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:
- Community group Latinos en Spokane is rallying support to push Spokane city to protect immigrants from mass deportation under the Trump administration.
- Spokane City’s Finance and Administration committee will receive updates on 2024’s investment portfolio and the goings-on of the Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Inclusion.
- Central Valley School District disproportionately punishes diverse students with higher amounts of “exclusion days,” — any disciplinary action that removes students from the classroom
- The county may start enforcing its 2019 camping ban after the US Supreme Court ruled last year that local governments can punish people for sleeping in public regardless of whether there are adequate shelter beds
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Finance and Administration Committee
- Spokane Housing Authority Board
- 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 School District Board of Directors
- Spokane County Planning Commission
- Spokane Regional Health District Board of Directors
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
So, under ordinary circumstances, we’d say this is going to be an incredibly short meeting. There’s only five items on the consent agenda and nothing too controversial up for a vote.
But we’ve heard from community groups in town that there could be multiple actions tonight. As the nation grapples with the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts — BBC is reporting 2,373 people have been arrested by ICE and Border Patrol since Wednesday — Spokane city officials, including police chief Kevin Hall, have reaffirmed their commitment to following state law and continued to promise they won’t collaborate with ICE and Border Patrol agents.
But with increased community reports of ICE sightings and arrests in Spokane, Latinos en Spokane (LES) is pushing the council to pass a resolution to “reaffirm its commitment” to abiding by state law — the Keep Washington Working Act, which forbids law enforcement and jails from collaborating with ICE or Border Patrol.
LES has drafted a resolution for the council to use, which includes commitments to provide training to city staff on the ins-and-outs of the Keep Washington Working Act, to explore opportunities to allocate funding to immigration legal defense services, like LES’s Poder Legal and to request a biannual report from Spokane Police Department and other city departments assessing their compliance with state law.
The organization is asking for folks to sign a letter in support of the resolution and come to both the meeting and the 12 pm committee meeting to testify to the council that supporting our immigrant community is incredibly important right now. Testimony can be shared via email to tesimony@spokanecity.org, and sign ups to speak at Open Forum (either in-person or virtually) at the end of the meeting can be done here before 6 pm. Speaking slots are limited.
We’ve seen it firsthand and we’ve written about it; City Hall can feel hostile towards immigrants, BIPOC folks and queer people, because some council attendees have an inability to follow the decorum rules and a tendency to yell at or about people who aren’t white men. Latinos en Spokane is requesting that anyone supportive of their cause show up and stand with them tonight.
Transitions contract
Transitions, a homeless service provider in Spokane that provides legal assistance and maintains nearly 50 transitional housing units for women and families, is set to receive about $230,000 to use for eviction defense. The money, which comes from a state grant, will help fund the continuation of Transitions’ eviction defense services, which have already helped 40 households, who were “facing acute risk of eviction due to rental or utilities arrears.”
First Reading - Alcohol Impact & Community Safety area
Two new policies coming down the pipeline from Mayor Lisa Brown could reduce crime and lessen litter — according to data included in the agenda. They’ll get their first reads (and a chance for public testimony) tonight.
The first policy would prohibit businesses and individuals from selling single-serve alcohol (and all alcohol after midnight, though this shouldn’t limit bars). The second would prohibit the sale of pipes and other drug paraphernalia like aluminum foil downtown, unless the store is also willing to give out free Narcan. That will be done through the implementation of two ordinances, one that creates a “community health impact area,” and one that creates an “alcohol impact area,” downtown.
For those of you with a lot of time on your hands and an interest in the many ways the city is trying to tackle both crime and overdoses, the agenda this week has a ton of data on the efficacy and history of policies like this in Spokane and how they’ve worked in other cities, starting on page 226.
Next week’s sneak peek:
- The only big thing currently scheduled for next week’s agenda is a vote on both the alcohol impact area and community safety area ordinances.
*However* Latinos en Spokane is pushing for council to vote on the resolution to support immigrants in the city by February 3 — next Monday. Council would have to do things on the double and move quickly, but it’s definitely possible this could be added to the draft agenda soon.
Agenda here
Monday, January 27, at 6 pm
City Council Chambers – 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, January 30 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Finance and Administration Committee
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
See above, but we may see a group taking advantage of the brand new 15 speaking slots at committee meetings for the first time this year, as Latinos en Spokane is rallying supporters to show up to this committee as well to encourage council to reaffirm its commitment to immigrant protections. You can sign up to speak at the meeting, which starts very shortly, here. Note - at committee meetings, you can only speak on items already listed on the agenda. However, one of the items *is* an update on the Office of Civil Rights, so if you’re hoping to speak about immigration protections, it could be relevant to that item.
Investments update
The stock market has been fluctuating wildly (how ‘bout that Nvidia crash this morning?) which can impact the city’s budget. It’ll be a little bit before we know how this first chunk of 2025 has impacted Spokane’s budget and projections, but today, the council will get an update on what the last quarter of 2024 looked like.
DEI update
Trump might be on a warpath against anything he deems “DEI,” but Spokane’s Office of Civil Rights, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (OCREI) is alive and well, or at least, we think it is. We’ll all find out for sure at today’s committee meeting when OCREI director Jerrall Haynes gives the council a ten-minute update on what the office has been up to.
We’re curious about what’s going on with the review of the Monaghan statue, and other potentially offensive statues and landmarks, after the council created an official review process nearly a year ago. The process gave the power to the OCREI to, in tandem with the Human Rights Commission, make recommendations to the council, the Library Board or the Park Board (depending on the location of the landmark) to remove it, rename it, relocate it or do something else. We’re incredibly avid agenda readers, and we haven’t seen a single recommendation come from OCREI and the Human Rights Commission, but maybe we’ll know more today!
