Council awards grants

The Spokane Valley City Council faced the difficult task Tuesday of parceling out a small pot of money to local nonprofits and economic development organizations that requested many times more than what the city had to give.

All the council members turned in forms listing how much they wanted to give to which organizations. Their votes were tallied and the suggested amounts averaged to get a starting point for the discussion. Councilman Bill Gothmann distributed an allocation sheet that knocked out any organization that received three or fewer votes for funding, rounded the average amounts up or down and limited two organizations to the maximum they had requested after the averaging would have put them over the top. “I wouldn’t want to go above that,” he said.

His list included $5,000 for the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, which requested $35,000 for rugged laptops for animal control officers. Gothmann said he was in favor of taking that money and instead adding it to the allocation to Greater Spokane Inc. That company recently brought a company to Spokane Valley that will hire 150 employees.

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said that the city already has a contract with SCRAPS for animal services. “They do get donations from other sources,” she said.

“I would agree with Bill on that,” said Councilwoman Brenda Grassel. However, she also questioned why the city was giving $159,000 away to other agencies. “Is it the government’s role to get involved with nonprofits?” she said.

Gothmann said all the agencies were worthy of support. “All of these agencies do good work,” he said. “This is a tough thing.”

Councilman Dean Grafos echoed Gothmann’s sentiments. “They all have an impact on our community,” he said. “It’s all part of our city.”

Councilman Bob McCaslin said he favored sticking with the average amounts because those numbers were the will of the council. “I’ll vote no on it,” he said.

Of the 18 agencies who requested $310,000 in funding, the council voted to donate to 12 of them. Only two agencies, Valley Meals on Wheels and Project Access, received the full funding they requested.

A batch of text amendments to the Gateway Commercial Avenue and Gateway Commercial Center zones in the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan were approved by the council despite renewed protests by Dempsey on the size of wall signs. She offered a motion to allow the increase in wall signs to 25 percent but to limit it to 25 percent of whatever floor the sign is hung on, not 25 percent of the entire side of the building. Only Gothmann supported her motion, which failed.

The other amendments will change setback requirements, add certain office uses, exempt vehicle sales from setback and frontage requirements and allow more freestanding signs.

Grassel questioned why only office uses that complemented auto sales were being added. “(Auto Row) did not want that language in there,” she said.

Associate planner Lori Barlow said adding all office uses would require a change to the comprehensive plan since both zones were designed to focus on auto sales. “We were limited to what we could propose” in a text amendment, she said.

In other business, a decision by Mayor Tom Towey to name Grassel to the Spokane River TMDL (total maximum daily load) Implementation Advisory Committee generated some unexpected discussion. Committee appointments are hardly ever challenged by the council. Towey said he appointed Grassel because of her knowledge of the issues. “She’s the best person for it,” he said. “I want to thank her for stepping up.”

Gothmann said that as difficult as it was for him to say, he thought the appointment should have gone to Dempsey because Dempsey already serves on the Wastewater Policy Advisory Board. “She already has that responsibility,” he said.

Being on boards and councils is part of the job. “I think it’s unfair for only six people to have assignments for these,” he said, referring to the fact that McCaslin is not assigned to any committee jobs.

Gothmann also pointed out that it is apparently difficult for Grassel to find the time to attend such meetings, since she has only attended two of the nine Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce meetings that have been held since she was assigned to be the city’s representative at those meetings. Grassel appears to be “overloaded,” he said. “It’s obvious this is very difficult for her.”

Grassel responded that one of the scheduled Valley Chamber meetings was canceled and two others were changed to times when she wasn’t available. She made additional comments on Thursday to indicate that three of the meetings had been rescheduled, not two.

She said on Tuesday that she requested to serve on the committee because she has been attending river forum meetings and is familiar with the issues. The committee is also only expected to meet for a few months so it won’t be a long-term commitment, she said.

McCaslin also addressed Gothmann’s comments. “I’ve got two years to go as a senator, then I’ll do this full time,” he said. “I’m here to serve the public and I believe I’m doing that.”