Local Government

It will soon be illegal in Spokane for an employer to ask a prospective employee if they’re homeless or reject their application solely because they do not have a permanent address.

The Spokane City Council voted 4-3 Monday to not move forward with reinstating Proposition 1, the overwhelmingly voter-approved anti-homeless camping law that the Washington Supreme Court struck down on Thursday.

Waste Management, the nation’s largest garbage collection business, on Tuesday will unveil $18 million of investments into the Spokane Materials and Recycling Technology Center, the region’s hub for recycling sorting.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels has asked county commissioners for a more than $30,000 raise after recent labor negotiations led the county’s senior law enforcement official to receive less compensation than his top-ranking subordinates.

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday overturned Spokane’s law banning homeless encampments from most of the city.

Noting a rising rate of traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Spokane, Mayor Lisa Brown, members of her cabinet and several City Council members announced a slate of initiatives aimed at making the city’s streets safer for pedestrians and drivers.

Spokane Valley voters will be asked to decide in August if they want to pay a higher sales tax to pay for more policing.

Spokane will resume a contract to dispose of abandoned or disabled RVs littering the city’s streets, picking up the slack after a pause in reimbursements from the state.

The statue of Ensign John Monaghan, who was killed in the second Samoan Civil War, likely will be moved to the Monaghan family mausoleum in Fairmount Memorial Park, closing a chapter on the yearslong debate over whether the statue should be removed from its prominent downtown Spokane location where it has stood since 1906.

When Spokane County asks voters to reauthorize the 40-year-old aquifer protection area for another 20 years, the city of Spokane will be included for the first time since 2004.

The city of Spokane has committed another $100,000 to fighting a federal lawsuit brought by pastor and former state lawmaker Matt Shea, bringing total costs with a Seattle-based law firm to $150,000.

While Washington is not among the dozens of states rolling out restrictions on transgender people and gender-affirming health care, Spokane’s city council likely will soon double up on protections for the LGBT+ community currently enshrined in state law.

The eighth city-funded homeless shelter opened last week as part of Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown’s pivot to smaller shelters dispersed throughout the city – the last of the new “scatter-site” model to debut for the time being.

Spokane’s Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, expects to enter into a much smaller contract with the city after a contentious review of the program’s services late last year – and it will receive even less than it could have after declining to work to “enhance engagement with historically marginalized communities.”

Residents in unincorporated areas of Spokane County are likely to see some changes to their monthly stormwater charges next year.

It’s not uncommon for people to express at Spokane City Council meetings that they wish it was easier to understand how the city’s government works and how to get civically engaged with their elected representatives.

Meals on Wheels board member and ubiquitous City Council meeting attendee Christopher Savage is running again for a seat on the Spokane City Council, hoping to unseat incumbent Councilman Zack Zappone.

Kate Telis, a former prosecutor who has more recently worked on the campaigns of several Spokane-area candidates, has announced she is running for Spokane City Council.

The Spokane Valley City Council Tuesday overwhelmingly shared a desire to let residents decide if they want to pay higher sales tax to support more police.