Gun violence prevention, safe streets now and renter protections and a County comprehensive plan update!

*Council members tussle over $5 million of ARPA funds. Photo illustration by Erin Sellers.*

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.

Buckle up, because it’s a BIG week for CIVICS. From a few particularly spicy Spokane City Council meetings to a comprehensive plan update at the county level to an update on how Spokane Valley plans to pay for more cops, there’s some interesting policies coming. Some items that stick out to us this week include:

A first reading of an ordinance that seeks to prevent firearm usage in city limits will see discussion in the Public Safety & Community Health Committee.
The council will hold their final reading of Zack Zappone’s and Kitty Klitzke’s “Safe Streets Now” resolution calling for adaptive design strategies to reduce traffic deaths.
Renters may be one step closer to personal AC and cooling devices, as the city council will also hold their final reading of an ordinance protecting the right to staying cool.
The Spokane School District board is considering rescheduling a bond election to this year in August or November.
Calling all community members! The county is updating its Comprehensive Plan and needs your feedback!

Important meetings this week:

What to expect from transportation data

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC) compiled and organized statistics of crashes throughout Spokane County causing both fatalities and serious injuries based on data from 2018 to 2023. Now, the council proposes new goals based on these stats, presented in their Regional Safety Action Plan (or RSAP) as a means of making the city safer and limiting deaths and injury from vehicle incidents in Spokane. Among these goals, the council hopes to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 50% by the year 2030, decrease serious injury crashes to zero by 2042, and reassess data and targets every four to five years in the process. See the plan and take the poll to share your thoughts here.

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

ARPA clawbacks & 5 million amendments

Earlier this year, we wrote that the fight over what to do with the remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds wouldn’t be bloody. It sure will be complex though — there’s almost as many amendments on the official proposal for what to do with funds as there are funds themselves.

The official pitch, co-sponsored by Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Council Member Zack Zappone, proposes clawing back about $5 million dollars of ARPA funds, allocating a little over $2.5 million to “a new housing model,” almost $2 million to addiction treatment facilities and about a half a million to “Childcare Center Capital Projects.” This roughly $5 million dollars would be pulled from previous allocations for recruitment of a new fire chief, ADU permits, installing electric vehicle charging stations, repairing the Municipal Court Justice Building, youth behavioral health services and other “projects of city wide significance.”

The first amendment, submitted by Wilkerson and Zappone themselves, moves some of the funding amounts around and carves out about $555,000 to go back to municipal criminal justice services.

The second amendment, submitted by Council Member Jonathan Bingle, is a lot more complex, stating the city should spend less of the $5 million on a new housing model and addiction services, and spreading the rest of the funds between:

Childcare services
Community justice services
Neighborhood lighting projects
Youth sports
“Clean and safe programs”
The Cannon Hill Pond Project
The Beacon Hill/Shields Park Project
Sidewalk projects
Planning for public restrooms

The third amendment, submitted by Zappone, breaks the allocation down in the following way:

A little over $2.2 million for contractual services to implement a new shelter model
$1.8 million for property acquisition to reduce the impact of homelessness downtown
$550,000 for municipal criminal justice services
$250,000 for childcare center capital

The fourth amendment, submitted by Wilkerson alone, also changes up the dollar amounts slightly:

A little over $1.8 million for property acquisition to reduce the impact of homelessness downtown
$400,000 to childcare center capital projects
$550,000 to municipal criminal justice services
A little over $2 million for “miscellaneous charges to be allocated to future projects.”

The fifth amendment, submitted by unlikely bedfellows Bingle and freshman Council Member Lili Navarrete proposes allocating the funds to:

A little over $1.8 million or property acquisition to reduce the impact of homelessness downtown
$400,000 to childcare center capital projects
Almost $550,000 to municipal criminal justice services
$250,000 for scholarships and equipment for youth sports
$500,000 for refuse removal for clean and safe neighborhoods
$14,000 for trash cans in East Sprague Business Improvement District
$1 million for sidewalk construction and repair
$100,000 for public restroom planning
$200,000 for equipment and facility repairs at Spokane Fire Department Station #1

The sixth and final amendment was submitted by Council Member Micheal Cathcart, who proposed perhaps the most different plan:

