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 things that stick out to us this week include:
- Spokane City Council will vote on whether or not to renew a $65,000 yearly contract to wash police vehicles.
- Changes to homeless and housing policy and a potential resolution on the fentanyl crisis could be coming down the pipeline at the Urban Experience Committee.
- Spokane Valley will discuss their contract with SCRAPS, which came under fire last year for euthanizing 14 dogs in one day.
- Mayor Lisa Brown is seeking applications for open volunteer positions on boards and commissions.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Urban Experience Committee
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Board of County Commissioners - Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Plan Commission
- Spokane Park Board
- Spokane Regional Transportation Council
Upcoming Documenters orientation
From quiet policy changes on local school boards like in Central Valley to a continued power struggle over decorum rules at the Spokane City Council, our region’s public meetings have been starting the new year off with a bang. Our Documenters program seeks to put meetings like these on the public record for all to access. At RANGE, we love the Inland Northwest and want to make it better — that means sharing vital information from these meetings with more of our community and holding decision-makers accountable.
If you’re as much of a fan of local meetings, community accessibility to information and civic engagement as we are, we have a virtual training this week where you’ll be able to get trained to become a Spokane Documenter. By becoming a Documenter, you’ll be the eyes and ears in the public rooms where decisions are made. And you’ll get paid to attend the meetings that interest you and take notes that get published online. Some of those notes will even be used to inform or spark stories by local journalists!
Our virtual March training will introduce you to the Spokane Documenters program, starting with a walkthrough of Documenters.org and our assignment workflow. You’ll practice skills relevant to assignments, learn about public meetings law and meet fellow Documenters. Upon completion of this workshop, you’ll be eligible to apply for paid assignments with the Spokane Documenters program. Just make a Documenters account and register here!
Wednesday, March 20 from 6 - 7:30 pm
Set up an account and register for the training here.
Read notes from our current Documenters here.
Turn in your ballots!
Presidential primary ballots are due tomorrow. Check out the county elections page for information on ballot drop box locations.
‘Crip Camp’ Documentary screening
March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and The Arc of Spokane is hosting a free screening 'Crip Camp' at The Magic Lantern on Tuesday, March 12th at 5:30 pm. The documentary follows the story of a group of teenagers with disabilities who attended a revolutionary summer camp in the 1970s. Through their experience, the film highlights the struggle for disability rights and the importance of inclusion and equality.
Tuesday, March 12 at 5:30 pm
The Magic Lantern Spokane
25 W Main Ave #125
Bye-bye barriers
The city of Spokane has multiple citizen positions open on a variety of boards and commissions, including the Citizen’s Transportation Advisory Board (for all you bikers), the Office of the Police Ombudsman Commission (for the justice and accountability-minded) and more. All of the board and commission positions are currently on a volunteer basis, but according to a press release sent out last week, Mayor Lisa Brown is looking to remove barriers to participation by exploring the possibility of reimbursing childcare costs and assisting with transportations costs to and from meetings. While no concrete promises have been made on that front, there are still vacancies, so if you’re interested in serving the city, check out the list of open positions and how to apply here.
PFAS well testing
We’ve recently covered PFAS contamination on the West Plains in depth (see our reporting here and here). For our RANGE readers potentially affected by the contamination, we now have information on how you can find out for sure. The Washington State Department of Ecology, in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and local authorities, is conducting no-cost sampling of drinking water. See if you’re eligible and sign-up to get your water tested here.
Spokane City Council
New new rules
If you’ve been following Spokane City Council at all, you know that debates about the rules that govern the chambers and are updated every year have dominated the first months of 2024. Last week, the council voted 6-1 (with Council Member Michael Cathcart opposing) to pass changes to the rules they’d first updated in January. The major changes were clarifications to where standing and videography could be done in the chambers - short answer, anywhere that’s not disrupting anyone else’s views, access and mobility. For a full explanation on how to engage with the council under the rules, check out our coverage here.
One unanswered question we still have after some confusing enforcement last week from Council President Betsy Wilkerson: will people be able to make comments on votes that happened earlier in the meeting? Rules state open forum cannot be used to talk about anything on the current or advance agenda, but also that any decision made by the mayor or council is fair game for open forum commentary. It seems to be a contradiction in the rules and one that led to inconsistent enforcement last week, so we’ll be following how this plays out tonight.
