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 could pass an ordinance long-awaited by housing advocates that creates a city eviction prevention program to create stability for renters and streamline rental assistance.

• Spokane City Council will also hold a first reading of an ordinance to give the American Indian Community Center a 50-year lease of parts of High Bridge Park for just $1 a year. 

• At the Public Safety and Community Health Committee, the council will discuss an ordinance to ban federal agents from using any city-owned or -controlled property for immigration enforcement purposes. Spokane Police Chief Hall will give updates on SPD’s role in immigration enforcement and a quarterly update on homelessness-related arrests.

• Spokane County is finalizing its collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters, the union that represents county employees. The agreement contains a 3% raise for workers.

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
• Public Safety & Community Health Committee
• Board of County Commissioners – Briefing Session and Legislative Session
• Central Valley School District Board of Directors
• Spokane School District Board of Directors
• Spokane Valley City Council 
• Liberty Lake City Council

Spokane City 

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Preventing evictions

Tonight, the council could pass an ordinance designed to help keep renters in their homes. 

Housing advocates have long argued that the most effective way to help with homelessness is to simply keep people housed. For rent-burdened tenants who are otherwise reliable, one emergency could cause an inability to pay rent that month, leading to an eviction that will follow them forever, making it harder to find new housing. 

The new Pathways to Eviction Prevention ordinance seeks to create stability for both renters and landlords by establishing an eviction prevention program at the City and requiring landlords to notify their tenants of the program at the time of lease or lease renewal, any time a tenant is given a notice to pay or vacate and any time a rent increase notice is given. This program will be available to traditional renters and tenants living in mobile or manufactured homes. The program is for economic hardship only, and does not include evictions due to damage, illegal activity or behavior affecting the health and safety of other tenants 

If passed tonight, Spokane will have the program up and running by June 1, posting a list of “city-managed eviction prevention programs and state-funded organizations providing pre-eviction direct legal services,” on the city website. 

High Bridge Park lease

The council will hold a first reading of an ordinance that could lease a portion of High Bridge Park to the American Indian Community Center (AICC) for 50 years at a rate of just $1 a year. The lease will give the AICC access to build and operate a new community center on the park land, which they’ll have exclusive control over. The lease also requires AICC to build some public improvements on the land, including a public bathroom, parking and a playground. This is the next step in the AICC’s multi-year process of seeking a permanent home for their center, placing it in a spot where tribal members used to gather to fish and trade. 

Good neighbors

Also on the first reading docket is a proposal to modify the city’s good neighbor agreements, which are required when new city-owned or city-sponsored service facilities find a site. 

The modification to the existing agreements would add new members to a communication team, including a property owner from the area where an emergency shelter or transitional housing facility will be located and the council chair or other designated representative from that neighborhood’s neighborhood council. The other big change is for the city to prioritize removing unauthorized encampments that spring up near facilities or shelters that have existing good neighbor agreements. 

Agenda here
Monday, February 2 at 6 pm
Council Chambers 
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here. 

Spokane City Council Study Sessions

Agenda here when available.
Thursday, February 5 at 11 am
Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Council Committees

Public Safety & Community Health Committee

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Immigration enforcement and homelessness arrests

There’s currently no presentations or previews included in the packet, but Spokane Police Department Police Chief Kevin Hall will be presenting on two key topics at today’s committee meeting:

• An update on “law enforcement role in immigration enforcement” — which we’re hoping touches on whether or not SPD will enforce the mask ban that is likely to be passed by the state legislature.

• A quarterly report on the Safe and Accessible Public Spaces ordinance, which increased criminalization of visible homelessness. We’re hoping this report includes statistics on how many people were cited or arrested and how many people were connected with services. 

ICE Free Zones

Announced last week, council will discuss an ordinance sponsored by Council Members Paul Dillon, Sarah Dixit and Kate Telis that would ban federal immigration officers from using any city property to support warrantless arrests. 

It would ban agents from using city-owned or controlled property for civil immigration actions, including detainments, surveillance, interviews, staging for actions or coordination. This would include things like City Hall and the libraries, but it would also include vacant lots, parking garages and other city-owned property. The ordinance also requires signage to be posted at all of these properties in both Spanish and English, with a QR-code to translate to other languages.

We’re hoping Hall’s update earlier in the meeting also touches on whether or not his officers plan to enforce this. 

SPD didn’t kill anyone in 2025

Hall is also presenting on SPD’s uses of deadly force in 2025, and while SPD has stacked up as one of the deadliest police forces in the country in recent years, it looks like that won’t be the case for 2025. 

Last year, SPD shot two people — both white men — but both of them ultimately survived. This is a stark difference from 2024, when the department shot six people, killing five, and 2023, when SPD shot two people, who both died. Could be a sign of positive momentum for SPD under Hall? Use of deadly force statistics are available to peruse here.

Agenda here 
Monday, February 2  at 12 pm
Council Chambers
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane County

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session

🌶️/5 peppers

Salvation Army set to take over Way Out shelter

The BOCC will decide whether the Way Out Center shelter should be transferred from the auspices of the City of Spokane to the Salvation Army and allow it to serve as an emergency shelter. The shelter is part of local governments’ efforts to transition unhoused people to permanent housing. The change would not affect the $5 million price tag — jointly funded by the county and the city — for the project of operating the center from 2021 through this coming October.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, February 3 at 9 am
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session

🌶️/5 peppers

County to sign agreement with Teamsters

The county and local Teamsters 690 have reached a collective bargaining agreement that will give county workers a 3% raise, alongside a slate of benefits, for the period of July 31, 2026 to June 30, 2028. The contract will cost the county approximately an additional $388,000.

$577K for new radios

The county’s Department of Public Works says it needs $577,523 to buy new two-way radios. It’s asking the BOCC to approve a bid from Day Wireless, a Spokane-based provider of Motorola radios, to create a new radio system for Public Works employees.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, February 3 at 2 pm
Commissioners’ Hearing Room
1026 W. Broadway Ave, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

School Boards

Central Valley School District Board of Directors (special meeting)

/5 peppers

Agenda here when available
Friday, February 6 at 6 pm
Board Room at 2218 N Molter Rd
Liberty Lake
Watch via Zoom here.

Spokane School District Board of Directors

/5 peppers

Agenda here 
Wednesday, February 4 at 6 pm
200 N. Bernard, Spokane
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Other Cities

Spokane Valley City Council

🌶️/5 peppers

$1.3M bid for improvements to Barker Rd up for vote

The city council is set to award Selland Construction, Inc. a $1.3 million contract to add a car lane, sidewalks and bike lanes to the stretch of Barker Road between Appleway and Sprague avenues. The bid is about $600,000 less than the Spokane Valley engineer had projected.

Agenda here
Tuesday, February 3 at 6 pm
10210 E Sprague Ave, Spokane Valley
Virtual attendance here.

Liberty Lake City Council

/5 peppers

Agenda here
Tuesday, February 3 at 7 pm
22710 E Country Vista Drive, Liberty Lake
The meeting is also live streamed here.