Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can keep track of and fight for the issues you care about.
Here are highlights of what’s coming up:
- Spokane City Council could pass a shield law and other protections for 2SLGBTQ+ people in Spokane.
- Mead School District is voting on a “Transgender Students” policy that could require teachers to out transgender students to their parents and establish “sex-segregated bathrooms.”
- Central Valley School District might file a Title IX complaint to the federal government against the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for their inclusion policies for transgender students.
- The Spokane Public Library is hosting a series of educational events teaching Spokanites how to consume less water.
- Spokane County will vote whether to raise Sheriff John Nowels’ pay from $205,434.90 per year to $236,339.85.
- The Board of County Commissioners will continue discussions to form a task force to study the impact and possible solutions for the “forever chemicals” contamination that has plagued many West Plains residents for years.
- Spokane County will likely hire a Dallas software developer to manage and analyze the massive amount of data recorded and held on sheriff’s deputies body cameras.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council
- Spokane Housing Authority Board
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Board of Spokane County Commissioners (Briefing and Legislative Session)
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Thirsty Thursday at Spokane Public Library
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Vote for a shield city
There’s really only one big item on tonight’s agenda: the Spokane City Council could enshrine citywide protections for queer people by passing the LGBTQIA2S+ protection ordinance. We’ve covered it in depth, but here’s a review on what the ordinance would do:
- Create a Shield Law for Spokane, which means that no city resources will be used to assist in investigating or detaining an individual for exercising their rights, which include seeking gender-affirming care. This clarifies city-specific protection, in addition to the state’s standing Shield Law, which queer community leaders have asked for amid concerns about Governor Bob Ferguson’s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.
- Clean up outdated language in the city’s Human Rights code, defining gender affirming care in the city’s glossary and adding “Two Spirit” — an indigenous queer identity — to the LGBTQIA2S+ community definitions.
- Prohibit the city from collecting or disseminating information about anyone’s sex assigned at birth, unless it’s related to a criminal investigation.
- Guarantee health insurance for city employees and their families will cover reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare, as well as care for people who are HIV+.
- Direct the Spokane Police Department to maintain an LGTBQIA2S+ liaison officer to act as a point of contact and build trust with the community.
- Require the city to conduct regular review of policies and practices to ensure they’re equitable and affirming for LGBTQIA2S+ people.
- Direct the city to collaborate with LGBTQIA2S+ leaders and event organizers to ensure public safety and well-being for community members and event attendees.
Next week’s sneak peek:
- Spokane Parks and the Spokane Public School District have already announced their plan to put coordinated joint levy proposals before voters this fall that would pool resources to improve both parks and schools across the city. Next week, council could officially approve the resolution that would put the Parks half of the proposal on the ballot in November.
- We’ll dive into more details in next week’s CIVICS, but council is set to approve updates to the citywide Commute Trip Reduction Plan.They’re also scheduled to adopt the Bicycle Priority Network as a guide for updating elements in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, so it’ll probably be a good meeting for urbanist readers to attend.
Agenda here
Monday, April 28, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Finance and Administration Committee
A new regional approach to homelessness?
Draft plans for a new regional approach to homelessness are starting to come before our government bodies. Last week, Spokane Valley City Council reviewed a potential agreement with the city of Spokane and the county. This week, the same draft will be discussed at the Finance and Administration committee. Under this proposal, Spokane, Spokane Valley and Spokane County would have regular joint meetings, shared data collection, a joint Point-in-Time count to estimate the region’s homeless population and a coordinated inclement weather response.
Childcare program
One of Spokane’s early ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding projects was a contract with Community-Minded Enterprises to distribute childcare subsidies for Spokane residents and retention bonuses to childcare facilities. The contract is ending in a few days, and folks who administered the program are coming to committee to give the council a retrospective on the program and its accomplishments over the last two years.
No booze by kids, parks or people in recovery
Council will discuss an emergency interim ordinance proposed by Mayor Lisa Brown’s office and sponsored by Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Council Member Paul Dillon and that, if approved, would prohibit any new “off-premises alcohol outlets” from opening within 500 feet of schools, early learning programs, community centers, libraries, parks or treatment facilities. An “off-premises alcohol outlet” is defined as a business that sells liquor meant to be consumed off-site, like a liquor store or convenience store. It doesn’t apply to grocery stores, bars, hotels or pharmacies.
Because the ordinance is interim, it would only be in effect for one year. With the quick nature of an emergency ordinance and an interim timeline, we do have to wonder if this is intended to stop a specific new alcohol outlet.