Agenda here
Monday, January 27 at 12 pm
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Housing Authority Board
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Monday, January 27 at 3:30 pm
Meeting Room 25 W. Nora Ave, Spokane, WA 99205
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Camping ban may go into effect
The BOCC will consider enforcing its 2019 camping ban when shelters in Spokane County are full. This potential move follows a June US Supreme Court ruling overturning a lower court decision barring local governments from banning camping if they don’t provide other options for unhoused people to find shelter. Governments across the West immediately started codifying laws that punish people for sleeping in the streets even when they have nowhere else to go.
In August, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Spokane over its camping ban, which it argued violated the state constitution. Advocates of unhoused people have argued camping bans effectively criminalize being homeless.
Agenda here
Tuesday, January 28 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
$2.5M in fed funding for child support enforcement
The BOCC is set to accept an award for the County Prosecutor of about $2.5 million in federal funding, distributed through the state Department of Social and Health Services, to enforce child support rulings. The money reimburses the county $2 for every $3 spent on finding parents who owe child support and the administration of enforcing those decisions. $2.1 million will go directly to the Prosecutor’s Office. Of that, a little more than $300,000 will go to the County Clerk and about $150,000 will go to the Superior Court.
More than $800k for sidewalk improvements to Crestline
Washington has awarded the county more than $800,000 to improve sidewalks along Crestline Street between 57th and 63rd Avenues. The BOCC is set to accept the funding at its legislative meeting.
New money for road projects
The BOCC will vote on the following projects:
- The Transportation Improvement Board wants to allocate more than $800,000 to build new sidewalks, crosswalks and improvements to accessibility along Crestline Street near 57th Avenue in the South Hill.
- The state Department of Ecology has allocated $400,000 from the Department of Ecology to a project that would seal parts of Dearborn, Fairview, Carahan and Chronicle roads and Grace Avenue, near Felt’s Field. The project is designed to reduce air pollution in an area of town that’s designated as an “overburdened community.” The county would have to contribute $130,000 to complete the project.
- $419,000 from the Washington Department of Transportation for new sidewalks to improve safety on school routes around Snowden Elementary.
Agenda here
Tuesday, January 28 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
VOA Crosswalk report
Volunteers of America (VOA) will update the city council on a facility, Crosswalk 2.0, that the city provided $500,000 to build. It’s located in the Chief Garry Park neighborhood in the city limits of Spokane. The facility provides housing and resources for unhoused people between the ages of 16 and 20. The agenda sheet for this presentation also notes that, due to the facility’s proximity to Spokane Community College, it also will provide dormitories for students using the college’s career readiness and running start programs. The funds came from federal dollars through the American Rescue Plan.
Agenda here
Tuesday, January 28 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Monday, January 27 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
Disproportionate exclusion for diverse students
In what may come as a shock to no one, the school district that voted earlier this year to ask for transgender students to be excluded from sports also disproportionately punished Black, Indigenous and “Gender X” students with lengthier suspensions (technically called classroom exclusion, a term for any disciplinary actions that remove students from the classroom, like in-school or out-of-school suspensions).
The school board will be getting a presentation breaking down the data from 2023 - 2024 on exclusions because the board “recognizes the negative and disproportionate impact of exclusionary discipline practices,” and is committed to “identifying and addressing discipline policies and practices that perpetuate educational opportunity gaps.”
According to their policies (and also state law), they promise not “unlawfully discriminate against a student on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal.”
(Note: We’ve used the terms provided in CVSD’s demographic data, but we have no way of knowing right now how exactly they defined “Gender X” or other demographic terms.)
The data in the slideshow doesn’t include the total number of students enrolled, but of the four “Gender X” students who received suspensions at CVSD, two of those students received ten or more exclusion days. 50% of indigenous students, 45.5% of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and 36% of Black students who received exclusion days received six or more, in comparison with 28.9% of white students.
Other data provided shows that English language learners who were punished with exclusion days received more exclusion days than non-English learners, students with disabilities received more than non-disabled students and low income students received more than non-low income.
The data can be reviewed in full here. It’s just listed as a discussion item on the agenda, with no action to be taken, but it’s worth hearing how they talk about the issue.
Agenda here
Monday, January 27 at 6 p.m.
Learning and Teaching Center (district office)
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane School District Board of Directors
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Wednesday, January 29 at 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane County Planning Commission
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Stakeholders forum for Comprehensive Plan
The commission will host an update and an opportunity for the public to weigh in on the progress the county has made toward its long-term plan, which will direct a massive array of policies that will shape the character of public infrastructure in the entire county. Known as the “Comprehensive Plan,” this exercise decides what kinds of housing and other buildings can be built where and how infrastructure, like roads and services, can keep pace with it. Essentially, it’s a process of soliciting feedback and deciding what kind of communities residents of Spokane County want to live in.
Agenda here
Thursday, January 30, 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.
Spokane Regional Health District Board
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Committee membership and board schedule
Democrat Amber Waldref is the new chair of the Spokane Regional Health District Board, and she’s starting her tenure off by getting her ducks in a row. At this week’s meeting, Waldref will appoint people to committees and set the schedule for the body’s 2025 meetings, both of which will have to be passed by the board. Maybe under Waldref’s rule, the board will finally seat a tribal representative??
Agenda here
Thursday, January 30 at 12:30 pm
Auditorium, First Floor
Spokane Regional Health District
1101 West College Avenue
Editor's Note: this story has been updated to correctly reflect the time of the Spokane City Council meeting at 6pm.
