Spokane City Council considers COPS funding and accountability
Community Oriented Policing Services – or COPS – is under scrutiny over questions about how its money is spent.
The private nonprofit organization is not a branch of law enforcement. It is staffed by volunteers. But at a press conference Friday, council member Jonathan Bingle said the group builds trust in communities and supports law enforcement by offering services such as fingerprinting, neighborhood patrols and safety workshops.
“These are the kinds of activities that make a tangible difference in people's lives,” Bingle said. “They make our neighborhoods safer, our police officers more effective, and our community more connected.”
Fellow council member Michal Cathcart said the services COPS offers allow Spokane’s police department to focus on more pressing concerns.
“I can guarantee you our officers do not have the time or ability — nor should we put that on them — to be doing these things,” he said. “That is why programs like this exist. We cannot allow [COPS] to go away. It is too important.”
Cathcart’s city council colleagues and Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown say they support community policing efforts. But they point out that COPS receives more than $450,000 from the city with no competitive bid process. Brown said Friday she wants more clarity about how the organization spends city dollars and how it measures its success.
“Our desire for community policing, as well as our profound appreciation for volunteers who assist in those efforts remains, but it must be done through responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and borne out by data,” Brown said in a statement.
Council president Betsy Wilkerson said she believes tonight’s meeting will produce some funding to keep COPS going in the new year.
“There is money to fund COPS over the biennium. Won't be to the exact level it is now, but there is money in there for that,” she said.
The council will consider different proposals that would fund COPS for three months, four months or two years. A resolution on the agenda also calls for Mayor Brown and Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall to study how COPS fits in with a long-term policing strategy for the city.
WA lawmakers plan housing focus in 2025 legislative session
Members of both parties agree the state needs to find ways to encourage the building of more housing units, particularly people with middle and low incomes.
During a legislative forum last week sponsored by Greater Spokane, Sen. Shelly Short (R-Addy) urged Democrats to be open to two ideas. She said the state should be more willing to allow counties to extend their urban growth boundaries to free up more land for housing.
She said the state should also ease up on regulations that require the use of green building materials and energy sources.
“As a legislative body, we’ve got to be really cognizant, even of the things that we want," she said. "Some of the green standards, some of the things that, while they are good, they add tremendous cost. I continue to caution folks that I serve with that we need to be careful with that.”
Rep. Larry Springer (D-Kirkland) told attendees that the state needs a million new places to live. He says most of that will come in urban areas and predicts that will lead to struggles over zoning and land use in many cities.
New executive orders to make state employment more equitable
State employment in Washington will be getting more accessible to a variety of applicants.
That’s the aim of two executive orders signed by outgoing Governor Jay Inslee last week.
One eliminated the requirement of a relevant degree, ordering that hiring committees focus more on an applicant’s professional body of work.
Executive Order 24-04 is meant to discourage both arbitrary degree requirements and experiential requirements that could act as degree requirements in practice.
"This is a complete overhaul of how the state will hire. Skills-based hiring means new processes and new recruiter behaviors," said Michaela Doelman, the state’s Chief Human Resources Officer, in a Medium post. "It means thinking outside the box of our past practices. In the end, new state employees will be hired based on their proven skills that will help them make an impact."
The other set new goals for state agencies to hire more workers with disabilities.
Inslee’s executive order 24-05 challenged the departments to meet a five percent minimum of employees with disabilities in their workforces.
The order also directs agencies to make the necessary changes so they can accommodate, retain, and promote the people with disabilities they employ.
"What this order will do is dare state people to reach out and maybe hire someone who doesn’t look like them," Larry Watkinson, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance manager for the state Department of Licensing, said in the same post. "It takes perception out of it a little bit — and perception may not always be the sign of how effective someone can be. People with disabilities can contribute."
WA ’25 legislature may be most diverse in state history
Come January, the Washington Senate will seat at least nine new members out of 49, including Spokane Democrat Marcus Riccelli. The House will have 17 new members out of 98, including a dozen on the Republican side.
The demographics are changing too.
“It’s definitely turning younger, I think, both in the House and Senate," said Rep. Chris Corry (R-Yakima).
"You’re starting to see some fresh new ideas and challenges, so it’s going to be fun. It’ll be interesting. We’ve had a lot more discussions about what it means to be a citizen legislature with family, which I think is important because I have four kids. I want to get home as much as possible.”
Corry spoke last week at a legislative forum sponsored by Greater Spokane, as did Rep. Larry Springer (D-Kirkland), who noted the House Democrats have become much more ethnically diverse.
“They have no reticence to let us know what the impact of the legislation somebody’s introducing has on some disadvantaged community or low-income community that maybe those of us who live in Kirkland don’t always recognize. It’s been an invaluable influence that makes for better legislation," he said.
The Washington legislature will convene January 13. Its session is scheduled to last 105 days.
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Reporting was contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Doug Nadvornick and Owen Henderson.