$300,000 to residential and park lighting
About $1.5 million to refuse removal for clean and safe neighborhoods
$400,000 to childcare capital projects to be determined through a competitive process
$500,000 for scholarships and equipment for youth sports
$800,000 for sidewalk repair
$450,000 to sidewalk installation near schools
$400,000 for “real time crime policing efforts”
$150,000 to conduct a housing study downtown and plan for public restrooms
$14,000 for trash cans in East Sprague Business Improvement District
$100,000 to improve “constituent privacy at the Office of Police Ombudsman.”
$250,000 to explore the possibility of regionalizing services or forming “multigovernment/multi-jurisdictional agreements” to potentially save costs and increase effectiveness of municipal government

If all that sounds pretty complex to you, you’d be right. With seven different proposals on the table, how ARPA funds get spent is completely up in the air, but if council can’t decide on a plan soon, any funds not contracted out by the end of the year would have to be returned to the federal government, which puts a ticking clock on these decisions.

Safe Streets Tonight!

The “Safe Streets Now!” resolution requesting that Mayor Lisa Brown direct the Public Works Department to implement adaptive design measures is up for a vote tonight. The ordinance cites a 33-year high of traffic deaths in the state, and is requesting immediate transportation infrastructure changes, to be paid for with the Traffic Calming Measures Fund. Resolutions are non-binding, but the mayor’s administration has expressed a consistent interest in traffic safety — including it in her now-dead request for a public safety levy — so pedestrians could see some changes as the result of this resolution soon, should it pass.

Emergency ordinance back on the table (again)

The Cathcart-proposed ordinance to define what exactly an emergency is for purposes of regulating city council usage of emergency ordinances is back, baby. This ordinance has been through the ringer, and was postponed indefinitely a few weeks ago at a briefing session, until freshman Council Member Kitty Klitzke proposed bringing it back for consideration during the legislative session. Now, it’s back, with a slate of proposed amendments that will be discussed during today’s briefing session prior to a vote.

One of the biggest sticking points on the original draft was a stipulation that said something couldn’t be passed as an emergency ordinance if it had been deferred. Klitzke herself struggled with that portion of the ordinance, and said she wanted to protect the council’s right to defer in order to reach more consensus. The first proposed amendment, submitted by Cathcart, incorporates some of the feedback about deferrals, stating something could be passed as an ordinance as long as it hadn’t been deferred more than 14 calendar days beyond its first reading. It also carves out an exception for when meetings themselves are deferred for a city holiday.

Cathcart also submitted a second amendment that leaves out any deferral clause, but requires an affirmative vote by five council members (as opposed to the usual simple majority of four) to pass. The third amendment was submitted by Council Member Paul Dillon and looks remarkably similar to this Cathcart amendment, with one small difference — the Dillon amendment strikes this line from Cathcart’s criteria that defines when an emergency ordinance can be passed: “There is evidence of an imminent threat that could result in significant harm to the public health, safety, or welfare of the citizens of Spokane.”

Which version of the emergency ordinance will move forward, if any? Only the briefing session will tell!

Hot renters can stay cool

The first read of the ordinance to protect the rights of renters to install cooling devices during heat events went off relatively smoothly at the last council meeting. The second read and final vote on this ordinance is scheduled tonight, pending a submitted amendment by Klitzke, co-sponsor of the original ordinance, which would further delineate renter protections.

One of the major changes in the Klitzke amendment include allowing window AC unit installation as long as it doesn’t require “excessive” use of brackets or cause “unreasonable damage.” This came after folks worried the original ordinance gave landlords too much leeway to prevent tenants from installing window AC units, which commonly require brackets and are one of the cheapest options available. The amendment will be voted on during the briefing session, and the ordinance as a whole during the legislative session tonight.

Agenda here
Monday, June 3 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, June 6 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Public Safety & Community Health Committee

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Report on hate crimes

After late March was marked by the vandalism and arson of the rainbow Pride murals painted in downtown and in South Perry, the Spokane Police Department is scheduled to provide a 10 minute report on the hate crimes. There’s not much info in the agenda, so we aren’t sure exactly what this update will entail, but hopefully, details on the investigations into both crimes and what prevention methods of future hate crimes will look like as Pride month celebrations kick off.

Deadly police force

Spokane Police Department is providing their regular monthly update, which includes statistics on police shootings. One of those statistics is pretty stark: from January 1 to April 30, 2024, there were five shootings, which is more than were in the entire year of 2023, and exactly the same amount that SPD had in the entirety of 2022. All of these deadly incidents in 2024 are still under investigation from the Spokane Independent Investigative Response unit.

New regulations for guns?