Bad news for crypto bros and scammers
One of the most interesting items in the committee agenda today is a proposal from Dillon to ban cryptocurrency kiosks from operating in the city. If you were like us, you might wonder, do we even have those here? Yes, yes we do: there are about 20 “Bitcoin ATMs” located at grocery stores across the city. The Spokane Police Department noticed an increase in scams from these kiosks, “reporting several scams daily which resulted in three suicides that have been associated with victims losing lifesavings,” according to the agenda. Across the state, victims of cryptocurrency scams, sometimes through kiosks, have lost $141,756,936 as of 2023. This ordinance is intended to protect consumers from these scams.
Bringing back Proposition 1, part two?
Council Member Michael Cathcart is pitching an ordinance to bring back Proposition 1, which banned camping in most of the city. Since the Washington State Supreme Court’s overturn of the voter initiative rested on the idea that it went beyond the bounds of voter power and encroached into authority that belonged to the council, Cathcart wants to reflect the will of about 75% of voters, who wanted to ban camping within 1,000 feet of parks, schools and daycares — which ended up being most of the city.
Last week, Cathcart was joined by Council Members Jonathan Bingle and Zack Zappone in a vote to allow the council to consider an emergency ordinance that would get Prop 1 back on the books as soon as possible. That failed, with all the progressives but Zappone voting against it. This ordinance from Cathcart goes through the normal timeline and doesn’t require majority support to be considered, though it would require the majority vote to pass, a move at least Dillon and Council Member Kitty Klitzke have said they aren’t open to at the moment.
Agenda here
Monday, April 28, at noon
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Housing Authority Board
🌶️/5 peppers
Public hearing for $35M in SpoVal housing
The board will host a public hearing for a proposal to issue $35 million in bonds to build a 240-unit apartment complex in Spokane Valley located at 9910 East Appleway Boulevard. Some of the units would be dedicated to low-income housing. The funds would be loaned to SHA Appleway LLLP, to buy the property and build the complex.
Agenda here
Monday, April 28 at 3:30 pm
Meeting Room 25 W. Nora Ave, Spokane, WA 99205
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Mead wants “sex-segregation”
On a night that Spokane could pass additional protections for queer people, Mead School District will hold a final vote onis contemplating passing a “Transgender Students” policy that would replace a previous nondiscrimination policy with one that violates state law. There are a lot of issues with the policy — which has changed a little since we covered it a few weeks ago — besides just being blatantly illegal and transphobic.
First, it would suggest that school principals within the district set up meetings with any transgender students where their parents “should be involved if at all possible,” which could force students to out themselves to their parents if they want accommodations at school. It also states that if students ask to use any other name than their legal name, that would be included in the electronic records system parents can access. It also doesn’t require teachers to use a students’ correct pronouns, because that would be “compelled speech,” instead stating teachers will use students’ preferred name in place of pronouns — though it’s unclear why they wouldn’t consider use of names to be “compelled speech.”
The old policy said private information about a student’s gender identity shouldn’t be disclosed to their parents, other students or third parties. This new draft strikes “their parents,” which means teachers would be able to disclose that information to parents whether the student consents or not.
The old policy kept it simple, stating that students could use the bathroom that best aligned with their gender identity. This new policy states that students deserve to have “biological sex-segregated bathrooms,” so transgender students will be given access to “alternative restrooms.” It does state the school can’t require transgender students to actually use those alternative restrooms, so it’s unclear if they just wouldn’t enforce their “biological sex-segregation” or if they somehow expect trans kids to hold it all day long.
Locker room access is going to be addressed on a “case-by-case basis.” First, they state they’ll follow OSPI’s guidance about locker rooms, which is to let students use the room that best aligns with their gender, but then they immediately follow it by stating they need to consider the needs of the “student population as a whole” and transgender students could be directed to other “reasonable alternatives” like a restroom stall, a curtained-off area of the locker room or a teacher’s office. Finally, for any overnight field trips, room assignments would be made by sex assigned at birth.
If Mead passes this policy, which violates state laws, it’s unclear what would happen to their budget, where state funding makes up nearly 80% of all their funds.
Agenda here
Monday, April 28 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
CVSD wants to discriminate against transgender students
Last week, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) announced that they did not pass a series of amendments to statewide athletic policy that would have barred transgender students from participating in athletics — which would have been against state law. Both Mead and CVSD had publicly supported those amendments.
Now, after the amendments failed to pass, CVSD is considering filing a Title IX complaint to the federal government against Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the WIAA, claiming policies that include transgender students are “leading to sex-based discrimination.” If they vote to send the draft in the agenda, the CVSD school district would “respectfully request URGENT federal intervention.” They say that OSPI is out of compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order (which is not a law) to ban transgender women and girls from women’s sports, which could prevent them receiving over $12 million in federal funding.
The agenda cites the Trump administration’s finding that the state of Maine was out of Title IX compliance for its inclusion of transgender athletes — which was followed by a lawsuit by the federal government against Maine filed earlier this month.
Tonight, CVSD is just planning to hold a “Roundtable Discussion” on filing the Title IX complaint, but we’re unsure if this requires a vote beforehand, or if they’re just going to discuss it tonight and then file it.