Community Garden in the consent agenda
Nestled in the lengthy consent agenda for tonight’s meeting is a memorandum of understanding — a cooperative agreement between two parties that’s less formal and non binding — between the Audubon-Downriver Neighborhood Council and the City of Spokane Public Works Division. This memorandum of understanding, co-sponsored by Wilkerson and Council Member Jonathan Bingle, gives the neighborhood council the right to establish a community garden in Shadle Park. The neighborhood council is responsible for the management of the garden, which is also intended to provide education on urban ecology, and the city’s Water Department will absorb the costs of watering the garden, including service fees.
The Shadle Park area seems to be the peak place for community gardens, with the Shadle Park Presbyterian Church sponsoring the Growing Neighbors community garden initiative, and the Shadle Park library hosting the Discovery Garden.
Rub-a-dub-dub police car in the tub
Police cars and the amount of money Spokane spends on them has been a continued conversation (see recent coverage from us here and The Spokesman here), but did you know that it costs the city $65,000 to keep those cars clean? In the consent agenda for this week is a short item renewing an annual contract with Mega Wash LLC, the lowest bidder for a request for qualifications the city put out in 2020. That contract will stretch through 2025 and will ensure that Mega Wash continues to provide “light duty car wash service to our police department at various times throughout their duty day.” No word on whether the Spokane Police Department will be raising the funds with a shirtless car wash fundraiser.
Paying the prosecutors
Local 270, the collective bargaining unit of the Spokane Prosecuting Attorneys reached a tentative agreement on January 26, their second meeting with the city’s negotiating team. That tentative agreement, which includes a 5% cost of living wage increase, was approved in early February by the prosecutors.
If passed, a special budget ordinance on tonight’s agenda will take $80,000 from the Mayor’s Office that had previously been allocated for an emergency preparedness agreement with Spokane County and move it into the General Fund. That interlocal agreement had already been budgeted for, because the city has historically paid the County for an emergency management agreement, but according to the agenda, “this will not occur in 2024.” The city had already set aside money to pay for it though, and it is that pool of money that will be used to pay for the increase in wages and benefits for the city’s prosecuting attorneys. You may remember that we’ve burned through our emergency sheltering budget during the first cold snap, this is not that pool of money and is coming from a different section of the budget.
Agenda here
Monday, March 11 at 6 pm
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)
Addressing overdoses
After hearing a combination of anecdotal evidence, community concerns and data (some of which was provided by this RANGE story) Council Member Paul Dillon is planning to introduce a resolution at today’s committee meeting to adopt a plan to address the fentanyl and opiate overdose crisis in the city.
The resolution requests that Governor Jay Inslee declare a state of emergency for the crisis, which would open additional resources and funding the city could use to purchase more Naloxone, — frequently referred to by its brand name of “Narcan” — increase peer support programs and do more education around prevention, intervention and treatment.
The resolution has a focus on better data collection, requesting that the Spokane Regional Health District classify fentanyl overdoses as a “notifiable condition,” which would then require them to do better data collection. It would also request updates on overdose calls and deaths from the Spokane Fire Department and the Spokane Police Department and updates on demonstrated uses of fentanyl and opiates from all shelters. In its current form, the resolution would require that all that data be made publicly available each month at the Public Safety Committee meetings.
Finally, the resolution would commit the Spokane City Council to scheduling and coordinating an Opioid and Overdose Town Hall meeting with community members, providers and local leaders to encourage and facilitate a meaningful conversation on ways to decrease the number of fentanyl and opioid overdoses.
Because this is a committee meeting, the resolution won’t be voted on, just discussed, which means it will be at least two weeks before a vote is held on it, and there’s no mechanism for the city to force Inslee to declare a state of emergency or SRHD to provide data, but we are excited to see movement on this issue and will be following the discussion.
Homelessness and housing policy
Homelessness and housing policy items make up a large portion of the agenda for today’s committee meeting. There’s still no information around this agenda item, but after it was canceled last month, we are curious about the update planned from Nicolette Ocheltree, the council’s homelessness and housing initiative manager. Ocheltree is also presenting later in the committee meeting on re-establishing the housing action subcommittee, which frequently canceled meetings in 2023.