Dillon is proposing a new gun violence prevention ordinance that aims to “make the community safer from gun violence” by updating firearms regulations. This is just the first committee discussion of the ordinance, but some highlights of the ordinance include:

Making it illegal to discharge any firearm within city limits
Open carry in any city-owned stadium or convention center
Open carry in any public building used for official government meetings of the city of Spokane or Spokane County — for example, City Hall

There are a few exceptions to the slate of new rules, namely, those who are concealed carrying a pistol with a license and law enforcement officers.

We anticipate that as this ordinance moves through the committee process towards an official council vote, there will be heated debate. Of course, there’s no public comment period in committee meetings, so the public will have to wait a few weeks before they can give their opinions on this one. The complete ordinance draft can be read starting on page 69 of the agenda.

What to expect from wildfire season

Wildfire season has been a hot topic in city meetings lately, as reports describe a dangerously low snowpack in Washington, homeowners affected by last year’s fires warn of sky-rocketing home insurance rates and residents of areas with poor evacuation infrastructure scored a victory in the form of a one-year moratorium on development in the Latah Valley area. The agenda details are thin, but today, the Public Health and Safety Committee will receive a briefing from Avista Utilities on what to expect for this wildfire season. The utility company has already begun testing rolling blackouts to prevent fires, and we’re looking forward to hearing more details from them.

Agenda here
Monday, June 3 at 1:15 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.

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session

Agenda here
Tuesday, June 4 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

Calling all voices for comprehensive planning

Conversations around long-term planning are often bogged down in technical discussions about zoning, capital management, political boundaries that dictate urban growth and other eye-glazing topics. But the county’s Comprehensive Plan is one of the most important long-term functions of local government. It drives how people move and where they live. It’s the process that decides whether children have to navigate heavy traffic while walking to school, whether a neighborhood gets a bus stop or a fire station and whether hiking trails are accessible.

Counties are required by new rules in the Washington Growth Management Act to expand public participation in county planning for coming decades. At its Tuesday session, the BoCC will consider a review date — probably June 11 — for the county Planning Commission’s recommendations for implementing this expanded participation. The aim is to include previously underrepresented voices in long-term planning. “Spokane County is making a concentrated effort to include these populations that have been historically underrepresented in the planning process,” according to a county planning document. “These efforts include specific outreach strategies and stakeholder involvement found in this document. During the 2026 periodic update, Spokane County will also ensure tribal participation to provide consistent planning efforts and representation of the Colville, Kalispel and Spokane Tribes.”

What exactly is at stake here? A lot.

We’re in the beginning stages of the process of the 2026 update to the Spokane County Comprehensive Plan, but we want to highlight the importance of this process now so you, dear RANGEheads, can have some agency early on. Long-term planning addresses how the county will deal with economic development, urban growth, housing, transit, wildland management, rural land use — pretty much every activity that affects the physical environment Spokane County residents interact with on a daily basis.

This planning is at a crossroads. Developers to the west of the city have been going gangbusters on new building, but people in rural areas such as the Latah Valley and the West Plains between Spokane and Airway Heights have been increasingly concerned about the effects of development on the land where they live.

The city of Spokane recently halted new building project applications for the next year for Latah Valley. During that time, the city can plan better fire and zoning regulations for building on the southwest urban frontier. But despite this, development has drastically outpaced infrastructure in the area. Even with the moratorium in place, a raft of previously-approved construction projects is going ahead this spring and summer. It’s a dangerous situation. As state regulators are predicting a dry summer and “significant fire risk” in Washington, those ongoing Latah Valley projects, which are mostly going up on the west side of US Highway 195, will close off some crucial wildfire escape routes for thousands of residents. The problem is so dire that the Washington Department of Transportation has said it may have to close local access to the highway in order to address mounting safety concerns.

On the West Plains, many private well owners have for decades been drinking water contaminated with toxic chemicals. During a series of town halls over the last few months, county officials, including County Commissioner Al French, have fielded angry questions from residents about a new gravel mine that will likely be built north of Airway Heights. They also worry about a plan by the public development authority S3R3 Solutions — whose board French chairs — to fill in and develop 300 acres of wetland between Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base. West Plains activists say these projects may worsen existing crises, like water contamination and chronic flooding in some Cheney neighborhoods.

RANGE wants to cover long-term planning in more detail in the coming months, as our representatives make fundamental decisions on these important issues. If you have knowledge surrounding this, ideas to share or concerns about the process, we encourage you to contact us at team@rangemedia.co. Either way, we hope you show up to BoCC meetings to make yourself heard!