Agenda here
Monday, April 28 at 6 pm
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
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Ongoing discussion on PFAS task force
County Commissioner Chris Jordan has requested ongoing talks to form a task force that would study “forever chemicals” contamination in the drinking water of hundreds of West Plains wells between Spokane and Airway Heights. The talks started in October and aim to determine a scope of work for the task force, which will likely include:
- Exploring the various filtration systems, present and under development, for efficiency and cost.
- Exploring bringing a new source of water to the West Plains and working with the appropriate agency(s) to implement.
- Exploring technological advances on removing PFAS from an aquifer.
- Identifying funding sources for filtration systems to include in-house or Point-of-Entry Treatment systems. Work with the applying agency to develop requests and pursue funding.
- Performing a census of the impacted area
An initial roster of people the county may appoint to the task force:
- Commissioner Jordan
- County Commissioner Al French
- Spokane County Health Officer Frank Velasquez or a designee from the Spokane Regional Health District
- Eastern Washington University geology professor Chad Pritchard
- Airway Heights City Manager Albert Tripp
- Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown
- Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson
- West Plains Water Coalition founder John Hancock
City of Spokane agreement would provide millions for opioid services
The county is set to work with the city of Spokane to establish three new opioid crisis responder teams and create more facilities for managing substance use disorder, projects that will total $2.65 million in new resources for the drug crisis. The teams will perform medical assessments on people in crisis and refer them to care. The new facilities would provide 24 new beds in the Spokane Treatment and Recovery Services (STARS) and Sobering Triage and Transition (STaT) Services. Those services “include same day appointments, walk-ins, first dosing and law enforcement/first responder drop-offs.”
The bulk of the money — $2 million — will come from opioid settlement funds from wide-ranging litigation against companies that manufactured or distributed the addictive drugs.
Agenda here
Tuesday, April 29 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
Potential raise for the sheriff
Taxpayers currently pay Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels $205,434.90 per year. The commissioners will vote Tuesday whether to increase that to $236,339.85, which would bring the salary in line with the Spokane County prosecutor.
Committees for aquifer protection ballot measure
The BOCC will discuss setting a committee to weigh pros and cons for a county ballot measure that would renew the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer Protection Area, a taxing district that protects water for 500,000 Eastern Washingtonians. There will be three committee members who research arguments for the renewal, and three who research arguments against it. (The protection district does not include the West Plains aquifers, which do not have their own similar protection district, even though many people drink from it.)
$400k for sheriff body cams
Last year the county received about $400,000 from the federal government to maintain and analyze body camera footage recorded by Sheriff’s deputies through September 2027. The department is recommending the BOCC award the money to Polis Solutions, a Dallas, Texas, software maker.
Fixing up the off-roading park entry
The BOCC will vote whether to award Spokane construction company Zetin Contractors more than $500,000 to improve the entry to one of the county’s Off Road Vehicle (ORV) Parks. The agenda item does not specify which park will receive the services, but the entrance to the Airway Heights ORV Park is scheduled for renovations.
Board appointments
The board is set to appoint the following people to various boards:
- Lonnie Scott as the Town of Spangle representative on the Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee.
- Larry Howes and David Crosby to the Spokane County Board of Equalization, and
- Brooke Baker Spink as a Spokane County representative on the Joint Spokane County & City of Spokane Airport Board
Agenda here
Tuesday, April 29 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
Policy for city park security cameras
The council will vote on rules for how the city can use security cameras they plan to install in city parks, which are funded by federal funds that came from the American Rescue Plan. The rules are listed in the agenda item as follows:
- Security cameras shall be placed so as to limit views of adjacent properties
- Security cameras shall be used for public safety and security purposes
- Traffic cameras may be used for traffic management purposes
- The city shall keep a record of users who access the cameras
- Footage shall not be provided to third parties except as required for installation and maintenance, for the public safety and security purposes included in the resolution and as required by law, and
- The city retains the footage for 30 days, unless needed for an investigation or other purpose where the footage needs to be kept for a longer period of time.
Agenda here when available
Tuesday, April 29 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.
Spokane Public Library
Transform your lawn at Thirsty Thursday
Spokanites are notorious for using far more water than people who live elsewhere in the United States. In 2023, the figure was about 330 gallons per person per day, according to city data. The average American: 82 gallons per person per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Summertime outdoor watering consumes more than 80% of our residential water usage in Spokane, and often, homeowners are watering their grass 2-3 times over what they need,” said Will Rettig, City of Spokane Water Efficiency Specialist in a press release. “Overwatering is not only wasteful, but it also doesn’t benefit us or our landscape; potentially damaging plant health and wasting money.”
So the Spokane Public Library is hosting a series of events starting May 1 to help people conserve water as the climate warms and the local watershed is stressed by a larger population. Find information about each event here:
