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:
- Last week, Mayor Lisa Brown declared an emergency in response to the federal SNAP benefit cut and the city’s tightening restrictions on public homelessness. Tonight, the Spokane City Council will vote on whether or not to ratify that declaration, and what restrictions they might put on emergency spending.
- The Finance and Administration Committee is discussing a creative local tax proposal that could put a higher tax burden on commercial surface parking lots, which occupy 30% of land downtown.
- The vast majority of Spokane County’s proposed budget is slated for “public safety,” meaning programs that support the sheriff’s office and other law enforcement.
- The city of Liberty Lake’s proposed budget dedicated $2 million to renovating the library as a new police department.
- Election Day is TOMORROW!!! Due to postal service delays, it’s too late to mail in, so be sure to get your ballot into a drop box by 8 pm Tuesday. Get all our election coverage here.
Important meetings this week:
- Spokane City Council (and Study Session)
- Finance and Administration Committee
- Community, Housing, and Human Services Board
- Spokane Human Rights Commission
- Board of County Commissioners – Briefing Session and Legislative Session
- Mead School District Board of Directors
- Spokane School District Board of Directors
- Liberty Lake City Council
Spokane City
Spokane City Council
/5 peppers
Firing power to the president
After a deferral, council is finally planning to vote on the ordinance that removes employment protections for city council staff, instead putting the sole hiring and firing authority for most staff in the hands of one person: the council president. (Individual council members will still have power to hire and fire their direct legislative assistants)
Currently, firing a staff member requires a vote of a five-council-member super majority, a protection established by former Council President Breean Beggs to ensure council staff had job security and weren’t subject to the whims of politicians. If the ordinance passes tonight, those protections would be removed, giving the council president more flexibility to make position cuts and reduce spending. But, it would also leave the entire council staff at the whim of just one person, who is up for election every four years, creating uncertainty for the eight non-legislative-assistant employees in the council office and making those jobs less attractive…