Spokane County Commission Chairman Mark Richard says he'll proudly carry a year-old mental health tax into his 2008 re-election campaign. He and Commissioners Todd Mielke and Bonnie Mager planned to announce at a news conference today that a 1 percent local sales tax for county mental health programs paid big dividends in its first year.
County commissioners generally prefer to collect constituents' taxes, not pay them. But they voted unanimously Tuesday to pay a company's delinquent property taxes. There was no generosity in the act, nor any illegal gift of public money, according to the commissioners' attorney, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio.
County commissioners put off a decision this week on designing a new jailhouse courtroom that officials say is needed for a growing number of preliminary hearings in criminal cases. "It's clear that there's a need," Commissioner Mark Richard said, but he worried about spending perhaps $500,000 to remodel a jail whose future is uncertain.
Mandatory sewer hookup notices may be mailed in January to residents of Spokane Valley and suburban portions of Spokane County for the first time in more than three years. County commissioners informally agreed with the proposal by Utilities Director Bruce Rawls, subject to assurances later this year that plans for a new sewage treatment plant are on schedule.
A Spokane startup company that wants to build a military-style training camp failed Tuesday to win special zoning help from county commissioners. Condition 1 LLC's plea for rushed zoning approval got something closer to the bum's rush from Commissioner Bonnie Mager.
Secondhand shops would have to join pawnbrokers in reporting transactions to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office under a proposed ordinance aimed at combating theft. Technically, secondhand dealers already are required by state law and county ordinance to tell the Sheriff's Office about goods they acquire from people who come to their shops. But there has been no enforcement.
Spokane County commissioners have scheduled public hearings Tuesday on two traffic proposals that would affect north county residents. One would ban parking on Carlson Road between Riverside State Park and Charles Road in the Nine Mile Falls area.
Qwest may have collected too much sales tax from telephone customers throughout Washington, if not the company's entire 14-state territory, according to documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review. The telephone giant relies on tax information from a Pennsylvania company whose software reports only the highest sales tax rate in a county. But Spokane County and many others have more than one sales tax rate.
Thousands of Qwest long-distance customers in Spokane County will be getting refunds for utility taxes they didn't owe, and the state Utilities and Transportation Commission wants to know why. The short answer is that Spokane County budget analyst Margaret Smith didn't pass the buck when a county resident called her last July with a question.
Spokane County commissioners should fix a zone change they recently acknowledged was granted without the necessary public review, according to a formal complaint. The Neighborhood Alliance of Spokane and Tina Wynecoop, who lives in the vicinity of the zone change, have petitioned the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board to force commissioners to act.
With the number of Spokane County inmates continuing to swell, sheriff's officials are proposing two housing options until a bigger jail can be built. Sheriff's Lt. Mike Sparber, head of the sheriff's jail expansion committee, told Spokane County commissioners Tuesday that the proposals are needed because there is no certainty voters will pass a jail construction bond measure and because a new jail would take five years to build.
Don't give up hope, developer Jim Frank said Monday to Otis Orchards residents who don't want their semirural area developed. Frank told about 65 people who gathered in a muggy, poorly air-conditioned meeting room at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District office that several powerful factors suggest Otis Orchards is primed for urban development in the future.
Most Spokane County residents will receive tax assessment notifications in today's mail. Look for a postcard, not a letter, unless you own more than one piece of real estate, Assessor Ralph Baker advised.
Spokane County commissioners may use tax money to pay the delinquent taxes on a solvent-soaked West Plains property they don't want to acquire through foreclosure. Ordinarily, that might be considered an illegal gift of public money. In this case, though, the commissioners' attorney, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio, thinks the county would be getting a good return on its money.
Owners of a popular Colbert restaurant have sued Spokane County for what they say were flip-flop land use decisions that put them out of business and cost them more than a half-million dollars. Shawn and Theresa Gabel contend county Building and Planning Department officials changed their minds after granting a string of construction permits that allowed the Gabels to turn the old McGlade's Treemendous Fruits stand at the corner of Yale and Day-Mt. Spokane roads into a McGlade's Market, a fashionable sit-down restaurant with a small organic food market.
Suburban and rural Spokane County residents will be able to fill up only half of their front yards with cars under an ordinance scheduled for final action Tuesday by county commissioners. The ordinance will take effect immediately if confirmed by commissioners, who gave oral approval on May 8.
A 700-acre commercial and residential development at Liberty Lake, advancing under the banner of economic development, looks like "the attack of the real estate developers" to Otis Orchards resident Edward Hojnowski. "They want us to pay for it, and they walk away with a profit," Hojnowski told Spokane County commissioners.
County Commissioner Mark Richard lashed out Tuesday at planners who failed to report that there was a solid argument in favor of allowing a young couple to build a home in an airport crash zone. "Why is this new information?" Richard demanded after discovering that the land where Evan and Tabitha Babin want to build a house wouldn't be in a crash zone under new federal and state airport guidelines.
Spokane County officials hope to speed up their relatively slow-playing Liberty Lake Golf Course. County commissioners on Tuesday approved a staff recommendation to ask Phelps-Atkinson Golf Course Design of Evergreen, Colo., to develop a renovation plan for the course.
Spokane County commissioners voted Tuesday night not to rush into a proposal, which critics said was reminiscent of a blunder last summer that jeopardized Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base. They chose to wait a week before deciding whether to peel back the bandage they applied last month to a zoning wound that allowed a 207-unit residential subdivision in a Spokane International Airport crash zone and a 156-unit apartment complex near Fairchild Air Force Base.
Ron Oscarson doesn't have the Einstein hair or Doc's bulging eyes but he has gone back to the day lightning struck the courthouse. Oscarson also lacked the time-traveling DeLorean of "Back to the Future," so he used a high-flying copper ball. A sort of time capsule, actually, but not the typical box under a cornerstone.
With a record 590 inmates, the Geiger Corrections Center was too understaffed Monday to accommodate the 30 Spokane County Jail prisoners officials wanted to transfer. The previous high was approximately 550 last summer. The maximum capacity is 610.
The check is not in the mail. That's the word for any Spokane County sewer customers who may have expected a refund when city of Spokane officials recently agreed to forgive some $800,000 in utility taxes.
Spokane County commissioners gave their blessing Tuesday to a tax increment financing district that would subsidize the 80-acre Kendall Yards housing and commercial development near the county courthouse. Commissioner Bonnie Mager dissented, however. She wanted more time for study and negotiations and felt she was being rushed to accommodate a groundbreaking ceremony next Wednesday.
Spokane County commissioners gave their building and planning director a "letter of correction" Tuesday for authorizing a day-care center in an airport crash zone, granting a zone change by redrawing a map and failing to deal with subordinates' questionable conduct. The two-page letter directed department head Jim Manson to address problems identified in planner Bruce Hunt's "whistle-blower" complaint and report back to commissioners.
