COPS to keep city funding — for now
The council voted unanimously Monday night to extend funding to the Spokane Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) for now.
Instead of their usual $400 thousand a year, COPS is getting $125 thousand of bridge funding for the next three months.
The vote came after more than an hour of testimony, much of it from volunteers and supporters of the program.
"The support I received was tangible, backed with kindness, sensitivity and focus to my specific needs," said a woman who identified herself as Janet during the public comment period. "COPS shops are the best option at fulfilling that bridge to the public, enhancing and supplementing the trust that is required to enforce the law equitably."
Councilmember Michael Cathcart said he doesn't believe there's another program in town that can do what COPS does.
But council members like Kitty Klitzke said while they support and value the program, they believe it should participate in a competitive bid process to win city support.
"I think we do need to own: We haven’t been doing this contract right for quite a while, and we do need to make it fair," Klitzke said on the dais. "And we do need to treat all nonprofits equally."
Klitzke also pointed out that COPS gets all of its funding from the city — whereas other similar nonprofits often have a variety of revenue sources.
Right now, COPS is considered a "sole source" to provide police support services.
At the meeting, the council also passed a budget for the next two years, and Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown is celebrating.
In a statement, Brown thanked city workers and council members for making sacrifices and finding compromises to create a balanced budget.
"This budget is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together and focus on the greater good of our community," she wrote.
Under the spending plan, Spokane will relaunch the Neighborhood Resource Officer program, reinstate the Fire Academy and more than double funding for inclement weather sheltering.
Spokane City Council to keep meetings on Monday in 2025
The Spokane City Council has pulled back on a proposal to change its weekly meeting night from Monday to Tuesday.
That was one part of a package of new rules the council adopted for 2025.
Among the other provisions: members voted to allow public testimony at council committee meetings for the first time. They agreed to allow the public to provide written testimony through a new city email account, testimony@Spokanecity.org. They also voted to keep their rules allowing the public three minutes to testify at council meetings.
Many of the changes are amendments to the council’s original proposal. Members adopted them before the council’s legislative meeting on Monday night. Councilmember Jonathan Bingle says they make the body more responsible to the public.
“We think it’s important that your voice is heard and so I think that the changes that happened today are really representative of the majority view of the city that while I might not like what you have to say, you have a right to say it and it should be heard," he said. "I thank this council for getting to that position and allowing for dissenting voices to be heard.”
The council voted to spend 2025 studying the potential ramifications of moving its meetings to Tuesday night.
The changes are scheduled to take effect February 1.
Inland NW LGBTQ+ groups coordinate ahead of Trump presidency
LGBTQ+ community leaders and advocates are working to bring together different parts of the Inland Northwest’s queer community in preparation for the incoming Trump Administration.
Leaders from groups including Spectrum, the North Idaho Pride Alliance, and the Spokane AIDS Network met over the weekend to reopen channels of communication between their organizations.
Trump’s allies have suggested trimming programs such as HIV research and treatment.
With that in mind, Matthew Danielson from Spokane Pride says queer community members will have to step up and be there for each other —instead of separating into their own bubbles.
“I do think we need to be intentional about coordinating these communities, these different parts of the queer community, sharing resources a bunch because, I mean, gosh, the nonprofit we partnered with for the Pride Center, a lot of their funding was specifically named in Project 2025 to be potentially cut,” he said.
For now, the groups are cataloguing their resources and laying the groundwork for future collaboration after Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Danielson, who helped organize the meeting, said they'd made a good first step.
"You can't fight against something that you don't know is happening yet. We don't know what exactly everything is going to look like," Danielson said. "So I just think that that line of communication being way more open now is going to be super valuable."
Group leaders also met with Vanessa Waldref, the U.S. Attorney for eastern Washington, to discuss reporting bias-motivated crimes and how to navigate the legal landscape under the incoming administration.
WA transportation budget may be thinner in coming years
Washington lawmakers who write the state’s transportation budget will likely have fewer dollars to allocate to projects such as Spokane’s North-South Freeway during the next several years.
Dave Reich, of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, told members of the House Transportation Committee Monday that Washington’s heavy reliance on the fuel tax is to blame.
“We think gas consumption will be declining going forward," Reich said. "So far, for fiscal year 2025, we have five months' worth of data. Gasoline consumption is down about 5%, which is more than we expected. So, it’s dropping and has been dropping for a while.”
He says drivers are logging fewer miles and using more fuel-efficient vehicles.
On the plus side, Reich expects revenues from the state’s electric vehicle registration tax to increase over the next decade as more people go electric.
WA building industry group sues over natural gas initiative
A group representing Washington’s construction industry is suing the state Building Codes Council over a voter initiative approved last month.
The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) championed I-2066, which repeals any state or local laws that bar or discourage natural gas use in homes and businesses. The organization demanded the state building codes council change energy codes to reflect the initiative’s passage.
But shortly after 2066 was approved, opponents said they planned to sue in state court to invalidate the measure. They say it violated the state constitution’s “single subject” provision.
The building codes council was caught in the middle. Last month, the group decided to gather more information before making a decision.
That angered the BIAW. They’ve gone to court themselves to force the codes council to update energy rules, filing suit in Thurston County Superior Court.
The group is also going around the council, appealing directly to city and county prosecutors to enforce the initiative.
A court hearing in BIAW’s complaint is scheduled for April 2025.
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Reporting was contributed by Owen Henderson, Doug Nadvornick, and Brandon Hollingsworth.