The committee is supposed to make periodic reports to city council on the city’s progress towards meeting the Comprehensive Plan goals of providing safe, affordable housing for all income levels. They’re also supposed to recommend changes to the Municipal Code and other necessary policy actions to advance the city’s Comprehensive Plan goals, and they’re supposed to receive applications and make recommendations for projects seeking housing funding from the council. Essentially, they’re supposed to be assisting the council in making equitable decisions that move the city closer to its housing goals.
Their most recent meeting, in January of 2024, was focused on reviewing by-laws and next steps for the committee. We hope to find out what those next steps are at today’s meeting.
Changes coming to city homelessness code?
Dawn Kinder, director of the Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services division, will be at the committee meeting for a scheduled 10 minute discussion on the city’s homeless response policy. This section of city code defines protections for homeless people, outlining certain rights from the city.
Though the agenda doesn’t specify which part of the code is up for discussion, we got the scoop that it may be this line: “At no time shall the City reduce or eliminate specific night-by-night shelter beds without first having in place additional replacement shelter bed capacity sufficient to meet the requirements of SMC 18.05 unless authorized by City Council resolution.”
With the opening of additional beds at the Cannon Shelter — and then subsequent closure of Cannon — as well as reducing capacity at the Trent Shelter, it could be argued that the city reduced night-by-night shelter beds without having additional replacement shelter bed capacity in place, though the situation was complicated by the emergency declaration and requirements to meet emergency warming shelter needs.
Kinder will also be presenting later in the meeting on extending the contract with Jewels Helping Hands (JHH) to continue the shelter services program JHH set up with churches in the city.
Agenda here
Monday, March 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 City Council Study Sessions
Agenda here when available.
Thursday, March 14 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
We didn’t notice anything particularly noteworthy in this week’s agenda for Mead School District’s board of directors, but they do have the meeting minutes from the February 26 meeting submitted for approval. We covered that meeting in our CIVICS section, as they discussed the Library Media Procedure, and a line from the minutes caught our eye. Moving forward, they wrote, “the district will continue deselection training and the systematic weeding of library collections.” There are no library-related items on the agenda for tonight, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on, and we’ll have a Documenter in attendance at this meeting.
Agenda here
Monday, March 11 at 6 p.m.
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, March 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Learning and Teaching Center (district office)
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
Agenda here
Tuesday, March 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.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
More appointments
The BOCC will vote whether to appoint Monty Chamberlain, the current director of Building and Code Enforcement for the City of Spokane, as director of the county’s Building Department.
The BOCC will vote whether to appoint Scott Chesney to a second term as director of the county’s Planning Department.
Agenda here
Tuesday, March 12 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
The rules are changing
The council will vote on a series of significant changes to its governance manual, which establishes the rules the council follows when it is doing city business. If approved, these changes will be the 19th time the manual has been revised since it was originally adopted in 2003. The changes are written and suggested to the council by the city’s three-person governance manual committee, which is not mentioned on the Spokane Valley website that lists the city’s commissions, committees and boards. No public meetings in which the changes were discussed are listed on the city website. The city council members who serve on the committee are Rod Higgins, Jessica Yaeger and Mayor Pam Haley.
Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of Chapter 5, titled “Council Conduct Standard and Enforcement,” which previously did not exist. It contains an “Enforcement Procedure” under which any council member who believes another council member has violated a rule can file a complaint. After the complaint is filed, the procedure says the city manager, currently John Hohman, must hire an investigator to look into the case. At last week’s council meeting, Hohman reported to the city council that the city had hired a “mutual third-party-workplace investigator” to probe “complaints from city employees” he said had been filed against Council Member Al Merkel the previous week. At least one complaint was filed in writing, Hohman told RANGE. But Hohman declined to provide additional details, including when the complaints were filed. Merkel said he did not know anything about the complaints. Hohman also declined to say who the investigator was or how much that person is being paid. He had asked Merkel to stay out of City Hall unless he was there for a council meeting.
The enforcement procedure establishes a pathway to issue a “verbal Reprimand” or “Public Censure” against any council member found to have violated a rule. At last week’s meeting, in a controversy separate from any complaint against Merkel, Yaeger motioned to “verbally reprimand” Merkel for allegedly disclosing information via the social networking app NextDoor about decisions that were made in an executive session, which is a kind of meeting that allows officials to discuss sensitive business, like personnel issues and contract deals out of public view without violating open meeting laws. Merkel had written that the council had approved a land purchase during executive session, which would have been a violation of open meeting laws, but using the words “executive session” in the post was a mistake. Merkel had corrected it on the platform by the time Yaeger brought it up in the city council session. The vote had in fact been made in public, and Merkel had not exposed anything that happened in executive session. The council voted five-to-two to reprimand Merkel, with Merkel and Council Member Ben Wick dissenting.
