix, Inc. for design of the Fish Lake Trail — one of the most in-law friendly bike trails, according to our columnist Lauren Pangborn. In a meeting last week, we overheard that this is more expensive than usual, because they’re designing around indigenous burial grounds and sacred land.
- A $393,131 agreement with Spokane County to continue operating the Behavioral Health Unit, a partnership between SPD and the County Sheriffs to send out licensed mental health professionals with officers to crisis calls.
- A one-year, $459,816 contract amendment for Spokane Arts Commission and Spokane Arts Fund to continue providing services to the city as Brown and the folks at Spokane Arts evaluate what transitioning arts back into the city might look like.
- Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and other surrounding cities are going to have to start paying Spokane a little bit more to use the city’s Hearing Examiner, whose rates are going up from $125 to $150 an hour. Could be bad news for the Valley especially — if they have to keep contracting with Hearing Examiners to deal with Al Merkel complaints.
Legislative Agenda
Every year, the council votes to set the city’s legislative agenda, which guides which items Spokane lobbies for at state and national levels. It’s a good indicator of the city’s financial priorities and policy goals for the next year. If you want to read the full document it starts on page 1,264 of the agenda, but here’s the highlights:
- The city is hoping to get the Waste-to-Energy plant exempted from having to bid on carbon credits via the Climate Commitment Act, “which will cost residents an estimated $8 million annually beginning in 2026.” Landfills are currently exempted from having to bid on credits, even though they produce more carbon than the Waste-to-Energy plant, so Spokane is hoping to make the case that the plant should be exempted too.
- In a continuation of the beef between Spokane and Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC), the city is requesting that some of the 911 excise tax citizens pay go towards police dispatch, instead of entirely into SREC.
- Spokane also wants permission to develop and run a pilot program of a land value tax. This is forbidden by the state currently, but is a method of taxing land that encourages development of vacant property, rewards owners for developing or improving land rather than sitting on it and perhaps most importantly, would tax parking lots at a higher rate.
- The city is requesting $3.5 million from the state to spend on Northeast Public Development Authority’s 3011 E. Wellesley Project in Hillyard, which will provide affordable housing and childcare at nontraditional hours to support workers.
ARPA Allocation
The city has distributed most of its American Rescue Plan Act funds in time, but there is still a bit left — somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. Rather than risk having to give that money back to the federal government, the council could instead vote to let Mayor Lisa Brown spend the remainder of it in the next 20-some days rather than having to put individual contracts in front of council to approve. Council Member Michael Cathcart has submitted an amendment that would require the leftover funds to first be spent on removing junk vehicles and RVs, since the state reimbursement program that was paying for that earlier in the year is on hiatus.
Boards and Committee appointments
At 9:59 on Friday, one minute before the deadline to submit amendments, Council President Wilkerson submitted her list of proposed board and committee assignments for the council. The print is so tiny we can barely read it, but here are few key takeaways that we think could spur discussion tonight:
- Council Member Paul Dillon is on a meteoric rise — he’s taken Council Member Zack Zappone’s spot as Wilkerson’s second-in-command. He is also slated to replace Cathcart as both the chair of the Finance and Administration Committee, which Cathcart has held for years, and as one of the three council members on the internal Board Operations committee.
- District 1 council members could win their fight for representation on the Spokane Transit Authority board; Wilkerson has proposed sending Cathcart in place of Dillon, giving away a slim progressive majority on the board. Unfortunately, this compromise may not be enough to satisfy the council conservatives who wanted Council Member Jonathan Bingle to get the STA appointment.
- Freshman Council Members Lili Navarrete and Kitty Klitzke received their first council committee chairships, presiding over the Urban Experience and Public Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainability committees respectively.
- Technically, District 1 received the most appointments, with 20 in between Cathcart and Bingle. District 2 holds 19 appointments between Dillon and Navarrete and District 3 holds 18 between Zappone and Klitzke. Council President Wilkerson sits on 10 boards and committees.
Council Rules
Okay, we’ve already covered this one *in depth* with a story, a follow-up story and a podcast episode, but with 14 amendments filed on the rules, this one could change significantly, so here’s our plan: First, read our stories on where the rules stood before the amendments rolled in. Then, we’re going to list out all the potential amendments here. Our City Hall reporter Erin Sellers is going to attend Briefing and keep track of which amendments pass and fail. We’ll upload the list to our website with strike-thrus on any item that did not pass before the legislative session tonight so that if you’re planning on testifying on the rules, you know exactly what draft you’re speaking on!
