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.
SPECIAL NOTE THIS WEEK: Our reporter Erin Sellers is posting live updates about the federal conspiracy trials against the Spokane 3, which has free speech implications for all Americans. Read their first dispatch here and follow their reporting here. Now to the meetings.
Some things that stick out to us this week include:
- The city of Spokane may soon spend hundreds of thousands of extra dollars on a variety of lawsuits it’s defending from a diverse array of accusers.
- Compassionate Addiction Treatment, or CAT, may get an influx of funding over the next two years to run its emergency shelters.
- The Board of County Commissioners will accept nearly $800,000 from the federal government for local law enforcement agencies to police the FIFA World Cup events happening in Spokane in June and July.
- The Spokane Transit Authority will likely exempt itself from maintaining a public records index under a state law that says exemptions can be declared if an index would be too financially burdensome.
- The Spokane School District is looking to limit immigration enforcement at schools.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Urban Experience Committee
- Spokane Housing Authority Board
- Spokane PublicLibrary Board of Trustees
- Bicycle Advisory Board
- Spokane Ombuds Commission
- Board of County Commissioners – Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- West Valley School District Board of Directors
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Spokane Transit Authority Board of Directors
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Liberty Lake City Council
Spokane City Council
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
City dedicating hundreds of thousands to variety of lawsuits
The city is looking to hire outside legal counsel for a series of lawsuits brought against it for a range of alleged abuses from very different plaintiffs. If approved, the city will have to spend hundreds of thousands more than it had planned. Here are some the more prominent cases:
- At the end of 2024, Spokane police snipers stationed on a hill near Garland apartment complex killed Joshua Musselman, who was on the landing of his third-floor apartment. Musselman’s family is suing for wrongful death. The council wants to dedicate an additional $100,000 to fight the suit, bringing the total contract amount with Keating, Bucklin & McCormack, Inc., P.S. to $150,000.
- Worship pastor Sean Feucht sued the city in 2024 because the council had denounced then-Mayor Nadine Woodward for appearing at a 2023 concert with him and the dominionist pastor Matt Shea after Shea had compared the deadly wildfires that year with gay marriage. He claimed the city had defamed him, and the council wants to spend an additional $50,000 on Pacifica Law Group’s defense, bringing the total to $300,000.
- Matt Shea himself also sued the city over the same event, and the city wants to dedicate another $50,000 to Pacifica, bringing the total amount of that suit’s legal costs to $200,000.
- And it wants to spend an additional $350,000 on a pair of suits filed by Andrea Kernkamp and Michael Bacon who say the Spokane Fire Department violated their rights by requiring them to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The total amount the city would spend on those lawsuits would come to $785,000.
New ‘opportunity zones’ may be coming to Spokane
Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Council Member Paul Dillon are sponsoring a resolution that would recommend low-income areas of the city for a federal investment program. So-called “opportunity zones” “are federally designated areas meant to spur investment in low-income communities by providing capital gains tax benefits to investors in designated census tracts,” according to the agenda item. They are designed to bring private capital into places where there aren’t natural incentives to invest. The council has identified nine areas of the city to be eligible for the program. Here are some of them:
- The area just north of the river on the west end of Spokane, including parts of Kendall Yards.
- Parts of the Logan neighborhood.
- Much of the East Central neighborhood.
- Parts of downtown between the river and I-90.
- Parts of the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood.
- The area of the Cliff Cannon neighborhood south of I-90.
New appointment to Ombuds Commission
The council will likely vote to confirm Justin Ackerman as a commissioner on the Ombuds Commission, which governs the city’s police ombuds office.
Agenda hereMonday, May 18 at 6 pmCouncil Chambers 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane City Council Study Sessions
Agenda here when available.Thursday, May 18 at 11 amCouncil Chambers808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Urban Experience Committee (Spokane city)
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Meeting moved back an hour
The committee will meet at 1 pm, rather than noon.
