Jonathan Brunt

Spokane citizens could soon have their say on the controversy growing locally and statewide on the enforcement of marijuana laws. Citizens for a Sensible Spokane, a group that supports legalization of the drug, is collecting signatures for an initiative to make possession of marijuana by adults the city’s lowest law enforcement priority. The proposal is similar to one approved by Seattle voters in 2003.

David Condon, McMorris Rodgers staffer, declares candidacy for mayor

A series of zoning rules, many routine, have reignited the anger of opponents of the planned new Jefferson school on Spokane’s South Hill and forced Mayor Mary Verner to apologize for how the changes were shepherded through the legislative process. The Spokane City Council this week unanimously approved most of the rules, but held off on one of the most controversial ideas, an ordinance that would make it easier for elementary and junior high schools to build larger parking lots. Current city law says those schools need to obtain a variance for parking lots with more than 1  1/2 parking spaces per classroom. Spokane Public Schools officials have requested to raise the standard to 2  1/2 per classroom.

Developers of the highly anticipated Kendall Yards project violated an agreement with the city that allows the project to receive tax subsidies to build streets, sewers and other infrastructure. Greenstone Corp., which began building homes in Kendall Yards last year, constructed about $1.3 million in infrastructure projects without seeking public bids. The bid requirement was part of the 2007 deal with the City Council allowing Kendall Yards to recoup an estimated $12 million or more in property taxes collected on the land over 25 years to pay for public infrastructure.

Confident candidate says he'll win Spokane council seat

With the possibility of new rounds of negotiations in which city leaders could ask for more wage and benefit concessions, the Spokane City Council may give its union employees a pat on the back. The council on Monday will consider a nonbinding resolution stating that the city supports collective bargaining for its workers.

Spokane’s wastewater department will spend more than $300,000 to settle a claim alleging that dangerous chemicals were released into the Spokane River through city storm drains. Most of the money will be used to improve the river’s water quality.

A piece of Expo ’74 history is up for grabs. The Spokane Park Board voted unanimously Thursday to remove an unnamed sculpture by Charles W. Smith from Riverfront Park.

For the fourth straight year, Spokane leaders are forecasting a multimillion-dollar shortfall in the next annual budget. The city predicts a $6.6 million gap between expected revenues and expenses in the city’s 2012 general fund budget, Budget Director Tim Dunivant said in a briefing Wednesday to the Spokane City Council. The general fund pays for fire, police, parks, library and other services funded mostly by tax collections.

The Spokane Park Board will decide today if it will remove a sculpture created for Expo ’74 from Riverfront Park. The unnamed piece, by Charles W. Smith, has been labeled “dinosaur bone” by park staff. Park officials argue that the sculpture attracts children to play on it because it’s located in a playground although it is not an accredited piece of playground equipment. Officials said they were doubtful that it could be moved because of its condition.

Spokane’s new stricter building regulations along the Spokane River and Latah Creek remain intact after a state board rejected a challenge by the city’s former top administrator. John Pilcher, who served as Spokane’s chief operating officer under Mayor Dennis Hession, challenged the city’s new rules in the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board. The board ruled in the city’s favor in March and Pilcher did not ask for reconsideration. He could still appeal the decision in court. His attorney, Taudd Hume, said Pilcher is assessing his “legal alternatives.”

Spokane city leaders got a mixed message this week from landowners opposing stricter development rules near the Spokane International Airport. On one hand, developers argued for more freedom to build near the airport: “You’re looking at a small but dedicated group of individuals who want to see this area of Spokane developed and built in uses that are mostly compatible with the airport,” said Elizabeth Tellessen, an attorney representing Ambassadors Group, which constructed a new headquarters near the airport in 2006.

City building officials issued a series of demands Tuesday to the numerous owners of the former Ridpath Hotel complex to clean up and make safe the deteriorating Spokane landmark. Deputy building official Dan Skindzier gave the owners of nine divided parts of the Ridpath and a neighboring building at Stevens Street and First Avenue 45 days to stop all unauthorized access into the building, board over holes in floors, remove debris inside the structures, begin cleaning up graffiti on a weekly basis and comply with fire code.

Contractors who perform shoddy work or violate the law can be barred from bidding on city work for up to two years under a new law approved Monday by the Spokane City Council.  The rules, proposed by City Councilwoman Amber Waldref and backed by labor groups, also will require low bidders – the assumed winners of city contracts – to complete a questionnaire about the company’s compliance with safety, labor, environmental, discrimination and other rules. The second-lowest bidder could be selected if the city determined the lowest bidder is not “responsible.”

Several high-profile experts in combating hate will address racism, violence based on religion and similar topics at a Gonzaga University-sponsored conference this week. The Second International Conference on Hate Studies will open less than three months after a bomb was left along the route of Spokane’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march. The event, however, was planned long before the bomb incident, said Jim Mohr, president of the board of the Gonzaga University Institute for Hate Studies.