Spokane could become the first city to ‘Ban the Address’

Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can keep track of and fight for the issues you care about. 

Here are highlights of what’s coming up:

• Spokane could become the first city in the nation to ban employers from discriminating against job candidates for not having a permanent address with a vote on the “Ban the Address” ordinance tonight. They’re also doing a first read of the LGBTQIA2S+ protection ordinance. 
• The city’s Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee is discussing the upcoming removal of the Monaghan statue, which has caused strife for the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander community in Spokane. 
• The Spokane County Board of Commissioners is set to issue a ballot initiative that, if approved, will renew the tax that funds a protection district for the local aquifer that provide water to most Eastern Washingtonians.
• The Spokane Plan Commission discusses a mysterious new name for the Post Street Bridge, which will honor the late Senator John Moyer and his group Friends of the Falls,
• Spokane Valley City Council isn’t scheduled to discuss or vote on it yet, but their agenda contains an interesting proposal for regional homelessness collaboration between the valley, the city and the county. 

Important meetings this week:

• Spokane City Council
• Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee
• Spokane Plan Commission
• Board of Spokane County Commissioners (Briefing and Legislative Session)
• Spokane Valley City Council

Spokane City Council

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers

Ban the Address

Tonight, Spokane could become the first city to pass a Ban the Address policy, which would prohibit employers from discriminating against job candidates for not having a permanent address or listing a PO Box or shelter as their address during the hiring process. Sarah Golabek-Goldman, whose research into discrimination against unhoused people was used to support the creation of the ordinance, sent an email to the city council last week, letting them know they’d be “the first in the country to explicitly prohibit address-based discrimination in employment applications.”

This ordinance has bipartisan support, with conservative council member Michael Cathcart joining progressives Lili Navarrete and Paul Dillon as ordinance sponsors. Here’s exactly what protections are outlined in the ordinance:

• Forbids employers from requiring an applicant to provide an address or residence history until after granting a provisional offer of employment
•  Forbids employers from asking any question about housing status in an application, interview or other communication prior to granting a provisional offer of employment. 
• Forbids employers from rejecting an applicant solely because they don’t have a physical residence, list a PO Box or list a shelter, unless housing status has “legitimate relation to the primary duties of the job.”
• Definitively states that “No person may be disqualified from employment with the City due solely, or in part, to their housing status unless it directly relates to the job position sought.”

First read for LGBTQIA2S+ ordinance

You’re going to want to buckle up for this one — it’s where the spice meter prediction comes from. Tonight, the council will hold the first reading of their LGBTQIA2S+ protection ordinance, which we covered in depth here. 

This item is so spicy it has already been spurring debate; during last week’s open forum, people used their two minutes of talking time to rail at the council for daring to enshrine protections for queer people (one line that stuck out was “Do you really want to die on the hill of transgender?”) We have to imagine it’s only going to get worse tonight, when the ordinance is actually scheduled for discussion. 

As we covered in our piece last week, queer people are nervous to go to City Hall in person tonight because of all the hate that’ll likely be expressed, and are holding alternate gatherings to give virtual testimony, so if you’re queer and looking for a chiller space to watch council, check that info here.

Opioid spending

One piece of criticism about the Ban the Address ordinance we heard from conservative commenters last week is that the council is wasting time protecting people from employment discrimination when they should instead be tackling the opioid epidemic. 

We have some great news: councilthey can do both!

This week, council is voting on a special budget ordinance to spend opioid settlement funds earlier than originally anticipated. The plan for spending is the same as when we covered this in committee, but in case you missed it, here’s a review: 

• $350,000 to expand operations at the Spokane Regional Health District medication assisted treatment program so they can meet walk-in demand and be available as a drop off location for first responders who have contacts with people in need that might be ready for treatment. These dollars will also be matched by $350,000 from Spokane County for a total of $700,000.

• $500,000 for an additional 12 beds at Spokane Treatment and Recovery Services, a sobering facility that already serves as a drop-off point for first responders like the Behavioral Response Unit. This will also be matched with $500,000 from the county, but it’s unclear if that would help pay for those 12 beds or add an additional 12.

• $500,000 to “support the planning and launch of culturally specific, behavioral health treatment.” This chunk of funding would go to remedying local healthcare inequities for BIPOC patients seeking treatment for opioid use. According to the agenda notes, while Black patients suffer similar rates of opioid use disorder, they are less likely to receive a prescription for buprenorphine — one of the options for medication assisted treatment — than their white counterparts. 

• $139,388 to hire a dedicated analyst to measure the efficacy of the city’s opioid spending by tracking overdose rates, overdose deaths and other metrics.

