Former Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard will lead downtown Spokane main business group.

The Downtown Spokane Partnership announced today that Richard started this week as the organization’s new president.

In September, the partnership’s board fired then-president Mike Tedesco, who earned $95,000 a year in the position.

The Downtown Spokane Partnership contracts with the city to manage about $1 million the city collects in special taxes on downtown merchants and business owners in the city's Parking and Business Improvement Area. The group uses the money to boost security, employ cleaning crews, market downtown and make other improvements.

The City of Spokane will replace the signs it attached last month to meters in the new downtown Entertainment Parking District in an attempt clear up confusion over who can park there, and for how long.