Camping enforcement back on the table after Supreme Court decision

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. Last week was light and this week is packed, so grab your coffee.  

Some things that stick out to us this week include: 

• Spokane City could spend $500k on sidewalk repairs in attempts to make the city more pedestrian friendly.
• With the recent Grants Pass Supreme Court decision, there’s a decision-making, discussion-having frenzy around homelessness and Proposition 1 at both Spokane city committee meetings. 
• Spokane City could be seeing a new sales tax to cover community safety costs.
• Spokane Public Schools will discuss a draft digital device in schools policy.
• Spokane Regional Transportation Council has a bunch of projects planned to improve pedestrian safety, but at least one project not on that list has Millwood community members worried about making Argonne more dangerous for people and bikes people.
• Spokane County may have to allocate an extra half a million dollars to an improvement of two parks in Beacon Hill.
• Spokane Valley may build out $8 million in new sidewalks along thoroughfares in the city. Of that money, it wants to use $6 million in state funding; the remainder would come from the city budget.

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane City Council
• Public Safety and Community Health Committee (Spokane City Council)
• Urban Experience Committee (Spokane City Council)
• Spokane City Council Study Session
• Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
• Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
• Spokane Valley City Council
• Spokane Public School District Board of Directors
• Central Valley School District Board of Directors
• Plan Commission
• Spokane Regional Transportation Council
• Spokane Park Board

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

66 blue trash cans

Downtown Spokane is getting 66 new metal trash cans and 66 metal recycling bins at a cost of $215,000 and some change. As neighborhood council members from the downtown core said at the District 1 Town Hall-style City Council meeting earlier this year, keeping downtown clean is a priority for both residents and business owners. An interesting wrinkle in this consent agenda item: Spokane is buying the trash cans and recycling bins from Correctional Industries in Tumwater, Washington, which is a division of the state Department of Corrections. This is a cost savings measure and is projected to save the city $375,000 over the next five years. 

A budget overhaul

On the agenda for tonight is a Special Budget Ordinance that would move a bunch of money around to account for a net of $1.38 million of previously unexpected spending. Some of the highlights of the lengthy ordinance:

The language is jargon-filled and confusing (we love jargon, don’t we, folks?), but here is what we can glean: 

• The Management and Budget department could get funding for three positions: a budget analyst to help changeover to the biennium budget, an internal auditor to help meet the city’s workload and a public records specialist to help meet the demand of increased public records requests (we’re pretty excited about that one!)
• $660,000 could go to SPD for fleet services
• Another $100,000 to SPD to run a feasibility study on the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC), presumably to decide if the city will renew its contract with the regional agency
• $35,000 for interns in the Mayor and Council offices

To pay for some of this, SPD is eliminating three vacant positions — a crime analyst, a clerk and a police lieutenant. They’re also cutting $500,000 from their operational budget and have saved $97,000 on their broadband budget. Other cost savings measures include the recently announced mandatory furlough days for the mayor’s cabinet members and cutting the legal education budget by a little more than $10,000. This all adds up to a little less than half the nearly $2 million the city is spending, so it’s unclear exactly how the other half would be funded. 
Also listed under this agenda item is an amendment from Council President Betsy Wilkerson to spend an additional $31,000 on election services to add a redistricting measure to the ballot and an amendment from Council Member Zack Zappone that would do the same thing, plus spend $20,000 on “legal services for review of Council external boards and commissions.” Zappone’s measure would also transfer $437,000 to the Traffic Calming Measures fund, at least $100,000 of which would be spent on adaptive design strategies.

Legislative priority vote

Tonight, the council could vote to adopt its federal legislative agenda for 2024-2025, which guides its advocacy priorities for the coming year. The three main priorities outlined in the resolution are:

• Invest in transportation, water infrastructure, and sustainability initiatives
• Create more housing opportunities and provide essential human services to address homelessness, respond to the fentanyl crisis, and improve public safety
• Grow the region’s economy and support its workforce  

There are many more details on federal funding opportunities the city will pursue under each of these main priorities. One of the highlights is that the city may apply for a Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) grant to expand the alternative response teams, like the Behavioral Response Unit at the Spokane Fire Department and SPD’s Behavioral Health Unit. 

