Jonathan Brunt

Fresh off the Spokane City Council’s decision to raise water rates for next year, Spokane mayoral candidate David Condon released a new commercial this week attacking that decision. The ad so far is running only on YouTube, but he said it likely will hit TV airwaves as the election draws closer.

Truth test: Condon's new ad on water rates

State officials have incorrectly charged Spokane’s new $20 tab tax to the owners of small, utility-type trailers. The state Department of Licensing incorrectly included single-axle trailers weighing less than 2,000 pounds when selecting vehicles that would be subject to the new tax, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Wednesday.

State officials have incorrectly charged Spokane’s new $20 tab tax to the owners of small trailers. County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Wednesday that the state Department of Licensing incorrectly included trailers weighing less than $2,000 pounds when selecting vehicles that would be subject to the new tax. The Spokane City Council in February approved the $20 fee that began appearing on vehicle tab bills this month.

City hires attorney to fight lawsuit filed by detective

The bleak economic picture in the state likely will make the Spokane City Council’s job of balancing the 2012 budget harder by about $1 million, the city’s budget director told the council on Thursday. But not all the news was bad at a council budget briefing. Budget Director Tim Dunivant said better-than-expected sales tax revenues will help carry the city through 2011 without the need for additional cuts. Through August, the city collected $13.6 million in sales taxes, about $1 million more than expected.

City budget picture offers good and bad news

Efforts to expand the Spokane police ombudsman’s authority to conduct independent investigations into alleged officer misconduct have suffered another blow. The state Public Employment Relations Commission has not only rejected a request from the City Council to consider overturning an arbitrator’s decision blocking the expansion; it sent a letter highly critical of Spokane’s legal strategy, noting it was the city that opted for arbitration rather than a commission review.

The average bill for indoor residential water in Spokane will increase about 4 percent next year after weeks of debate among city leaders – but the rate will spike much higher for big water users. Under the final version approved Monday night in a 4-3 vote, the council opted to increase the base fee paid by all residential water users no matter how much they use by 25 cents a month – about 2 percent. Water consumption fees will increase by 16 percent.

Organizers of the annual march targeted by a racist wannabe bomber say Spokane can’t forget about what happened just because the defendant pleaded guilty. “This is one of the symptoms that is trying to send us a message that we as a community have some work to do,” said Ivan Bush, co-director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee. “I’m not just talking about segments of the community. We need to have some tough conversations and a plan of action of how we’re going to heal.”

The director of Spokane’s East Central Community Center has resigned following disclosures that she allowed a city employee to draw bigger paychecks than she was due by improperly claiming more hours than she’d actually worked. Diane Jackson had led the center for nearly two decades. The employee, Sonya Ellis, had been there since 2004 and at one point may have been in charge of payroll.

Mayor responds to Condon's criticism of Verner's handling of Zehm case

Spokane mayoral challenger David Condon today called the city’s handling of the Otto Zehm case “an indictment” on city government, and called for greater police oversight as well as at least one dismissal from the city attorney’s office.

A 20-year-old woman was shot multiple times and killed Saturday night at a two-story, four-unit apartment building in Spokane County, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office reported. Investigators believe the killer was her neighbor, a 26-year-old man who was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound early Sunday in the ground-floor unit next door, Detective David Thornburg said in a news release.

The man who led the Spokane Park Board in two years of major changes, big park upgrades and turmoil is leaving his seat this month. Gary Lawton, whose term ends this year, was the Park Board president in 2008 and 2009. In that time, the Park Board pushed park staff to quickly plan, design and build six new swimming pools and other new park infrastructure approved by voters in 2007.