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:

• At the Spokane City Council meeting, the council is set to approve using General Fund dollars to plug a hole in the Criminal Justice Assistance Fund (CJA), which is used to pay jail bills, and considering a resolution to approve multi-million dollar homelessness services contracts.

• The city’s Finance and Administration Committee will discuss federal advocacy priorities, a financial audit, Safe Streets funding and an update on Spokane Regional Emergency Communications.

• The Spokane Plan Commission is getting a presentation on racially disparate housing impacts in the city.

• The Spokane Regional Health District will discuss their measles response, and the absence of their Administrative Officer Alicia Thompson, who is being replaced by two interim co-administrative officers, effective immediately.

• Spokane Valley City Council will discuss new restrictions on what flags can be flown at their city hall, which would effectively ban the Pride flag.
• The Board of County Commissioners will likely vote on new caseload standards for public defenders.

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
• Finance and Administration Committee
• Spokane Housing Authority Board
• Spokane Plan Commission
• Board of County Commissioners - Briefing Session and Legislative Session
• Spokane Regional Health District Board
• Mead School District Board of Directors
• Central Valley School District Board of Directors
• Spokane School District Board of Directors
• Spokane Valley City Council

Spokane City

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Fighting Sean Feucht

Nestled in the consent agenda is a $50,000 contract amendment to continue the Pacifica Law Group’s contract defending the city against rightwing worship pastor Sean Feucht, bringing the total contract to $250,000. Late last week, a judge tossed Feucht’s lawsuit, which alleged the city violated his freedom of speech and caused emotional distress when the council voted to censure then-mayor Nadine Woodward for appearing on stage with Feucht and alleged domestic terrorist Matt Shea. With a new budget deficit looming and an over-spend on lawsuits contributing to higher-than-expected expenses, maybe the judge’s verdict will save the city this chunk of change…

Criminal justice fund out of money

As reporting from Spokane Public Radio revealed in August the city’s Criminal Justice Assistance Fund (CJA) — which pays Spokane’s bill for beds in the county jail — is out of money, which has led to two month’s worth of unpaid jail bills.

Tonight, council plans to pass a special budget ordinance to address the deficit.

For background, the fund was established in the early 2000s with the city’s share of the county-imposed criminal justice sales tax for “criminal justice purposes.” That language is vague, but at first, it was really only spent on the city’s share of jail operational costs. Over time, though, the Spokane Police Department (SPD) started dipping into the fund for its expenses, including for their regular contract with police tech company Axon (which makes things like TASERs and body cameras). In 2021, the state passed a “fiscal flexibility” bill which allowed then-mayor Nadine Woodward to use the fund for homelessness costs in 2022 and 2023, which used up most of the fund’s balance.

Now, jail costs have jumped significantly and the fund is too drained to pay for them. According to the agenda sheet from CFO Matt Boston, “the fund’s cash balance has reached insolvency,” and the monthly deposit of the city’s county sales tax share is no longer enough to pay the monthly jail bill from the county.

According to reporting from SPR, in 2021, the city paid about $4 million to use about 10% of the county’s jail beds, and in 2024, the yearly bill jumped to almost $7.5 million for about 14% of beds.

To pay our jail bills in 2025, the city needs to dip into the General Fund, and likely for the foreseeable future, as our sales tax no longer covers the rising costs.

Making matters worse, SPD needs to take another $1.2 million out of the CJA fund because their extra duty costs went over budget (maybe from the sheer amount of officers sent to respond to nonviolent protests?) In the same special budget ordinance (SBO), they also want to use the city’s new Community Safety Tax to buy four motorcycles and one passenger vehicle to upgrade the existing fleet.

The SBO is a one-time solution, but doesn’t answer the question of long-term solvency to pay our jail bills, so we’re curious what the city plans to do, especially as the county has discussed raising the city’s jail fees.

Navigation Center

Over the summer, the city posted a request for proposals to find the next operators of the city’s Day Time Navigation Center — which functions as the center of the city’s hub-and-spoke homelessness model by serving as the first point of contact of unhoused people and sending them to the scattered site shelter that best fits their needs — and a Street Outreach team.

The Human Services RFP team received three applications for the navigation center contract and eight for the street outreach contract. After reviewing the contracts and getting final approval from the CHHS Board, the two 18-month contracts are being forwarded to the council for approval. If passed, Jewels Helping Hands (JHH), in collaboration with Providence, would become the navigation center operators with a $1,720,000 contract, and Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington (CCEW) would become the street outreach operators to the tune of $1,336,622.

We anticipate this will be the most controversial item of the night as a lot of frequent flyers at city council meetings have big feelings about helping homeless people, and even bigger feelings about JJH and CCEW.

Editor's note: This item has been edited to reflect Providence is joining Jewels Helping Hands as navigation center operators, not Compassionate Addiction Treatment Spokane. There was an error in the city's public agendas that was corrected by the city at an earlier committee meeting.

Make your voice heard

Would having daycare and childcare centers in your residential neighborhood make your life easier? Tell the council! They’re holding a public hearing on the interim ordinance to change zoning and allow daycare and childcare centers in all residential and commercial zones across the city.

Next week’s sneak peek:

• Council is coming to District 3 for a Town Hall-style meeting. It’ll be the same time as usual, 6 pm, but will happen at the West Central Community Center in the gymnasium instead of council chambers.

• As with the usual town halls, they’ll take questions from community members — with priority for District 3 residents.

• They’ll also have staff onsite representing both the Parks Department and the Spokane Public School District to talk about the joint ballot measure on November ballots.