The Wilkerson Amendment
- States the effective date of rule changes as January 1, not February 1
- Would keep the meetings on Mondays, rather than switching to Tuesdays
- Clarifies that if a Monday meeting is cancelled due to a holiday, that week’s meeting will be held on the next day that is not a holiday, unless cancelled by the council president.
- Fixes a clerical error in the original draft, ensuring that the rule forbidding presentations or visual aids from members of the public continues into 2025
- Committees will meet at noon on Mondays instead of 1:15 pm (we’re gonna have to get CIVICS out faster)
The Dillon Amendment
- Referred to by the conservatives as the “play nice” rules, Dillon’s amendment would set clearer expectations for council member behavior during meetings, largely restating rules they’re already supposed to follow as part of Robert’s Rules of Order — with a few additional stipulations.
- Forbids council members from questioning the motives or intentions of other council members.
- Forbids council members from disturbing meetings through “conduct or gestures.”
- Forbids council members from criticizing “a prior council action that is not under debate.”
- Restricts council members to speaking on any pending question a maximum of two times, at ten minutes each.
The Bingle Amendments
- Amendment 1: would restore the prior rule language that says any two council members can place legislation on the evening agendas (rather than needing three)
- Amendment 2: keeps meetings on Mondays (but maybe at 3:30 instead of 5 pm? Hard to tell with how it’s worded), moves committee meetings to 11 am instead of 1:15 pm, states that meetings cancelled due to holidays will be rescheduled for the next available Monday.
- Amendment 3: would exempt the council from following the Robert’s Rule that requires there to be a “pending question” open for discussion to happen, instead allowing them to debate any item on the agenda, including first reading ordinances (which they currently are not allowed to debate)
The Cathcart Amendments
- Amendment 1: states that no council members will be “interrupted or silenced,” by other council members during meetings, unless they violate the rule requiring mutual respect. If the Council President rules they have violated a rule, the president must explain their reasoning as to why an action was out of order.
- Amendment 2: would forbid the council from adopting resolutions in support of or against state or local ballot propositions, “to avoid even the appearance of electioneering.”
- Amendment 3: would allow the Council President to address citizens’ concerns during Open Forum, if their question is “of concern by the broader community,” and can be quickly clarified. For example, if someone is upset that the city hadn’t passed a contract, but the city *did* pass that contract, Wilkerson could let them know the action taken by the city.
- Amendment 4: states that the council president would have to consult with all council member’s offices and staff before scheduling a Study Session.
- Amendment 5: would require three sponsors to place items on the legislative agenda, but those three sponsors would all have to live in different council districts, and would count the Council President as a representative of the district she lives in (rather than as a representative of the whole city, since she was elected citywide.)
- Amendment 6: forces any initiative or referendum-related items to appear in committee before being on the city agenda, and shortens the definition of “legislation” to just mean any action item, basically.
- Amendment 7: adds public interviews with mayoral hires and board and commission applicants to the evening legislative meeting schedule.
- Amendment 8: states that the public can use their Open Forum time to testify on items that appear on any agenda except that night’s agenda and the most up-to-date advance agenda.
- Amendment 9: would preserve three minutes of public testimony time on final action items, and reduce testimony time from three to two minutes on the consent agenda and first readings.
COPS Contract
The debate about COPS continues — read our detailed coverage on it here — with a proposal to forgo the five-year sole-source contract with them in place of a four-month, $200,000 contract that would tide COPS over until the city has time to put together and run a competitive request for proposal process. There is also a proposed amendment from Wilkerson that would further reduce the contract time to just three months and $125,000, with payments being made on a reimbursable basis so the council has a clearer indicator of what COPS is spending money on, instead of just forking over a large check and letting them run with it.
The Budget
Tonight, the council will likely vote to adopt Mayor Brown’s biennium budget for 2025-2026. The budget is intended to be fiscally sustainable and dig the city out of the massive budget deficit Brown inherited. Brown and the council have been going back and forth on the budget, and this agenda includes a letter from Wilkerson with some of the council’s requested changes:
- a $40,000 apprenticeship contract, likely with WeTrain Washington who has been lobbying at council meetings;
- adding a Crime Analyst position to the Office of the Ombuds;
- giving raises to council staffers;
- restoring funding for council interns;
- using Safe Streets for All funds to pay for the new Director of Transportation and Sustainability (who was supposed to be budget neutral);
- using $300,000 to tow junk vehicles and RVs
- Forbidding SPD from using funds from the Safe Streets for All fund for traffic cops, and restoring that money to the fund
- Hiring three additional code enforcement positions.