Spending on sidewalks

Continuing its efforts to calm traffic, the Spokane City Council could approve a resolution tonight that would hire a project employee to guide a sidewalk repair pilot program and begin repairing sidewalks in low-income neighborhoods and high-traffic walkways near schools, parks and commercial areas. This would be paid for with $500,000 from the Traffic Calming Fund, which was recently replenished with $1 million in grants from Integrated Capital Management. This is a pretty straightforward resolution, but it does ask the administration to regularly update the council on how the program is going. 

Gun violence prevention vote

Tonight will see a vote on Council Member Paul Dillon’s gun violence prevention ordinance. The ordinance would make it illegal to shoot guns in the city limits and open carry in city-owned stadiums or public buildings used for Spokane city government meetings. Dillon submitted an amendment to his own ordinance that would add a penalty clause, making unlawful discharge of a firearm within city limits a gross misdemeanor. 

Agenda here
Monday, July 8 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 11 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 and Community Health Committee

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Because the Public Safety and Community Health committee meeting was canceled last week, the council held a special session of the committee meeting this morning at 10 am. 

Grants Pass Discussion

On June 28, the Supreme Court overturned the 9th Circuit’s Grants Pass decision, which had set a precedent that it was cruel and unusual punishment to ticket someone for camping when there’s no available shelter space. Now, the city is not bound by the requirement to provide shelter space before making illegal camping arrests, which means that the city can enforce Proposition 1, which makes camping near schools and across more than half of Spokane illegal. The council had a robust discussion (argument?) about the Grant’s Pass decision and the city upcoming enforcement of Proposition 1. The enforcement is a “cite and release” method, which means that the community court will have to  process the tickets and SPD will have a lot more potential camping cases to enforce, which left some council members wondering if the system could handle the additional strain. 

While the two conservatives on the council, Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle, were extremely supportive of the city enforcing Proposition 1 and wanted to see it start immediately, the liberal majority was much more hesitant about whether the law would be effective or just place more of a financial burden on homeless people. 

“What is logistically going to change when we start giving more citations?” Council Member Kitty Klitzke asked. “Is it going to make things better?” As enforcement begins immediately, the city will soon find out.

Community Safety Sales Tax

Earlier this year, Mayor Lisa Brown proposed a ballot measure that would add a property tax to the November ballot in order to pay for community safety measures. She quickly walked that back after community criticism. Now, her administration is proposing a different approach — a 1/10 of 1% sales tax that would earn the city $6.5 million annually and cost Spokane residents roughly $1 for every $1,000 they spend. The sales tax has exemptions for necessities like food and prescription drugs. With council’s approval, it would go to the public for a vote on the November 5 ballot. 

According to a press release sent out by Brown’s office this morning, funds generated from the tax would go to:

• Spokane Fire Department to replace outdated vehicles and equipment, make improvements on fire stations and potentially build new stations
• Spokane Police Department to relaunch the Neighborhood Resource Officer program and resurrect the traffic safety unit. 
• Developing safety plans and expanding the city’s “capacity to serve the community in cases of extreme weather.

This is a non-exhaustive list, which faced criticism from Cathcart, who said in the committee meeting that the proposal is thin on details and needs more accountability and guard rails on spending built in.  

The city is looking for interested individuals to serve on committees to write the pro and con statements for the ballot measure to go in the voter’s guide. It’s not clear how interested parties can sign up, but we will find out!

Traffic Calming clawback

Last year, the council allocated $1.8 million from the Traffic Calming Fund to SPD to be spent on traffic enforcement units. At a recent committee meeting, Erik Olson from SPD told the council that $1.8 million was not being used. Then, according to Zappone, the mayor’s administration told them the opposite — the funding was necessary and was being used, just not for a traffic unit. After the mayor’s executive order last week making traffic calming a priority, she told the council she is in discussions with SPD to revive the traffic calming unit. 

To hold the administration accountable to spending the money from the Traffic Calming fund on traffic calming, Zappone filed a Special Budget Ordinance (SBO) that would claw back $1.3 million of the previously allocated $1.8 million from SPD if there is no significant progress or clear indicators that the money is being spent to calm traffic. Zappone’s proposal would leave $500,000 for SPD’s DUI enforcement. In discussion of the SBO, Wilkerson and Bingle were both in support of increased accountability for the use of the money. 