Agenda here
Monday, September 22 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, September 25 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Council Committees

Finance and Administration Committee

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Federal priorities

Every year, the city decides on the most important issues to press federal lawmakers and the federal government for support and funding are. Here’s the draft of their priorities for 2025 - 2026:

• Protect Civil Rights and Programs Essential to the Most Vulnerable
• Improve Public Safety and Access to Care
• Grow the Regional Economy and Strengthen the Local Workforce
• Invest in Critical Infrastructure

Financial audit update

City CFO Matt Boston will be presenting an “update on the financial audit done by the Washington State auditor.” That sentence is the only piece of info in the agenda, so we can’t make any predictions about the results or findings, but we do anticipate this will be an interesting conversation.

SREC update

In the same vein, the committee is scheduled to get on Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC) from deputy city administrator Maggie Yates. It’s unclear if this is going to be an update on the city’s relationship with SREC — which kicked them out — or an update on the city’s process of replacing SREC with their own 911 dispatch system: the Spokane United 911 Network.

Safe Streets funding priorities

Last month, the council committee got a presentation on the new community process to decide which traffic calming projects get city funding in the next round. This month, the committee is discussing the resolution setting the upper limits on Safe Streets for All spending for the next slate of projects. Here’s the pitch:

• Up to $6,450,000 total funds can be spent on permanent and adaptive safe streets projects with construction in 2026.
• Up to $2,267,000 of that total can be spent on permanent neighborhood safe streets projects.
• Up to $525,000 is to be used for adaptive safe streets strategies installed in 2026.
• Up to $8,875,000 in Spokane Safe Streets for All funds to be used for safe streets projects in 2027
• No less than $3.8 million on projects for the 27 by 2027 bike network

Agenda here
Monday, September 22 at 12 pm
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

MISC City

Spokane Housing Authority Board

​​🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Housing Choice Voucher plan

While we don’t know much about this agenda item because it didn’t come with accompanying material, we do know that the Spokane Housing Authority Board plans to consider revisions to the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Plan. This comes amid financial uncertainty stretching back to late 2024, federal cuts under Trump and a higher demand for the housing vouchers than the program could sustain.

Agenda here
Monday, September 22 at 3:30 pm
Meeting Room 25 W. Nora Ave, Spokane, WA 99205
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Plan Commission

🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Racialized housing impacts

The Spokane Plan Commission will receive a presentation of the draft version of the city’s Racially Disparate Impacts Analysis, which studied how housing access and housing challenges are not experienced equally by all racial groups in Spokane. A few of the key findings:

• “There is a persistent gap in homeownership rates for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) households compared to wWhite households

• Patterns of segregation are reflected in the concentration of BIPOC households and uneven distribution of racial groups among neighborhoods within Spokane. However, data suggests that exclusion of people of color from Spokane for employment or housing is limited, based on residential and worker composition compared to Spokane County as a whole.

• Higher displacement risk exists in Central and Northeast Spokane, areas that have higher proportions of BIPOC and lower income households, with higher eviction and demolition rates and changing market factors for redevelopment.”

Agenda here
Wednesday, September 24 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane County

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Possible new caseload standards for public defenders

In June, the Washington Supreme Court started requiring counties to create new caseload standards for public defenders, who are stretched thin in this state. The proposed new standards cover 18 areas, including caseload limits and types of cases, attorney qualifications based on case severity, and requirements for support staff, investigators, training and supervision. The BOCC may vote on these new standards Tuesday.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 23 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

Revenue presentation

County staff will present to the BOCC on the county budget, detailing which county departments and programs are funded by which revenue streams. The slideshow can be accessed here.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 23 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 Regional Health District Board

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Administrative Officer out

One of the action items on the table for the SRHD board is a resolution to appoint two interim co-administrative officers “in the absence of the administrative officer,” Alicia Thompson. The resolution does not say why Thompson is absent, whether it’s a permanent absence or how long she plans to be gone. It just says that Ray Byrne, Environmental Public Health Director, will serve as one of the interim officers, overseeing agency operations, while Kim Kramarz, Finance Director and Controller, will serve as the other, managing budget and finance. It appears this change is happening immediately, as Byrne is scheduled to give the Administrative Officer report during the same meeting.

Measles response

Dr. Francisco Velázquez, the health officer at SRHD, will be giving a presentation on SRHD’s measles response after Spokane saw its first case. Some key data we noticed in the report:

• While 84-86% of children 1 to 18 years old have the recommended doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, they’re not all getting it on time, when the vaccine is “meant to protect them the most.”

• Only 40% of adults 19 years through 68 years have the recommended doses of MMR vaccine.

• “The highly contagious nature of measles presents the risk of extensive spread to and across multiple jurisdictions in the region. Resources and supplies to treat exposed individuals may be stretched thin or become difficult to obtain.”

Editor's note: the section has been corrected to remove a vaccine clinic that already happened.

Agenda here
Thursday, September 25 at 12:30 pm
Auditorium, First Floor
Spokane Regional Health District
1101 West College Avenue

School Boards

Mead School District Board of Directors

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Monday, September 22 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

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Monday, September 22 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

Swearing in student adviser to board

The board will swear in a new student adviser, Reggie Alba.

Agenda here
Wednesday, September 24 at 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Other Cities

Spokane Valley City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Flag display resolution

The city council is set to vote on a policy outlining what flag may be allowed on city flagpoles. It would codify the standing practice of flying flags that support the view and values of the city of Spokane Valley, including some flags that commemorate military service. State law requires cities to fly the American, Washington state and Prisoner of War/Missing In Action flags. Other flags can be flown on city poles at the behest of community members who file a proclamation if the mayor approves it.

Some cities in red states across the country, including Boise and Salt Lake City, recently named the Pride flag as an official city flag to get around state bans on flying it.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 23 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.