Next week’s sneak peek:

There’s not much on the agenda for next week, except the final vote on the LGBTQIA2S+ protection ordinance, and to be honest, we’re willing to bet that item alone is going to be enough to put the spice meter to at at least ⅘ peppers. 

Agenda here
Monday, April 21, at 6 pm
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee

🌶️🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Monaghan moves to the mausoleum?

We covered this in Wide RANGE (our Friday newsletter for subscribers) and now the news is out for everyone: The downtown statue of John R. Monaghan accompanied with racist plaques proclaiming Samoan people as a “savage foe” and depicting them primitively is likely moving to a new final resting place: the family mausoleum. 

Advocates from the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander community here in Spokane have been calling for its removal for quite a while, but there had been no movement since last January, when city council created a formal process to review offensive landmarks. Until now: the city council is discussing a resolution sponsored by Council Member Kitty Klitzke to authorize the statue’s removal, which will likely happen during construction for a safe streets project to slow traffic on Monroe.

No turn on red now!

Government rarely works quickly, but they’re sure speeding towards the “no turn on red” commitment made during Mayor Lisa Brown’s press conference last week: today, council will be discussing a resolution to support “no turn on red” policies at intersections in the Riverside Neighborhood. A list of which specific intersections will be affected isn’t actually listed in the resolution or supporting agenda documents, though, so we have no way of knowing how expansive this actually is.

Agenda here
Monday, April 21 at 12 pm
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 9920
The meeting is also live streamed here.

Spokane Plan Commission

🌶️🫑/5 peppers

Post-Post Street Bridge

Our beloved Post St. Bridge — the famous background of our City Hall reporter’s walk-and-talk TikToks — could be getting a new name, though it isn’t stated what exactly that new name will be. Two former mayors and current mayor Brown sent letters in support of changing the bridge’s name to honor the late Senator John Moyer and his group Friends of the Falls, who were instrumental in killing a proposed Lincoln Street Bridge — which would’ve blocked the Post Street Bridge’s beautiful view of the Falls. 

“Rather than merely opposing a construction project, it was this positive vision that inspired hundreds of citizens to coalesce around the proposition that the community was better served by preserving access to the river and enhancing views of the Falls,” wrote Steve Faust, a local attorney. 

We couldn’t find the proposed new name anywhere in the agenda, just that it would be in honor of Moyer and the Friends of the Falls, so stay tuned. 

Agenda here 
Wednesday, April 23 at 2 pm
Council Briefing Center 
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here. 

Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session

🌶️/5 peppers

Branding for comprehensive plan

The county is developing its plan for how to grow in the next 20 years — one of the most essential functions of a local government. It’s called the “Comprehensive Plan.” An extremely important part of that work is communicating the project to people of Spokane County, and that includes branding. So the Planning Department is asking the BOCC to approve a new logo to represent the Comprehensive Plan. The proposed logo depicts buildings over a skyline silhouette of the county building, the iconic Riverfront Park Pavilion and the Riverfront Park clocktower.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, April 1 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

Chopper contract renewal

The Spokane County Sheriff wants to ink a $500,000 contract with Bell Textron to be the sole contractor to perform maintenance on the department’s Bell 505 helicopter.

Aquifer protection up for vote

The BOCC will soon need to renew the law that protects the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides drinking water to half a million Eastern Washingtonians, and most of us in Spokane County. The Public Works Department is asking the board to appoint a committee to make the case for the ballot measure. The protection district is paid for by a local tax that will expire this year. The current fee for the protection district collects about $1.5 million in property fees. 

Notably, the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is separate from the West Plains aquifers, which are contaminated with “forever chemicals” that are thought to cause cancer. The West Plains aquifers are not represented by a protection district.

Agenda here 
Tuesday, April 1 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

Regional homelessness efforts

The Regional Homelessness Authority — the 2023 plan to form a body to tackle homelessness in the region — has been dead for a while (in large part due to Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown’s concerns that it would spend a lot of Spokane’s money while Spokane would hold very few board seats), but a formal regional collaborative effort could be back on the table. 

Spokane Valley’s agenda includes information on a potential “Interlocal agreement for a collective regional effort centered on the 5-year plan to end homelessness.” Under this proposal, Spokane City, Spokane Valley and Spokane County would have regular joint meetings, shared data collection, a joint Point-in-Time count to estimate the region’s homeless population and a coordinated inclement weather response. 

We have to wonder, would this level of regional collaboration be enough to satisfy critics like Spokane Business Association’s Gavin Cooley so he can stop walking at 5 am every morning?

Agenda here when available
Tuesday, February 4 at 6 pm
City Hall
10210 E Sprague Ave
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
Virtual attendance here.