State of Emergency update

Maggie Yates, the assistant city administrator, gave a short update on the city’s emergency response to the opioid crisis. Some highlights include:

• Cannon Shelter has been cleaned out and is getting a fence installed to help limit neighborhood impacts.
• Folks are getting moved into the shelter now, but Yates doesn’t know exactly how many.
• Car 50, a partnership between SFD and Spokane Treatment and Recovery Services, is driving routes downtown to transport people in need to recovery services. Yates said roughly ten people had been transported into treatment since the declaration was signed.
• SFD is joining SPD in enrolling in an overdose mapping service which helps track overdoses and automate data mapping to provide better realtime data on overdoses in the city. 

Agenda here 
Monday, July 8 at 10 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

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Human rights for homeless people

In 2023, the Spokane Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution affirming the basic dignities and human rights of individuals experiencing homelessness. Council Member Lili Navarrete worked with the city’s legal department to create an ordinance that would respond to the Human Rights Commission’s resolution, enshrining “housing status” as a protected class in Spokane, adding unhoused people to a list of groups already protected federally. This would prevent Spokane employers from discriminating against unhoused people in hiring processes and protect the property and privacy rights of unhoused people. The ordinance will be discussed at this afternoon’s committee meeting.

Special event street closures

Zappone is continuing his crusades to both streamline hosting special events in Spokane and pedestrianize the city. The next item on his list checks both boxes by making it easier to close Spokane Falls Boulevard on weekends during the summer. Closing the street can cost between $6,000 and $12,000, which can be a high barrier for event organizers. The council will discuss regular programming for the Place of Truths Plaza, which sits between the boulevard and the river near Monroe St; free closures in partnership with Spokane Public Schools; and purchasing barriers the city could use to make road closures easier and cheaper for event organizers.

Agenda here 
Monday, July 8 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

🫑/5 peppers

Agenda here
Tuesday, July 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

Board appointment

The BOCC will vote whether to appoint Wesley B. Anderson to the District 2 position on the Spokane County Veterans Advisory Board.

A more expensive Beacon Hill project

In 2022, the City of Spokane and Spokane County agreed to contribute $589,000 and $300,000 respectively to the Make Beacon Hill Public project. The project will pave parking lots, improve restroom facilities, add security lighting and other infrastructure at Shields and Camp Sekani parks. The project is expected to cost $500,000 more than originally anticipated. The BOCC will decide whether to pony up the extra cash to fill the shortfall in the original budget for the project, bringing the county’s contribution to $800,000

Trade-in for new thermal-imaging camera

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is asking for permission to trade an existing infrared camera it mounts to its helicopters for a $625,000 FLIR infrared camera being gifted to it by Teledyne Technologies to be used on a Spokane Valley police helicopter. 
The new camera, a “Star” system, is “fully hardened for military fixed-wing and helicopter operations” and uses high definition imaging to produce hyper-accurate video. The company is sending similar cameras to the Tehama County Sheriff and the Modesto Police departments in California. The Sheriff’s office already has the camera and needs the BOCC’s approval to use it.

Agenda here
Tuesday, July 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 Valley City Council

🫑/5 peppers

Opioid class action suit

The city council will vote whether to include itself in a small amount of extra opioid settlement money won by the state of Washington as part of a larger class action suit against opioid manufacturers. So far, the litigation has brought the city more than $140,000 to address opioids in the community. If they opt in, Spokane Valley may be eligible for an additional $12,000 to be distributed over 11 years. The money can be used to purchase Naloxone — popularly known as Narcan — to reverse opioid overdoses, expanding syringe service, drug treatment for prisoners and other abatement programs.

Transportation grants 

The city council will vote whether to apply for more than $6 million in state funding for transportation projects. The projects include building new 8-foot sidewalks on both sides of Argonne Road from Indiana Avenue to the halfway point between Knox Avenue and Montgomery Avenue, a sidewalk along Sullivan Road between 8th and 16th avenues and a roundabout at the intersection of Barker Road and 8th. The City of Spokane Valley would have to provide about $2.2 million of its own money for the projects.

