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:
- We’re still two weeks out from this vote, but the Spokane City Council is taking public comment on their plan to adopt a 0.1% public safety sales tax, as approved by the state, to “establish a Community Safety Campus” and more.
- At Wednesday’s meeting, the Spokane City Council could vote to pass more emergency fire relief, and contracts to extend and expand sheltering and navigation center services through Jewels Helping Hands.
- The Spokane Valley City Council will field a presentation by the city’s planning staff on a number of housing requirements mandated by revisions to state laws governing how local communities develop.
- The Mead School Board will be considering a revision to its Transition to Kindergarten policy that would allow them to charge tuition or enrollment fees for its pre-K program.
Spokane City Council Agenda Review
Every Tuesday, the council meets to finalize the Wednesday agenda, which now includes items that won’t be up for a vote for the next two weeks, giving you more of a chance to comment on things before they’re up for a vote.
Up for a vote next week:
- An emergency ordinance to create a Temporary Disaster Housing Program for residents displaced by emergencies like wildfires or other natural disasters.
- A contract amendment to spend an additional $100,000 on legal services to fight a lawsuit from the estate of Joshua Musselman, who was shot and killed by the police in 2024. If passed, this would bring the total spent fighting the suit to $250,000.
- A resolution allowing the administration to enter into an up to $1 million contract with Catholic Charities and Jewels Helping Hands to operate shelter beds during inclement weather conditions. This will be paid for with 1590 funds. Details on the shelter beds can be found here.
Up for a vote in two weeks:
- A resolution to approve allocating unspent ARPA dollars to backfilling police and fire overtime costs
- A resolution to support the Department of Natural Resources land exchange of the Thorpe property
- An ordinance to penalize “nuisance properties”
- A slate of ordinances to approve rate increases for waste- and storm-water services
- An ordinance to establish equitable budgeting practices
- An ordinance to implement an additional 0.1% sales tax through the state Public Safety Funding program. Money collected would go to “establish a Community Safety Campus, further integrate behavior health into public safety systems and improve emergency preparedness.” This is a separate sales tax from the one the Spokane County Commission is considering for county law enforcement costs.
Agenda here.
Tuesday, September 29 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Cars for cops, cash for cop cars
After a deferral, the council could give the police permission to buy 18 cop cars (or rather, police vehicles, but aren’t all cars owned by the cops “cop cars?”) with a Spokane Investment Pool loan of about $1.5 million. The council asked the cops to buy hybrid vehicles when possible, and to get additional approval before each actual purchase.
A helping hand
A slate of contract amendments could officially add Jewels Helping Hands’ Aurora Shelter for LGBTQ+ people as a scattered homeless shelter site, extend the operating hours of the navigation center and add funding for a to-go meal service. It would also extend the contract term for the navigation center by three months, which is currently due to expire at the end of March, giving the city until the end of June to find new funding.
Federal homelessness funding
The city could vote to accept over $4 million in federal housing grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There’s a lot of complicated acronyms in the breakdowns for how the money is getting divvied up, but the lion’s share is headed to the city’s Community Development Block Grant program. That program has three goals aligned with national objectives, “1) benefiting low and moderate-income persons (earning less than 80% area median income). Other ways to qualify projects include 2) activities which aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight and 3) activities designed to meet community development needs having particular urgency.”
Commercial conversion
The council could approve a conditional commercial building conversion contract with Nodo Spokane LLC to create 25 residential units on the property at 126 W Sinto Ave in the Emerson/Garfield neighborhood. At least 10% of these units, which comes out to 2.5 units, will be kept at affordable housing rates for at least 10 years after construction.
Emergency fire relief (again)
The council could pass an ordinance that would add flexibility into strict regulatory requirements to make rebuilding after the Spokane Complex fires easier. It would give the city’s planning director the authority to quickly approve residential rebuilds that are like the structures that burned down.
It would also allow people to place an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) on properties that have no houses. Traditionally, ADUs are only permitted as additions to properties that have a primary structure — think putting a small mother-in-law suite in the backyard of a house. However, for some in the neighborhoods impacted by the fires, the primary structure was destroyed by fire. This would allow people to throw up an ADU structure to live in while undertaking the longer process of rebuilding the main dwelling.
Finally, the ordinance would also exempt rebuilds from the general facilities charge, if they use the same water meter service size that they had before the fires.
The council will also vote on an ordinance to extend permit fee deferrals for fire-related rebuilds.
Agenda here
Wednesday, September 30 at 6 pm
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane City Council Study Sessions
Agenda here when available
Thursday, October 1 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Housing Authority Board
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Monday, September 28 at 3:30 pm
Meeting Room at 25 W. Nora Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
More than $1M in TIF/LIFT reimbursements for street improvements
The county is on the hook to reimburse a private trailbuilding company, River Crossing, LLC, for $697,817.36 in improvements to the parking area at the Harvard Road Trailhead in Liberty Lake, which allows recreationists access to the natural areas near the Spokane River. The improvements created new accessibility for people with disabilities. Of that money, $488,472.17 would come from the state’s Local Infrastructure Financing Tool, which is a sales tax fund, and $209,345.21 from a Tax Increment Financing District, which is a public fund that encourages developers to build public amenities.
Additionally, the same company is looking to recoup $321,899.11 from the same funds for street and water improvements along Indiana Avenue.
Agenda here
Tuesday, September 29 at 9 am
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
🌶️/5 peppers
Board appointment
The BOCC is set to appoint Bill Conley and Paul Weller to the Spokane County Water Conservancy Board.
Agenda here
Tuesday, September 29 at 2 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane County Planning Commission
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Comp plan workshop
The commission will host a workshop on the 20-year plan to develop the county. This conversation will not revolve around data centers, but the body will hold a public forum specifically on data centers on October 15.
Agenda here
Thursday, October 1 at 9 am
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Fees and tuition for transition to kinder program?
The board will have a first reading of its revised Transition to Kindergarten Program policy.
Some of the changes include removal of language that prevents the district from charging tuition or fees for enrollment from “state-funded eligible students,” according to the revised policy document.
Instead, the revised policy states that the district could charge enrollment fees on a sliding scale except for students with disabilities and students who are eligible but haven’t placed in Head Start or the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.
Agenda here
Monday, September 28 at 6 pm
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead
Watch via Zoom here.
Central Valley School District Board of Directors
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Monday, September 28 at 6 pm
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd
Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane Valley City Council
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Absorbing new state housing development regs
City staff will present the council with information on new state housing development regulations that require local governments to incorporate specific kinds of housing into their zoning schedules. The changes are supposed to be part of governments’ comprehensive plans, the rules that govern the long-term development of communities. The new rules explicitly allow homeowners to build smaller dwellings on their properties in addition to larger single family homes, create new housing space in existing buildings, transitional housing in areas zoned for residential and hotel purposes, among many other allowances. Read more about those allowances and when they’ll be implemented in Spokane Valley here.
Agenda here
Tuesday, September 29 at 6 pm
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley
Virtual attendance here.
