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:
- The Spokane City Council will vote on a number of items related to wildfire recovery, including an emergency ordinance to cut demolition fees and a contract with the Washington State Department of Commerce to direct $1 million in state funds to residents impacted by the Spokane Complex Fire.
- At the council’s Finance and Administration Committee meeting, they’ll consider an emergency ordinance to implement eviction protections for renters who lost income due to the fires — protections that would also be available to people impacted by future emergencies.
- Spokane City’s Plan Commission will be discussing a policy to allow accessory dwelling units on properties with no primary dwelling unit — a technical way of letting people who are rebuilding in the wake of the fires start smaller, with a tiny home or other structure to get them back in stable housing even as full home rebuilds take more time.
- The Spokane County Planning Commission will host its first workshop on slate of data center zoning regulations the County Commission made way for last week.
Spokane City Council Agenda Review
Up for a vote next week:
- A contract to give Liberty Lake-based Frank Family Investments an 8-year Multifamily Housing tax exemption for the creation of 200 housing units in the Kendall Yards neighborhood.
- An ordinance to allow existing funds to be used to expand access to cooling, heating and weatherization services to individuals who meet the criteria established by the HEART Fund
- An ordinance that would get rid of a city requirement for charitable organizations to obtain a free “charitable solicitation” license. Because this duplicates state requirements, Spokane could cut this requirement at the city level.
- An extension on the interim zoning ordinance that temporarily removed height limits on new buildings downtown
Up for a vote in two weeks:
- A contract to address a lack of culturally responsive treatment services for the opioid crisis — i.e. services specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of marginalized communities. The city council could contract with four organizations: Center for Growth and Empowerment through Compassionate Addiction Treatment, The Native Project, Nuestras Raices and Washington State University with Spokane Tribal Network. The total cost of these services is under $500,000, which was already approved in the 2026 budget.
- An ordinance that would create a process for vacant and underutilized commercial spaces to be temporarily activated. That means spaces like, say, the former Rite Aid downtown, could be more easily transformed for temporary commercial events like, say, the Punk Rock Flea Market.
If you want to provide public comment on any of these items, you can do so at the city council meeting on Wednesday!
Agenda here when available.
Tuesday, August 25 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Wildfire recovery is still top of the list for the Spokane City Council, which is set to approve a slate of contracts and policies aimed at helping Spokanites rebuild.
The most urgent is an emergency ordinance — which requires five of the seven votes to pass — that would cut demolition fees for structures damaged by the Spokane Complex Fire to just $28.50, with no processing or technology fees added. They’ll also likely give Mayor Lisa Brown approval to contract with the Washington State Department of Commerce for its Wildfire Housing Assistance Fund. This comes with $1 million in assistance that impacted residents can apply for, distributed through subgrantee Goodwill Industries, which already runs the city’s Housing and Essential Needs program, and services for veteran families.
The council is also likely to approve paying a back-dated emergency contract with Blessings and Beyond for providing three meals a day for up to 450 residents sheltering at the convention center after the Spokane Complex Fire from August 3 through August 10. The contract was not to exceed $90,562.50 — a daily rate of up to $12,937.50 — and the city will know the actual costs when Blessing and Beyond bills for reimbursement.
The council will also consider approving a bunch of contracts for legal fees to fight ongoing lawsuits, including:
- an additional $100,000 to fight a lawsuit from the ACLU-WA and Jewels Helping Hands alleging the city violates the constitutional rights of unhoused people, bringing the total costs to $250,000.
- an additional $25,000 to fight a lawsuit from the former owner of the Wall Street Apartments, who alleges the city violated his rights by issuing a do not occupy order related to poor conditions. This would bring the total costs to $75,000.
- an additional $100,000 to fight a federal lawsuit from the estate of Kerry Jones-Hilburg, who was shot and killed by the Spokane Police Department inside of a local Walmart in 2023. This would bring the total costs to $150,000
Agenda here
Wednesday, August 26 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, August 27 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Finance and Administration Committee
🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
HOME Starts Here pivot
In response to the fire crisis, the city mobilized to accept donations for a wildfire relief effort to provide direct assistance to the people impacted by the Spokane Complex Fires. These donations were accepted through the HOME Starts Here fund, which is typically used to support efforts addressing homelessness. Now, the city is doing the procedural, paper-trail documentation necessary to support this quick pivot. The council will get a briefing on a special budget ordinance from the mayor’s administration on the accounting changes necessary to recognize the additional donation revenue and distribute it to eligible families.
Utility Rate setting
The council is preparing to set water utility rates for 2027 and 2028. What exactly will those rates be? Well, it’s not listed in the agenda. Instead, the agenda states that there were discussions held at the Public Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainability Committee on July 14, the Finance & Administration Committee on July 28 and the Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board meeting that was held on August 13. If you haven’t watched one or all of those meetings, you would have no idea from the agenda documents what the proposed rates for the next two years are. We haven’t had a chance to review these meetings yet, but we’re willing to make a bet: utility rates are probably going up.
Equitable budgeting
City Council Member Sarah Dixit has proposed an ordinance that would formally embed equity as a pillar of Spokane’s budgeting and policy processes. If passed, it would “expand the authority of the Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Inclusion, require every department to assess and report equity impacts, mandate training and establish a multi-year planning and reporting structure to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for historically underserved communities.”
Emergency tenant protections
As thousands of residents have been displaced due to the Spokane Complex Fires, the city is looking to establish tenant protections that would apply both in the wake of these fires and in future emergencies, as declared by the mayor.