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

Spokane Public School District Board of Directors

​​🫑/5 peppers

It’ll be a long day for the SPS Board, with a yearly board retreat at 3pm before rolling straight into their normal board meeting at 6.

Retreat

At the retreat, the board will discuss initiatives to focus on this year as part of a 6-year strategic plan adopted in 2021. They will also discuss the results of their board self-assessment and the book “Monitoring Educational Equity.” Public attendance at the retreat is virtual only.

Phones at home?

Smartphones in schools are becoming a hotly contested issue nationally, with states like Florida and Louisiana banning them completely, Ohio and Indiana requiring school districts to limit usage, and others considering action. Los Angeles Unified — one of the biggest districts in the country — announced a ban last month that will take effect in January. New York City public schools are expected to follow. For now, the Washington legislature hasn’t taken any action, but some districts have. 

SPS will continue discussing its draft policy this week, which would restrict phone use to before or after school for elementary and middle school kids. High schoolers would have a bit more freedom, but phones would still be restricted in class. In all cases, students would be allowed to use their phones if “an emergency situation exists that involves imminent physical danger or an administrator authorizes the student to use the device.” 

Drilling down on diversity

Nicole Jenkins-Rosenkrantz will present feedback and recommendations from the Diversity Advisory Council (DAC), “a School Board appointed committee for over twenty years and represents the various constituencies of Spokane Public Schools’ community and provides input and advice regarding student equity issues and the development of a diverse workforce.” The high level presentation gives SPS credit for making progress on career-track support and moving away from punishment. One consistent bit of feedback seems to be better communication about this progress to parents.

Agenda here
Wednesday, July 10 at 6 pm, annual retreat at 3 pm (public attendance is virtual only)
Spokane Public Schools Administration Building
200 N. Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Central Valley School District Board of Directors

🌶️/5 peppers

This week, the district is set to consider approving a nearly $300 million budget for the 2024-25 school year. There are a number of buckets of money for things like vehicles and debt service (loan payments), but the overwhelming majority, about 86%, is tied to the General Fund, which is where salaries and other operational expenditures live. The district is planning for about a 7% growth in revenue — which comes from local property taxes, as well as state and federal dollars, with the bulk of the increase coming from an additional $5.8 million locally and an additional $11 million from the state.

The only other item that stood out to us is a discussion on whether to cancel the upcoming July 22 board meeting because there may not be enough board members in attendance to reach a quorum (a quorum is the minimum number of seats required to take a vote). This is likely due to vacations (it’s lake season, folks!). The most recent time CVSD canceled a meeting due to lack of quorum was at the end of December, when the meeting fell between Christmas and New Years. And if they pass the budget, why not take a week to celebrate?

Agenda here
Monday, July 8 at 6 pm.
Learning and Teaching Center (district office) 
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd, Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.

Plan Commission

?/5 peppers

Agenda here when available.
Wednesday, July 10 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center 
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Regional Transportation Council

🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Safety and congestion

The council will discuss its draft 2025 list of regional transportation priorities, which has a big emphasis on pedestrian safety along three major corridors, North Nevada and North Market in NE Spokane and Sprague, mostly in the Valley. There are lots of road expansion and transit projects in the mix as well. 

One congestion relief project along a two-block stretch of Argonne between Empire and Liberty in Millwood’s historic business district has raised concerns of a pair of Millwood residents (citing concerns they share “with many neighbors”),the Millwood Community Association and Millwood businesses over expanding the street and adding a turn lane without thinking of the impact on pedestrians and bicyclists. 

“Turn lanes directing traffic into the pedestrian friendly Historic District and residential areas on both sides of Argonne endanger all walkers and bike riders along with increased speeding and traffic numbers in quiet neighborhoods,” Al and Vikki Naccarato write. 

Shirene Young, writing on behalf of the community association, says they’ve been trying to interface with Millwood officials since early 2023 and claim to have been told there was no project at all. “We believe our concerns have not been carried to the SRTC and even at this late date, we hope to at least be heard and concerns addressed.”

Agenda here 
Thursday, July 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 Park Board

?/5 peppers

Agenda here when available
Thursday, July 11 at 3:30 pm
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed via WebEx,