Millions in ARPA money for parks

Spokane County’s purchasing department is asking the BoCC to decide whether it can solicit bid for $7.4 million of American Rescue Plan money to redesign two county parks. The first is Camas Park on Melville Drive in Cheney; the other is Plante’s Ferry Park on Upriver Drive, east of Spokane on the Spokane River.

Agenda here
Tuesday, June 4 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

Grants to pay for new cops

The Spokane Valley City Council in February decided that they needed to “right size” the city’s police department and approved a plan to hire about 28 new officers over the next few years. The first phase would have the city hire 10 new officers by “repurposing” the new Transportation Benefit District (TBD) fees to fund them. According to this week’s agenda, however, the 2025 budget has not been approved and a funding source has not been finalized.

Now city staff has identified a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program (CHP) grant that could fund parts of the new positions. If the city gets the grant in full, it would provide $125,000 per new officer over three years and the city would have to match a minimum of 25% and any additional cost. The city also must keep each position hired through the grant for an additional year after the grant period. The estimated cost for the new deputies is estimated at $1.27 million annually (it was previously estimated at $1.84 million).

“While the City does not normally look to grants to fund recurring expenses, City staff believe City Council priorities and goals related to public safety align well with the purposes of the grant,” the agenda packet says.

Agenda here
Tuesday, June 4 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.

Liberty Lake City Council

🫑/5 peppers

A workshop party

Liberty Lake City Council seems quiet this week with an early workshop session on a stormwater rate study and relatively routine construction approvals. Plus, there’s no other information on this item, but there’s also a “workshop discussion” on “Ordinance Review & Policy Oversight” that may be interesting.

Agenda here
Tuesday, June 4 at 6 pm for a workshop, 7 pm for regular session
22710 E Country Vista Drive, Liberty Lake, WA 99019
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Community, Housing, and Human Services Board

?/5 peppers

Agenda here when available
Wednesday, June 5 at 4 pm
City Council Briefing Chambers
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
Virtual attendance link included on their agenda when available.

Citizens’ Transportation Advisory Board

🫑/5 peppers

Budget talks

There’s not much information in the agenda, but the CTAB is set to discuss the 2025 budget — for the board specifically or the city budget, we’re not sure!

Agenda here when available.
Wednesday, June 5 at 5:30 p.m.
In person at the Streets Department Conference Room or Zoom link here.
901 N Nelson Street, Spokane, WA

Spokane Human Rights Commission

🌶️/5 peppers

Agenda here when available.
Thursday, June 6 at 5:30 p.m.
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201

Spokane School District Board of Directors

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Budgets Galore

It’s that time of year, Spokane Public Schools are reviewing budgets and allocating funds. This week, the Spokane Schools District Board of Directors will hold a special meeting at 4:30 pm to consider rescheduling a bond election to earlier dates in August or November 2024, rather than planned dates in 2025 and 2027. The board will look at voter accessibility and possible voter turnout to figure out when they will hold the bond election, as well as potential aid with the district’s debt and parent and faculty engagement with school finances. Also at their special meeting, the board will review the Annual Community Budget Forum for the 2024-2025 School Year. After presenting, the board will receive public comment on the draft budget.

Middle School No More

PRIDE Prep Middle School is closing its doors. The Spokane Schools District Board of Directors will likely approve the amendment to PRIDE Schools Renewal Application, which cuts the middle school program, leaving Innovation High School as their remaining charter in the district. According to the renewal application, the middle school saw enrollment drop after students returned to in-person classes, and can no longer sustain grades 6-8 without larger class sizes. Read more about the closure from the Inlander here.

New Mascot Asks-a-Lotl

Spokane’s up-and-coming Spokane Public Language Immersion school will request a new name and mascot. Spokane Schools Superintendent Sandra Jarrard and the school’s principal Mauricio Segovia will present an overview of the naming process as well as their request, which may propose an axolotl as the school’s official symbol. Founded in 2017, the Spanish-immersion school is moving into a new space in the former Pratt Elementary building, and hopes to officially adopt a mascot. Check out more about the school and its journey in The Spokesman-Review.

Agenda here
Wednesday, June 5 at 4:30 pm and 6 pm
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Gun violence prevention, safe streets now and renter protections and a County comprehensive plan update!

What to expect from transportation data