According to Wilkerson’s amendment, “the net impact to the General Fund for the above actions is a $744,223 increase to the fund over the biennium.”
There is also a separate Cathcart amendment that would add $354,793 (for a total of $800,000 over two years) to the budget for community oriented policing services like COPS, add $250,000 for SPD’s surveillance cameras, and decrease funding in the Office of Performance Management to pay for the increases. It would also take $30,000 out of SPD overtime, and use that money to pay for an analysis of the city’s contract with SCRAPS, to determine if the city should renew the contract with the countywide animal control agency at the end of 2025.
We’ll know which version of the budget is up for a vote after the committee meeting, and after we talk to Brown, which we’re scheduled to do later this afternoon!
If you want to sign up to testify on ANY of this, here’s how to do it!
Agenda here
Monday, December 9 at 6 pm
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane City Council Study Sessions
Agenda here when available.
Thursday, December 9 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Urban Experience Committee (Spokane city)
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Because approximately five million things are happening at the legislative session tonight, we’re gonna keep the committee write-up very brief. There’s really only one item that caught our eye: Zeke Smith from Empire Health Foundation will be presenting an update on the scattered site model that was supposed to replace the Trent Shelter after it closed. We’ll be keeping an eye on this committee meeting and those numbers to see how many beds are online or about to come online, especially as the weather gets even colder.
Agenda here
Monday, December 9 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.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
New US Dept. of Justice funding for AI camera analysis
The sheriff has received a grant from the federal Department of Justice that will pay for new artificial intelligence programming to analyze large volumes of footage recorded on deputies’ body-worn cameras. According to documents, the nearly $1 million grant will allow the department to make better use of its body-worn camera data, which is so voluminous that individual people cannot analyze all of it. The analyses will enhance sheriff’s training programs.
Homelessness program recommended for cancelation
The Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee has recommended that Spokane County sever ties with an indigenous homeless outreach program run by Yoyot Sp’q’n”I. The recommendation says the organization had not started operations, which it was initially required to do by August 31. Yoyot Sp’q’n”I’s website says: “This shelter will provide safety for Indigenous families who experience domestic violence and will be culturally accommodating as well as focus on trauma informed healing and provide services such as case management and [substance use disorder] counseling.” The program had been awarded more than $193,000 in funding from the Washington Department of Commerce as part of its Consolidated Homeless Grant program.
Proposed improvements to county campus
County staff will present a summary of a plan for more than $35 million in updates to infrastructure on the Spokane County campus. The proposed improvements include:
- Convert high pressure steam to hot water – replace boilers with high efficiency hydronic boilers
- Convert domestic hot water from steam
- Fan wall upgrades – replace all mechanical components
- AHU upgrades/replacement – full AHU replacement on oldest units
- Controls – Metasys upgrade with open blue
- Chiller plant – upgrade pumps, piping and controls for efficiency
- Switchgear – replace end of life electrical switchgear.
Budget approval for Martin Hall
Nine counties in Washington contribute funding for Martin Hall, the juvenile detention facility located in Medical Lake. The budget for that funding is due, and the BOCC is set to vote on nearly half a million dollars for the center.
Agenda here
Tuesday, December 10 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
State funding for public defenders
The BOCC is set to vote on about $555,000 in state grant funding for the public defender’s office. Public defense has come under the microscope at the state, as caseloads have ballooned in recent years. As Samantha Wohlfeil reported in the Inlander the Washington State Bar Association this year released new caseload standards that pitch dramatic reductions in the caseloads. Those standards would need to be approved by the Washington Supreme Court.
New equipment purchases
The BOCC is set to vote on a proposal by the county Public Works Department to buy $3.8 million in road maintenance equipment. It identifies the following items, among others, for potential purchase:
- Four four-wheel-drive trucks
- Two extended cab pickup trucks for SCRAPS
- Two enclosed trailers
- A mini excavator
- A “low boy” trailerEight grader machines (this is a big one, entailing more than $2 million)
$600K contract with Maddie’s Place up for renewal
The BOCC is set to ink a contract with Maddie’s Place — an organization in east Spokane near the Valley — which provides withdrawal and recovery services for families suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome. The $600,000 contract is paid for through local property taxes. According to the agenda sheet, Maddie’s Place is a “comprehensive NAS transitional family support program that works with mothers & babies in an inpatient, low-intervention, highly nurturing environment to address the effects of NAS, support infants through withdrawal due to prenatal substance exposure, and ensure long-term successful outcomes through integrated family treatment modalities.”