Further, the procedure enables the council to remove the violating council member from committees they sit on, a tool Spokane Valley City Council has exercised before in what previous members alleged was punishment for disagreements with the majority.
The changes also deal with a number of unrelated items, including establishing business attire as the dress code, creating a description of the Public Safety Committee and excluding tips for service from per diem expenses by council members.
SCRAPS services
In September, claims that Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) needlessly euthanized animals became public after 14 dogs were put down in one day. Both Spokane and Spokane Valley maintain contracts with the regional organization to handle their animal control services. After hearing public testimony on the euthanizations, Spokane City Council voted to impose tighter restrictions on the director of SCRAPS in order to limit euthanizations. In January of this year, news broke that a former employee of SCRAPS — who had been one of the whistleblowers about the day 14 dogs were euthanized — was suing Jesse Ferrari, the director of the organization, for wrongful termination, “blacklisting” her from working at other animal services organization, and allegedly recommended a dog she applied to adopt for euthanasia.
Now, Spokane Valley city staff are reviewing the interlocal agreement the city holds with SCRAPS, which is a 20-year agreement intended to last through 2034. Tuesday’s meeting will just see an administrative report and an opportunity to ask questions of Ferrari and other SCRAPS officials, but the documents filed in the agenda indicate that at a future council meeting, there will be a discussion about “potential compliance issues and Council’s desired levels of service for SCRAPS.”
Alternate to the alternates?
At tonight’s Spokane Valley City Council meeting, there will be a vote to appoint Jessica Yaeger as an alternate to the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) board.
STA is proving to be one of the most complex and high-stakes boards in the region, with recent dust-ups around impropriety and power-brokering via texts and an attempt to cut Spokane city out of an important voting committee.
Spokane Valley’s representatives on the board have had an interesting role to play. Mayor Pam Haley and deputy mayor and lone Spokane Valley democrat Tim Hattenburg are the current representatives to the board. Haley is an ally of County Commissioner Al French, the chair of the board, but Hattenburg is a little bit more of a free agent, leaving the two power factions of county Republicans and Spokane city Democrats on the board to court him for his vote on key issues.
However, even though Hattenburg’s swing vote is technically on the table to win, he wasn’t in attendance at the first STA meeting of the year, which was the site of the first major power struggle. Instead, he was replaced by Laura Padden, who was appointed as an alternate to the STA board alongside Rod Higgins at a special meeting held just one day before the STA board. If Haley’s appointment of Yaeger as an alternate succeeds tonight, every single Spokane Valley council member will either sit on the board or be an official alternate, with exception of Ben Wick, who had been stripped of an appointment to Spokane Regional Transportation Council (the other regional transportation board) in the past, and Merkel.
Agenda here
Tuesday, March 12 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Spokane Plan Commission
Implementation time for the South Logan transit development plan
It’s been 20 months of planning and outreach, but the South Logan neighborhood Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Plan is moving into its implementation phase. This plan will open the door to creating more mixed-use, walkable places close to transit.
The next steps will be to put forward a Planned Action Ordinance so the city can review the environmental impacts of development during the planning stage rather than the development review stage, streamlining the process.
The Planning Department will also work on updating the city development code so new developments in the South Logan area will be compliant with the new area plan. By the end of 2024, the department plans to have land use and zone changes in place so the city can increase housing capacity and mixed-use development.
Big bus plans
In more transit-oriented news, the Plan Commission will also get an update on two big plans from the Spokane Transit Authority: DivisionConnects, which is studying the Division Corridor and how the new freeway (the North Spokane Corridor) will impact traffic there, and STA 2035, which is basically STA’s strategic roadmap for the next decade. There’s no more information in the agenda packet on this, but we wrote about STA 2035 a few CIVICS ago here.
Agenda here
Wednesday, March 13 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Park Board
Agenda here when available
Thursday, March 14 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
Spokane Regional Transportation Council
Agenda here
Thursday, March 14 at 1 pm
Spokane Regional Transportation Office
21 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
