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 City Council wants to hear your opinion on who they should appoint to fill former Council Member Lili Navarrete’s vacant seat. If you’re a District 2 resident, consider going tonight to share your thoughts on what you’re looking for out of a short-term appointed representative.
- The 2025 Point-in-Time Count data is getting presented at today’s Urban Experience Committee, which will give us additional information about unhoused people living in Spokane.
- West Central is getting new infrastructure projects to make pedestrians and bicyclists safer, including bike lanes on Broadway! Learn more about the timeline and funding at the Bicycle Advisory Board.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council
- Urban Experience Committee
- Bicycle Advisory Board
- Spokane Public Library Board of Trustees
- Board of Spokane County Commissioners Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Spokane County Planning Commission
- Spokane Transit Authority Board of Directors
- Spokane Airport Board
- Spokane Valley City Council
- Liberty Lake City Council
Come to our prison reform event!
Don’t miss the Look 2 Justice symposium on the trauma-to-prison pipeline, which we’re co-hosting with L2J and the Black Rose Collective this Saturday. You’ll hear from incarcerated journalists and pastors, formerly incarcerated activists and lawyers. RSVP here.
Protesting 101
Spokane City Council
/5 peppers
Ballot committees
One nontraditional way to get involved in local democracy: writing the “For” and “Against” sections on local ballot measures for the nonpartisan Spokane County Voter’s Guide. The council is getting ready to appoint the committees for this year’s Parks Levy based on the applications they received. On the pro-Parks levy side is a bipartisan duo of former conservative Mayor David Condon and former liberal state Senator Andy Billig. On the con side is a committee of one: Dennis Flynn, a frequent commenter at city council meetings who says the word “dictate,” more frequently than perhaps anyone in the world, and is currently exploring a run for council at some point in the future.
Tonight, the council will likely vote to approve these committees, and come the end of summer, you’ll see their statements in your voter’s guide.
Thinking long-term
Spokane has something called the Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE), which is a tax credit used by the city to incentivize new affordable housing construction. The tax credit is currently given to developers of new housing who meet certain criteria, like keeping a certain percentage of newly constructed units affordable…