CAT funding may increase by nearly $300K for next two years
Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT) may get an influx of new funding for running parts of the Scattered Site Emergency Shelter Project, bringing the total the city gives CAT for the program to $860,167. According to the amendment document, the Washington Department of Commerce is adding $63,277 for fiscal year 2026 and $573,445 for fiscal year 2027.
$60K tourism and cultural investment grant
The Tourism and Cultural Investment Committee is recommending a series of $10,000 grants for the following local programs:
- South Perry Street Fair
- Terrain 17 AND Brrrzaar
- Grainmaker Fest
- Feast Fest 2026
- Boomjam Music & Arts Festival
- Punk Rock Flea Market Spokane
Agenda hereMonday, May 18 at 12 pmCouncil Briefing Center 808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Housing Authority Board
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda hereMonday, May 18 at 3:30 pmMeeting Room at 25 W. Nora Ave, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Spokane Public Library Board of Trustees
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda hereTuesday, May 19 at 4:30 pmHillyard Library4110 N Cook St, Spokane The meeting is also live streamed here.
Bicycle Advisory Board (special meeting)
🌶️/5 peppers
Special meeting for bike facility tours
The board will tour bicycle facilities and talk about opportunities for building more facilities in the future. The tour will start at the Manito Shopping Center Parking Lot near STCU, go to Ben Burr Park and end at Republic Pi Pizza. There will be no virtual attendance and no public comment.
Agenda hereTuesday, May 19 at 5:30 pmManito Shopping Center Parking Lot810 E 29th Ave, Spokane
Spokane Ombuds Commission
🫑/5 peppers
Agenda here when availableTuesday, May 19 at 5:30 pmCouncil Briefing Center808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session
🌶️/5 peppers
HCD looking at more than $2M in funding for homelessness services
The Housing & Community Development Department is expecting to receive $2,043,372 from the state Department of Commerce to add to its homeless services portfolio, which will bring the fund up to $14,348,833.89 for the period from July 2025 to June 2027. The department is recommending the board divvy the funds up according to the following schedule:
- Emergency Shelter: $1,106,055.85
- Homelessness Prevention $465,768.47
- Transitional Housing $299,927
- Outreach $335,073
- HMIS $140,148.60
Agenda here Tuesday, May 19 at 9 amCommissioners’ Hearing Room1026 W. Broadway Ave, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
Board of Spokane County Commissioners Legislative Session
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Board to approve more than $725K for World Cup security
The FIFA World Cup is coming to Seattle in June and July — and the Spokane County sheriff is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide security. The BOCC is set to approve the funding Tuesday. The sheriff’s office received a grant of $726,158 from the Department of Homeland Security to help with security during the six matches that will take place at the Seattle Stadium during the event, which is one of the largest sporting competitions in the world. It’s not clear in the agenda material whether they’ll do security at the free Spokane watch parties or potential practices in Spokane or actually go to Seattle. But the agenda item says deputies will “support the safe execution of World Cup activities and bolster security capabilities at official FIFA-designated locations,” according to the agenda sheet.
$1M+ contract exceeds county engineer’s estimate
The county is set to award Halme Construction $1,130,394 to improve sections of Coulee Hite Road, near Deep Creek, for railroad safety. The amount far exceeds — nearly doubles — the county engineer’s estimate for the project of $656,009. The agenda does not say why the award is larger but that the Washington Department of Transportation has committed to funding the “overage.”
Board reappointments
The BOCC will likely reappoint:
- Nancy Vorhees to the Joint Spokane County & City of Spokane Airport Board.
- Colin Charbonneau to the Criminal Justice Treatment Account Panel
Agenda here Tuesday, May 19 at 2 pmCommissioners’ Hearing Room1026 W. Broadway Ave, SpokaneThe meeting is also live streamed here.
West Valley School District Board of Directors
🌶️🌶️/5 peppers
Funding school improvements
The board is holding a special meeting this afternoon to review and approve a bid for improvement projects at Orchard Center Elementary School, West Valley City School and Centennial Middle School…