*Spokane County Courthouse. Photo by Sandra Rivera.*

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 has a bunch of first readings on ordinances scheduled for tonight, including one that could soon allow for daycare and childcare facilities to be placed in all residential neighborhoods.

We’re doubling up on Spokane City committees today to make up for Labor Day. At the Public Safety & Community Health Committee, they’ll be getting various public safety reports like overtime spending, red light camera ticketing and Office of Police Ombuds reports. At the Urban Experience Committee, a bunch of homelessness and public safety contracts are up for discussion.

The BOCC will interview a slate of candidates for Spokane County Prosecutor — all recommended by the county’s Republican Party — including the former boss of far-right Spokane pastor Matt Shea.

The regional school boards are keeping it chill this week with no scheduled debates on the rights of trans kids.

Important meetings this week:

Spokane City

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Safer signage

Council could pass a resolution that would allow the city to spend $6,000 or less on new signs for neighborhoods across the city, reminding drivers to slow down through residential streets. It isn’t clear how many signs $6,000 can buy in this economy, nor how the Office of Neighborhood Services, which is handling the sign purchases, plans to decide which neighborhoods get the new signs, but it could be yours!

A night of first reads

There aren’t any final votes tonight, but there are a few interesting first reads you can offer feedback on, like:

An ordinance to extend the interim zoning ordinance that got rid of height limits for downtown buildings for another six months.

An ordinance to start officially establishing the city of Spokane’s new emergency dispatch service, which is going to be called the Spokane United 911 Network.

An interim zoning ordinance that — for at least the next year — would allow daycare and childcare centers to be permitted and placed in all residential and commercial zones across the city. That means your neighborhood could soon get more convenient childcare services!

Agenda here
Monday, September 8 at 6 pm
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Council Committees

Public Safety & Community Health Committee

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Special meeting

Because last week’s Public Safety & Community Health Committee was canceled for Labor Day, the council is having it as a special meeting at 10:30 am today. We love this meeting, because a variety of departments present statistics and updates to the council. Here’s some of the takeaways from those reports:

The Office of Police Ombuds will present on their June and July activities. One number that stood out — they received 17 complaints just about law enforcement response to the June 11 protest.

Spokane Police Department’s briefing included an update on the status of deadly force incidents. There have been two police shootings this year: one from January is currently with the prosecutor to review if he wants to take action against the officers involved; and a second from February that’s still under investigation by Spokane Independent Investigative Response (SIIR), who will then send it to the prosecutor to review.

There were zero speed camera violations for June through July! (School wasn’t in session.) In other news, the red light cameras have collected $330,873 more than expected from violations, and the speed cameras have collected over $600,000 less than expected this year so far. (Editor’s note: Though to be fair to the robots, two motorcycle cops were radaring on S. Washington this morning and they didn’t seem to be getting many speeders, either.)

SPD is $478,505 under budget for overtime spending this year, while the Fire Department and EMS are $1,248,145 over budget. SPD did spend more than expected on extra duty costs though.

Agenda here
Monday, September 8 at 10:30 am
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Urban Experience Committee (Spokane city)

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Homelessness contracts

There are a lot of homelessness and public safety contracts up for discussion at today’s Urban Experience Committee. Here’s the TLDR:

Waters Meet Foundation (formerly Empire Health Foundation) will be presenting an update on their housing navigation contract, the scattered site shelters and their upcoming tiny home pilot project.

The council will be discussing multiple street medicine contracts, including with the Health Care Authority and one with CHAS street medicine.

They’re also planning on discussing CHHS board recommendations for street outreach, navigation center and inclement weather shelter provider contracts.
They’re talking about renewing a contract with the Washington State Department of Transportation for Right-of-Way renewal, which gives them funding to clean up homeless encampments on public right-of-way with robust case management.

Agenda here
Monday, September 8 at noon
City Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
The meeting is also live streamed here.

MISC City

Spokane Plan Commission

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Wednesday, September 10 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

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 9 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

Former Matt Shea employer up for prosecutor

Marshall Casey, who employed the far-right former legislator and now Spokane pastor Matt Shea until Shea was accused of domestic terrorism in 2020, is one of three contenders scheduled to be interviewed for the vacant Spokane County prosecutor position. Larry Haskell vacated that post after 10 years in July and was succeeded by interim prosecutor Preston McCollam, who is also a candidate for the permanent position. The third contender is Steve Garvin. Voters will choose the permanent prosecutor next year. All three candidates were recommended in a letter to the BOCC from the Spokane County Republican Party.

The prosecutor represents the county and state governments in local prosecutions and decides who will be prosecuted. The office also represents the county in civil matters.

Casey also represented the anti-queer worship pastor Sean Feucht in a damages claim against the city of Spokane, alongside Pete Serrano, the former mayor of Pasco and the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

$2.2M for Country Homes Blvd.

The BOCC is set to accept an award from the state Department of Transportation for $2,259,000 from the state Department of Transportation to help improve Country Homes Boulevard between Wall and Division streets.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 9 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 Transportation Council

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Thursday, September 11 at 1 pm
Spokane Regional Transportation Office
21 W Riverside Ave, Suite 504, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane County Planning Commission

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Environmental Impact Statement update

To do any state-funded development project, most governments are required by state law to consider doing studies on how the project would affect the environment, including wildlife, groundwater, rivers, forests — pretty much any aspect of an ecosystem. There’s not a lot of detail about exactly will happen, but the Planning Commission will receive an update on those requirements at its regular meeting Thursday.

Agenda here
Thursday, September 11 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.

Spokane Airport Board

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here.
Thursday, September 10 at 9 am
Airport Event Center
9211 W. McFarlane Road, Spokane, WA 99224
The meeting is also live streamed here.

School Boards

Mead School District Board of Directors

🫑/5 peppers

This is just a board work session with no public comment opportunities. We didn’t notice anything incredibly controversial on the agenda for working through.

Agenda here
Monday, September 8 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

Nothing much of note.

Agenda here
Monday, September 8 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

Agenda here
Wednesday, September 10 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

Pinecroft Natural Area Preserve educational trail up for approval

The city council is set to approve an agreement with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to build an educational trail in the Pinecroft Natural Area Preserve, a 100-acre property near Mirabeau Point Park. It’s a bit of a gamble, according to a write-up in the agenda item. Till now, the document says, the department “has focused on restricting public access, conducting weed control, limited planting of native grasses and forbs, and limited thinning of Ponderosa pines.” But “current approaches to managing public access have not been effective.” The agreement would provide for the following developments:

By constructing an educational trail and providing signage, DNR could direct people to where resource damage would be minimized
Planned and directed access may limit inappropriate and/or incompatible behaviors, and
Through signage, the community could be informed about the ecological and conservation values of the site, which could lead to increased public ownership of the site; people caring about, and for, the site

The idea is that if the public has better access to the preserve, it will have a better incentive to protect it.

Agenda here
Tuesday, September 9 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley, WA 99206
Virtual attendance here.

A lawyer helping Sean Feucht sue Spokane could be the new county prosecutor

Spokane City