It will also vote on a $243,000 contract with Volunteers of America to run its transitional housing program for people suffering from mental health disorders.
Possible $3.7 million for LaunchNW
The Innovia Foundation has requested more than $3.7 million in funding for its LaunchNW youth development program. The BOCC will vote whether to award that funding from the county’s general fund. LaunchNW provides college scholarships for graduates of local schools and otherwise sets them up for success in their careers of choice.
GIS contract renewal
The county is set to vote on a contract renewal with Environmental Systems Research, Inc. to continue using its GIS software for the next four years. The contract would cost the county about $1.2 million over the course of the four-year contract.
Agenda here
Tuesday, December 10 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 Valley City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
(Some) private property camping allowed
Following its late November decision to make camping (or just sleeping overnight) on city property a misdemeanor, Spokane Valley City Council is set to consider new rules that would address camping on private property. This is just a report preview of the new ordinance, so it’s not up for even a first reading and vote yet, but you could share your thoughts to the council now. The new code amendments would generally prohibit camping on private property with four exceptions:
- Periodic short-term (no more than 48-hours once per month) camping on private property if a residential structure exists on the property and the owner of the property is on the property at the time and has authorized them to camp.
- Temporary camping on private property without a legally established residence when the property owner is there and the camping does not happen more than 14 days in any calendar year.
- Camping in legally established campgrounds and RV parks.
- Temporary use of a recreational vehicle with a valid City of Spokane Valley Temporary Use Permit for visitors (for no more than 30 days per year) or while construction is happening in the residential structure.
Merkel’s tab
The city is keeping a running tab of how much money has been spent on mitigating the risk they say Council Member Al Merkel’s actions have caused since he began his four-year term in January. As of November 30, that cost has reached $186,151.24, according to this week’s agenda (that 24 cents feels real personal, so we included it). The costs come from “actions taken to protect city employees,” “actions taken to protect the city from legal risk,” “investigation of MC Merkel’s unfounded complaint against Councilmember Higgins and Mayor Haley,” and “nonproductive uses of staff time” related to public records requests. See the full breakdown in the agenda.
Agenda here
Tuesday, December 10 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, WA 99206
Virtual attendance here.
This edition of CIVICS is way too long, so we're switching to super short excerpts from here on!
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️/5 pepper
New calendar drop: Parents will soon be able to plan the next school year, as the board will be voting to adopt the calendar for the 2025-2026 school year. The option 54% of staff chose starts September 2, 2025 and ends June 16. See the full proposed calendar starting on page 27 of the agenda.
New security officers: The board is set to approve a contract for a new school security and patrol company for the 2024/25 school year with Phoenix Security, which bid at about $39,000 annually. This was the second to least expensive bid, but significantly higher than what the district spent for the 23/24 school year, which was $16,500.
New CTE course drop: Students will get a new option for a Career Technical Education (CTE) course as the board is set to approve “Sustainability: A Global and Local Overview.” The course covers things like science communication, food waste and sustainability in a global context.
Agenda here
Monday, December 9 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
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Money money money: The school board will get two presentations Monday night on money. The first will be a presentation on refinancing the 2015 bonds at a lower interest rate, saving the district nearly $6 million. Then the board will be presented with the 2023-2024 year-end financial report.
More pay for substitutes: The school board will vote on pay raises for classified substitute employees, which include jobs like bus drivers, custodians and paraeducators. The district is facing shortages for these positions, likely because all but substitute bus drivers currently make minimum wage ($16.28/hour). The proposal raises wages by about $1 at the lowest end to by about $5 at the highest.
Agenda here
Monday, May 13 at 6 pm
Learning and Teaching Center (district office)
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane Plan Commission
🌶️/5 pepper
Workshop on Comprehensive Plan update: The Plan Commission is holding a workshop to discuss the environmental review process that will happen along with updates to the city’s comprehensive plan due in 2026.
Agenda here
Wednesday, December 11 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Regional Transportation Council
🌶️/5 pepper
Agenda here
Thursday, December 12 at 1 pm
Spokane Regional Transportation Office
21 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane County Planning Commission
🌶️/5 pepper
Agenda here
Thursday, December 12 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.
Park Board
? /5 pepper
Agenda here when available
Thursday, December 12 at 3:30 pm
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed via WebEx,
Call in: 408-418-9388 Access code: 2491 764 3350
