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 NAACP chapter and local advocates are teaming up to help you file reports to the Office of Police Ombuds if you saw or experienced police violence during the June protests.
• Central Valley School District board is looking to sign on to a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction didn’t follow proper procedure when developing Gender Inclusive Schools policy. 
• Spokane Valley is set to approve a $500,000 contract to remodel its police precinct as part of a broader project to expand police in the city.

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane Plan Commission
• Mead School District Board of Directors
• Central Valley School District Board of Directors
• Spokane School District Board of Directors
• Board of County Commissioners – Briefing and Legislative Session
• Spokane Regional Transportation Council
• Spokane County Planning Commission
• Spokane Airport Board 
• Spokane Valley City Council 

Office of Police Ombuds Clinic

Did you see law enforcement violence at one of the protests in June? If you haven’t yet filed a report to the Office of the Police Ombuds, a group of local advocates are hosting a clinic this Tuesday at The Hive from 3:30 to 6:30 pm to help you with your report. The event is in partnership between the local NAACP chapter’s Adult and Youth and College branches, AnarHealing Consulting and Spokane Organized Response Network.

Tuesday, August 12 from 3:30 to 6:30 pm
The Hive 
2904 E. Sprague Ave

Spokane City 

Spokane City Council

0/5 peppers

Canceled

Next week’s sneak peek:

We’re back from vacation, but Spokane City Council isn’t. Catch them next week when they have a packed agenda full of first reads of legislation to: 

• Establish a permit fee deferral for new affordable housing construction
• Revive the ordinance to ban ICE from conducting warrantless arrests at ticketed street festivals in the public right-of-way
• Begin creation of the city’s own emergency communications dispatch center, since Spokane Regional Emergency Communications gave them the boot
• Develop a community workforce agreement, more details on that to come in a story this week!

Agenda here
Monday, Aug 18 at 6 pm
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

There’s nothing super interesting on this agenda, but if you’re a city planning wonk, it’s always worth sitting in so you can find out more deets on things like the Hillyard Subarea Plan.

Agenda here 
Wednesday, August 13 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

Fed funding for 4 road projects

The county plans to complete four road construction projects in 2027 and 2028 using $5.5 million in funding from the Federal Highway Administration. The projects include completing a roundabout at the intersection of Harvard and Euclid roads; repaving Aero Road between Westbow and Thomas Mallon roads, and Staley Road from US Highway 395 to Dalton Road; and widening and realigning Craig Road to eliminate the offset T junction at Thorpe Road.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, August 12 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

Board appointments

The BOCC is set to appoint the following people to county boards: 

• John (Andy) Hoye as the District 2 representative on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee
• Ryan Sims to the Spokane County Accessible Community/Elections Advisory Committee.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, August 12 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 when available
Thursday, August 14 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

Hearing for Shoreline Master Program amendment

The state Department of Ecology requires local governments to keep their management programs for shorelines updated according to evolving state law, and Spokane County’s changes are up for approval. The agenda item does not go into specifics about the nature of proposed amendments, but Ecology and the Planning Commission will host a public hearing on them at the commission’s regular meeting.

Agenda here
Thursday, August 14 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

Various construction projects

The agenda lists several construction projects up for approval. There’s not much detail on any of them, but one of the notable projects on the docket is a sewer project related to the high-profile Transload Facility Project, a rail line that will connect West Plains vendors with the airport proper. The West Plains is a place with extremely sensitive water resources beset by flooding problems local activists have blamed on airport construction projects. The projects include:

• Awarding a construction contract for an Air Cargo Facility stair replacement
• Accepting Washington Department of Commerce grants for Transload Area sewer
• Awarding a construction contract for a café demolition at Felt’s Field

Agenda here.
Wednesday, August 13 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

Work sesh

Tonight’s Mead School Board of Directors meeting is just a work session for the board members, with no public comment time available. Towards the end of the meeting, they will be discussing their board goals for the 2025-2026 school year, which could be an interesting indicator of things to come.

Agenda here
Monday, August 11 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

Gearing up to sue the state

Central Valley School Board has drafted both a resolution condemning the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and a letter signaling their intent to join the Lynden School District in suing the OSPI for what they characterize as a policy failure. 

That policy failure? 

Drafting the model Gender-Inclusive Schools policy — which prohibits schools from discriminating against students based on their gender — without a notice to the public, a chance for comment or “a clear legal standard,” all of which are required by the state’s Administrative Procedure Act. 

However, a line in the CVSD agenda description that reads “Mandating model policy adoption without local flexibility is unworkable and contrary to Washington law,” seems to point to what they see as the larger issue — not the lack of community engagement, but an inflexibility which doesn’t allow individual school districts across the state to choose to discriminate against trans kids.

In order for the lawsuit to go forward, a minimum of 15 school districts would have to sign on. If the suit does move forward, CVSD is committed to spending up to $10,000 previously budgeted for potential litigation. 

Agenda here
Monday, August 11 at 6 pm
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

Nothing crazy in the SPSD meeting, but the district is holding its annual board retreat earlier in the day to discuss goal development, the “attributes of high-performing schools, school visit protocol and other topics.. 

Agenda here 
Wednesday, August 13 at 12:30 pm (Special Meeting) and 6 pm (regular meeting)
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

$500k for precinct remodel

Spokane Valley — a city whose constituents are generally averse to taxes and government spending — has been going gangbusters pouring resources into its police force, which is contracted to the Spokane County Sheriff. In the last two years, it has hired 10 new dedicated officers, and the council formally established “public safety” as its highest priority — meaning they wanted more police. As part of this effort, the city council is set to approve a $511,005 contract with the Spokane contractor Leone & Keeble to remodel its police precinct. The remodel may include the following improvements, as listed in the agenda sheet:

• moving the existing forensics team and their office furniture to the storage area between IT and the Public Service Support/Reception area
• repurposing of certain office space in the current traffic area and forensics area for the Spokane Valley Investigative Unit (SVIU)
• modifying the current SVIU area to house patrol, which includes constructing sufficient offices for the four Patrol Lieutenants and obtaining appropriately sized workstations for patrol Sergeants
• modifying the current patrol area to house traffic
• modifying the men’s locker room by removing about 40 extra lockers that are not necessary and relocating them to the women’s locker room which has insufficient number of lockers
• creating a new secure storage area within the “lean-to” addition in the rear of the site for drones and other police equipment currently stored within the precinct building but will be converted to areas for offices and workstations

Agenda here
Tuesday, August 12 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.