Plan to move Spokane addiction treatment center nixed
Public and political opposition ended a plan to move Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT) to the Chief Garry neighborhood, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown’s office said Thursday.
Last month, the mayor’s office asked the city council to approve a plan to move CAT as part of the Brown administration’s effort to de-centralize homelessness services. CAT is currently located near the intersection of Division St. and 2nd Ave., an area business owners and some elected officials have said is a nexus for crime and drug use. The move would have been supported by $1.8 million dollars in unspent federal pandemic relief aid money.
Moving CAT to the Chief Garry neighborhood drew quick opposition from a neighborhood group and from city council member Michael Cathcart, whose district includes Chief Garry. At a committee meeting Monday, Cathcart criticized how the proposal was handled and questioned why CAT’s new home was to be Chief Garry.
“Where is the [request for proposals]?” he asked Housing and Human Services Director Dawn Kinder. “Where is the list of properties that have been looked at other than just properties in northeast Spokane? It seems to be that this is always the targeted area. It’s the place that is easy to put hard-to-place services, so we do it.”
Cathcart’s District 1 colleague, Jonathan Bingle, agreed, calling the CAT proposal “too great a burden for this neighborhood and our district to bear.”
Brown did not single out critics in the press release announcing the abandonment of the CAT move, but she expressed frustration that opposition keeps derailing plans to change Spokane’s homeless shelter and support system.
“Every day, I hear calls for increased services and treatment options for members of our community who struggle with addiction,” Brown said in a statement. “But there are vocal critics who will never be satisfied with efforts to make those needed changes. Progress, it seems, is always welcome – just as long as it’s happening somewhere else.”
Brown said she would stick to her overarching goal of de-centralizing homelessness services in Spokane. The $1.8 million tagged for the CAT move will instead be put into scattered site shelters. Those are limited-capacity shelters that would be more broadly distributed across the city.
Brown and Wilkerson propose ten-year limit for public safety levy
Spokane officials are making changes to a November ballot measure intended to raise money for public safety.
Mayor Lisa Brown said she and City Council President Betsy Wilkerson agreed to put a 10-year deadline on collecting the one-tenth-of-a-cent sales tax. She said they also agreed the tax money would be routed to a community safety fund. That money could be spent only on public safety projects.
“We’ve heard legitimate questions about how do we know for sure this will go for community safety and what happens down the road,” Brown told SPR News.
Brown said the city estimates Proposition 1, if passed, would raise about $7.7 million annually. The city would keep 85 percent of the revenue, and pass along 15 percent to Spokane County.
Advocacy group wants voters to keep WA climate law
Supporters of Washington's Climate Commitment Act are trying to convince the state’s voters not to repeal the program this fall.
The act creates specific cap on emissions. If polluters go beyond those levels, they have to purchase allowances through quarterly auctions. The money raised is spent on various environmental projects around the state.
An initiative on November ballots asks voters whether or not the act should be rescinded. The law’s critics say it makes fuel more expensive and won’t do much to stanch climate change. Last month, in response to complaints, the state launched a rebate program for farmers who believe they had to pay fuel surcharges that should have been exempt under the climate act.
But Michael Mann of the Clean and Prosperous Institute says he thinks Washingtonians will support the act if they know what it’s paying for.
“It's really important to defend and we think part of that defense is showing people the investments that are happening in communities across the state. Helping communities save energy and save money, and transition to a cleaner environment,” Mann said.
The institute created an online map showing Climate Commitment Act investments.
In Spokane County, $65 million has already been approved for projects, including air monitoring stations, 70 electric vehicle charging stations, and grants to the Spokane Transit Authority. Money for wildfire reforestation projects and school district air quality and transportation programs could soon follow.
Pac-12 is now Pac-6
The Pac-12 athletic conference is expanding. The league, which currently only has two members, said it voted to add four more institutions.
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould announced Thursday that the league’s board of directors agreed to admit Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State universities to the conference. They’ll join in two years, in time for the 2026-27 academic year.
The four are currently members of the Mountain West Conference, which had been viewed as a potential home for Washington State and Oregon State after ten of the Pac-12 member schools bolted this year for other leagues.
This football season, WSU and Oregon State are each playing eight teams from the Mountain West, but a deadline to set next season’s schedule recently passed without an agreement.
According to ESPN, the four departing Mountain West schools have financial penalties to pay for leaving the league and the Pac-12 would be required to pay millions for poaching from the other league. WSU and Oregon State have tens of millions of Pac-12 assets they could draw upon to pay those penalties.
The Pac-6 is required to have eight members by next year in order to be recognized as a conference by the governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Gould says the six will decide together which other universities to approach for membership.
Boeing machinists walk off the job
Tens of thousands of Boeing employees are on strike today. This comes after months of talks between the company and the machinists union.
The announcement was made loud and clear late Thursday night: “We strike at midnight.”
Thirty-three thousand unionized workers rejected a proposed contract from Boeing, and approved a strike almost unanimously.
“We lost our pension in 2014 and we shouldn't have. The way that it went down was unfair. We didn't want that,” said Tara, a quality inspector who voted for strike. She didn’t share her last name out of concern of retaliation.
Boeing has been negotiating with the union on this contract since March. This strike alleges unfair labor practices by the company, including discrimination against union members.
It isn’t clear how long the strike might last, but on Thursday night people were assembling burn barrels to keep warm on the picket line during cold nights.
More climate grants fund projects across the state
Thirty-seven million dollars across two sets of grants to boost clean energy construction and innovation are going out to cities across Washington.
One grant focuses on research and development for new technologies, while the other funds projects that are focused on updating the energy grid and promoting community resilience.
Eastern Washington University in Cheney is getting over $2 million between two grants. One will implement a pilot program of a carbon capture system. The other is for planning and pre-development of a solar project on campus.
Methow Valley United Methodist Church in Twisp is also getting some money, with the state sending close to $700,000 for a solar project paired with battery energy storage meant to power a community resilience hub.
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Reporting was contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Doug Nadvornick, Steve Jackson , Casey Martin and Owen Henderson.