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 the highlights:
- Spokane City Council is set to accept millions of dollars of grant funding for homelessness services, choose a new council member and approve a settlement for the family of a man killed by police in 2022.
- The Finance and Administration Committee has a bunch of important items for discussion today, but the one that caught our attention was the revival of the ordinance to ban warrantless ICE arrests at ticketed events in the public right-of-way, like street festivals.
- The Spokane County Planning Commission will host a discussion about wind energy development as part of its decades-long planning process.
- The Spokane Regional Health District Board could get a whole lot bigger: they’re planning to add a county commissioner for every tribal representative they were required to add by new state law.
- Liberty Lake City Council will host an “advisory vote” on a “Library/Community Center Project” at a special council meeting.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council
- Finance and Administration Committee
- Spokane Housing Authority Board
- Spokane County Planning Commission
- Spokane Regional Health District Board
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Central Valley School District Board of Directors
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Liberty Lake City Council
Turn your ballot in!
It’s primary season, and ballots are due August 5. If you live in Spokane City’s District 3, we’ve got a piece out that might help you make up your mind, with another one on the way, and a podcast of a recent candidate forum you can listen to here. And for everyone else in the city limits, you just have the aquifer protection tax on your ballot! Quick and easy to fill out and turn in at a ballot box near you.
Human Rights Commission to host conversation on police violence
On Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, the Spokane Human Rights Commission will host a panel on ways to improve communication between police and the community. Panelists will include Police Chief Kevin Hall, Police Ombuds Bart Logue and police accountability activists Debbie Novak, Jim Leighty and Cynthia Mannycolors. It will take place on the third floor of the Central Library. Find more details here.
Spokane City
Spokane City Council
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Housing and Homelessness funding
Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Council Member Jonathan Bingle are the dual sponsors on three housing and homelessness agenda items:
- Accepting nearly $7 million in funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to pay for 2024 housing and homelessness programs that addressed youth homelessness.
- An over $24 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce that runs from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027 to be spent on housing and homelessness services.
- A $160,000 funding recommendation for SNAP’s housing counseling program, which helps people facing foreclosure stay in their homes, and which suffered from federal funding cuts. The metrics on SNAP’s program are impressive: last year, 419 households received housing counseling assistance from them, and 362 of those were saved from foreclosure, which is a conversion rate of 86%.
New District 2 Council Member
Tonight, council will officially vote to approve the appointed replacement for former Council Member Lili Navarrete, who is now working for the city in the Community Health and Human Services (CHHS) team. Last week, there was a bit of a toss-up between two final candidates, with the council conservatives recommending Ryan Oelrich — who previously served as an appointed council member for District 2 last year — and progressives Wilkerson and Council Member Paul Dillon recommending Shelby Lambdin, the Health Equity director at CHAS. At last week’s Agenda Review session, they narrowed it down to Lambdin, and tonight they’ll have the (sort of perfunctory) final vote to confirm her. You can likely expect to see Lambdin at the dais starting after council’s summer break. She will serve until after the election results for the upcoming city council race are certified.
Settlement for Robert Bradley’s family
The police shooting of Robert Bradley — who was shot at his home in September of 2022 — has continued to be a very expensive ordeal for the city, and a very drawn out one for Bradley’s family. First, council approved a half a million dollar settlement with his fiancee, Sarah. Since then, though, the city has spent a total of $600,000 fighting a second lawsuit from Bradley’s family. Tonight, the city council plans to approve a settlement reached by the city’s insurance carrier with Bradley’s family, for a total of $3,655,000. This brings the total spent on fighting or settling lawsuits around the shooting of Bradley to over $4.5 million.
Important side note on transparency here: folks at council meetings have long complained about the lack of clarity behind when the council fights or settles a lawsuit. In this week’s agenda, they’re making it more clear: they do what their insurance company tells them to do. In the case of the $3,655,000 settlement this week, Safety National Insurance is paying the entire settlement cost, and the city is paying $222,123.21 in “self-insured retention,” — essentially, the out-of-pocket cost before insurance kicks in.
Deferred from last week:
Two items we covered in depth last week — the Human Right Commission policy review ordinance and the inclusive contracting resolution — were deferred last week and are up for a vote this week. They’re substantively the same as when we covered them here and here, but one quick note: the Human Rights Commission ordinance was in fact amended at last week’s Agenda Review session to the new draft by Dillon, which we covered last week.
Next week’s sneak peek:
- Spokane City Council is on summer vacay next week, which means the meeting will be cancelled! Spoiler alert — we might be following suit with a small break of our own
Agenda hereMonday, July 28 at 6 pmCity Council Chambers – Lower Level of City Hall 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.The meeting is also live streamed here.
Finance and Administration Committee
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