As displaced households within the city add pressure to the rental housing market, “it is critical that the City protect residents from unwarranted eviction and displacement during such emergencies,” the agenda sheet reads. “This is especially true given that residential tenants often are in danger of eviction for nonpayment of rent in the wake of the Spokane Complex Fires and similar emergencies, and least able to weather the impact of job loss or reduction in income.”
The emergency ordinance, sponsored by City Council Members Paul Dillon, Sarah Dixit and Kitty Klitzke would allow tenants to use financial hardship due to emergency as a defense to eviction action, giving them up to a year to repay rent. In order to qualify for this, a tenant would have to be able to prove that they lost at least 10% of their average monthly household income, and that the civil emergency or natural disaster rendered their business or place of employment uninhabitable, resulted in their layoff or reduction of pay or caused them a demonstrable loss of business clients from the geographic area impacted by the emergency.
For example, if you’re a landscaper who primarily made your money by tending to yards in the burn area of the fire, and lost those clients due to the fires, or if you were an employee of a grocery store in the evacuation zones that was shut down for a week and you lost enough hours to qualify, you could use this defense in eviction court proceedings.
Because the ordinance itself is an emergency ordinance, it will move at a quicker pace and require a vote of five council members to pass when it comes before the body.
Agenda here
Tuesday, August 25 at 1 pm
Council Chambers
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Plan Commission
🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers
ADU who?
The Spokane Plan Commission will discuss another avenue to make things easier for people to rebuild in the wake of the fires: making it legal 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. The Plan Commission is proposing changing the code to allow people to put ADUs on the property to “gain a foothold back into stable housing and then shift to building the primary house.”
Agenda here
Wednesday, August 26 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️/5 peppers
SCRAPS wants a new software system
The Spokane County Animal Protection Service, which provides animal protection and welfare services in Spokane County, is looking for BOCC approval to buy a new software system called Chameleon. A slide presentation says the system would cost $123,518 for the first year. The buy would be funded by “citizen endowment.” A slide presentation says the agency’s current software system, Shelter Buddy, is plagued with “accuracy concerns,” “slow vendor response” and long animal processing times. Chameleon would offset annual operating costs, the presentation says.
Agenda here
Tuesday, August 25 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
Agenda here
Tuesday, August 25 at 2 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane County Planning Commission
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Front and (data) center
As Spokane County’s Planning Department is neck deep in figuring out how to govern growth for the next two decades — an onerous state-mandated process called “comprehensive planning” — the County Commission has thrown on a massive side-task. Last week, the commission paused application approvals for new data centers until December 15, a couple of weeks before it must supply a finalized comprehensive plan to the state. The pause is meant to give the county time to regulate the building and operation of any potential data center facilities, so the Planning Commission scrambled to schedule a workshop on proposed zoning rules meant to mitigate the environmental and social impacts, which you can read here. The commission will host a public hearing on the data center regulations next month.
Agenda here
Thursday, August 27 at 4:30 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Regional Health District Board
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Thursday, August 27 at 12:30 pm
Auditorium, First Floor
1101 West College Avenue, Spokane
Mead School District Board of Directors
🌶️/5 peppers
New school year, new budget
The board will hold public comment and then vote on a resolution to adopt the district’s 2026-2027 budget, which totals roughly $228.8 million.
Agenda here
Monday, August 24 at 6 pm
12509 N. Market St. Bldg. D, Mead
Watch via Zoom here.
Central Valley School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Money talks
Members of the board are expected to discuss a resolution to create a “financial parameter guide” to show the district’s commitment that it won’t raise the levy rate higher than the current maximum, even if future legislation allows for it, according to the agenda. The current maximum rate is $2.50 per $1,000 assessed property value.
This resolution follows discussions over replacing the district’s Educational Programs and Operations levy set to expire at the end of 2027. Last month, the board approved a resolution to send a three-year levy to voters on the November 3 ballot.
The board is expected to take a vote on the commitment resolution during its September 14 meeting.
Paying for transportation
The board will vote on a resolution that will move $150,000 from the General Fund to the Transportation Vehicle Fund. This transfer will offset a loss in state funding, according to the agenda.
Agenda here
Monday, August 24 at 6 pm
Learning and Teaching Center at 2218 N Molter Road
Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.
West Valley School District Board of Directors
🌶️🫑/5 peppers
Pending investment
The board is expected to take a vote on a resolution to redirect up to $250,000 in unused Career and Technical Education funds to the Capital Projects Fund. This money would be for making improvements to the culinary arts facility, according to the agenda.
This item was previously placed on the July 22 agenda.
Agenda here
Wednesday, August 26 at 3:30 pm
District Conference Center
8818 E. Grace, Spokane
Watch via Zoom here.
Spokane School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Approving the budget
During its regular meeting, the board is expected to hold a public hearing and vote on a resolution to adopt the 2026-2027 school year budget, totaling about $805.9 million.
The public can also expect to hear a presentation on the district’s upcoming priority strategies.
Cameras on buses?
The board is expected to discuss and possibly take a vote on adopting a new policy that would allow the installation of video cameras on school buses, according to the agenda.
“The reason for recording the school bus environment is to provide school officials, drivers,
parents, guardians, and custodial parents with documentation when addressing
inappropriate behaviors and/or other concerns that impact the safety and welfare of
students and drivers,” the policy reads.
The Superintendent would be responsible for preparing the procedure for how the video equipment will be used, how videos are reviewed and disposed of.
Agenda here
Wednesday, August 26 at 5 pm (special meeting) and 6 pm (regular meeting)
200 N. Bernard, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Valley City Council
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here
Tuesday, August 25 at 6 pm
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley
Virtual attendance here.
