It’s a big day for Spokane’s budget

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.  

It’s a light week for a lot of groups as we approach the holidays, but for Spokane City Council, it’s going to be a race to the finish line, so expect some big items between now and the new year. Some things that stick out to us this week include: 

• The city’s 2024 budget is up for a vote in Spokane City Council, after weeks of discussion about the best way to plug a $20 million hole in the General Fund.
• Renewing the city’s costly contract with Salvation Army to operate the Trent Resource and Assistance Center will be discussed at PIES.
• Rather than just changing the redistricting process in February, city council may want to look at the whole city charter in November.

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
• Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee
• Central Valley School District Board of Directors
• Board of County Commissioners – Regular Session

Latine health panel discussion

The Latinos en Spokane community health workers will be in a panel discussion hosted tonight by the Latine Medical Student Association at WSU Medicine and Fred Hutch Office of Community Engagement. The panel will be on barriers to accessing healthcare faced by Spokane-area Latino/e/x folks. A dinner of street tacos, rice and beans is provided by Los Habeneros. The event is free but registration is required. 

Monday, November 27 from 5 – 7pm
WSU State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine (SAC 249)
412 E Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99202
Register here.

Spokane City Council

It’s budget time, baby.

Because Spokane is a “first-class city,” it’s required to adopt its annual budget for the 2024 fiscal year by December 31, but after weeks of discussions in Study Sessions and budget meetings between city council staff and the current mayoral administration, it looks like tonight’s the night the city council will pass the budget. The budget has been a hot topic of discussion, as the city faces a projected $20 million dollar deficit in the general fund. Proposed potential solutions for plugging the hole included raising property taxes, putting levies for various city services in front of voters in February and using traffic camera funds to pay for police, instead of for the designated Traffic Calming projects. 

One of the other solutions in the mayor’s budget was a temporary 1% utility tax. In order to make that a reality, the city council is holding a first reading of an ordinance tonight that would update the relevant city codes to reflect this tax rate of 21% of gross income on solid waste collection and  wastewater collection and treatment through January 1, 2025.

Citizens can read the budget ordinance in tonight’s agenda, starting on page 256, for more details on the city’s plan for 2024. 

New affordable housing projects up for a vote

City council will vote tonight to approve two affordable housing projects: $2.15 million for 35 units of senior housing on West 9th Avenue, and $1.5 million for 10 units of housing for veterans on the southside of Francis Avenue on Lacey Street. The funding for these projects comes from the HUD HOME Investment Partnerships program, which awards the city of Spokane money annually. The city’s goal for this year’s funding allocation was to increase the affordable housing inventory, serving extremely-low and very-low income households. These two projects didn’t use the entirety of the $4.3 million awarded to Spokane, so a Notice of Funding Availability will go out in April of 2024 to find projects to spend the rest. These two projects were chosen by the CHHS Affordable Housing Committee, which is different from the RFP committee that chose the application for the controversially canceled RFP for a new TRAC operator earlier this fall.

Potential appointment for the Hearing Examiner

In late September, Brian McGinn, the current Hearing Examiner for the City of Spokane notified current Council President Lori Kinnear that he would be resigning his position effective December 1, which is next Friday. The Hearing Examiner position “conducts public hearings and renders decisions in certain administrative matters specified in the municipal code.” They may also be asked to provide advisory opinions on the legal validity of citizen-proposed ballot measures, like the widely passed Measure 1.  There is a resolution on tonight’s agenda that says “Appointing ________ to fill the position of Hearing Examiner for the City of Spokane.” The text for it says that the resolution “will need to be amended to insert the name of the preferred candidate of the Council Sponsors,” but it still reads as blank, so we’re unsure if anyone will be appointed tonight, and if so, who, but with the current Hearing Examiner’s last day coming up next Friday, there may be some urgency to make this appointment ASAP.

Agenda here
Monday, November 27 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, November 30 at 11 am
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall 
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee

More money to Salvation Army

We recently published a story on the city retracting an RFP they had put out for a new operator of the Trent Resource and Assistance Center (TRAC) after Jewels Helping Hands had been chosen by the recommending committee, and instead recommending a four-month extension of the Salvation Army’s contract. We thought that might go up on the legislative session agenda last week, but it’s actually going to make its first official appearance for discussion at today’s PIES committee meeting, sponsored by councilmembers Karen Stratton and Michael Cathcart. City council members had previously expressed frustration about being backed into a corner with the renewal, and the Salvation Army’s consistently going over the contracted budget. Some questions we’re curious about are whether or not the city has the money to renew Revive’s contract as well to ensure a service provider with navigation services will also be operating at TRAC, and what the city intends to do about TRAC overspending — if it will result in a stricter contract, or another “blank check,” as some council members have called it. 

A more walkable West Central

The proposed West Central Infrastructure Project would connect paths, sidewalks and bike routes in West Central and add new crosswalks, among other improvements. The goal is to make parks, facilities and services more accessible for residents. If the committee approves the more than $260,000 project, the city would enter into a contract with Kittelson & Associates lasting until December 31, 2025.   

Maybe no redistricting vote after all? 

Back in July, the city council voted to add a measure to the February special election ballot to change the city charter with a new redistricting process. That change would create a 7-person redistricting committee made up of members of the public and was proposed by Councilmember Michael Cathcart in the wake of a legal challenge to Spokane’s recent redistricting process that revealed that Councilmember Zack Zappone was aware that the new maps benefitted liberal candidates in his district, though a judge upheld the maps.  

Now, Zappone is proposing taking that ballot measure off the February ballot and instead creating a “City Charter Review Committee” to review the entire charter and make recommendations for technical corrections and more substantive changes to the city charter so that those changes can be put before voters in the November 2024 election.  

Agenda here
Monday, November 27 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.

Central Valley School District Board of Directors

Discipline, enrollment, curriculum and budget

A slew of reports are slated to be presented to the school board, including a presentation on student discipline. The presentation includes data on suspension and exclusion days, which is intended to be used to improve fairness and equity policies. The data available to peruse showed Indigenous, Latin/e/x/o and Black students made up a disproportionate amount of suspension and exclusion days. 

Agenda here
Monday, November 27 at 6:30 p.m.
Learning and Teaching Center (district office) Board Room
2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session

More money to help substance use disorder

Spokane County Community Services Department and Spokane County Regional Behavioral Health Division want to increase funding for outpatient treatment for substance use disorder. They plan to add $14,840 in an amendment to Spokane County’s existing contract with Adams County Integrated Health Care Services. The amendment would only be in effect until the end of the year, but has a retroactive start date covering expenses going back to October. 

Possible county tax increase

The board will hold a public hearing Tuesday about a potential property tax increase. Different options for how the tax would be used and how much money Spokane County would plan to collect will be up for discussion at the hearing. Two major areas the tax could fund are the county’s general fund and the county road fund. How the current taxes would be impacted is not very clear since the information presented is based on the end funds generated, not the amount of tax increase. Also, some options combine tax revenue and funds that would be shifted from other areas. If this all sounds confusing, tomorrow’s public hearing may be the perfect place to get some answers.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, November 28 at 2 pm
Public Works Building Lower Level, Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane, WA 99260The meeting is also live streamed here.