Jonathan Brunt

As city leaders craft plans to lay off dozens of employees to meet an expected shortfall in next year’s budget, they decided Tuesday to create a new high-paying job responsible for overseeing ideas to save money. The Spokane City Council approved the position – at a cost of about $120,000 a year in pay and benefits – that will promote government efficiency based on Lean Six Sigma, a business-efficiency program popularized by General Electric and other companies.

The Spokane City Council on Tuesday agreed to pay up to $200,000 to defend the city in a lawsuit resulting from the death of Otto Zehm, who died in police custody in 2006. Council members said they agreed to the resolution because they must defend city employees.

Two weeks after its controversial decision to start charging kids to swim, the Spokane Park Board approved discount passes that will make charges cheaper for frequent pool users. Kids ages 4 through 17 will be charged $15 for a pass for 2009. Adults will be charged $30. Whole families can swim all summer for $75.

A fixture of Spokane City Council meetings and frequent critic of city government praised police officers Sunday afternoon after he was robbed and the suspects were apprehended. Hank Valder, who often testifies at the council’s Monday meetings, was attacked just outside the Divine’s 76 station at Second Avenue and Walnut Street about 2:10 p.m.

A fixture of Spokane City Council meetings and frequent critic of city government praised police officers Sunday afternoon after he was robbed and the suspects were apprehended.

Spokane-area sewer customers soon can flush their way to savings. County and city officials this summer will unveil programs that will provide $100 rebates to buy new water-efficient toilets and washers.

Connoisseurs of super-green lawns in Spokane can relax – the water police will not be out this summer.

Bus riders won’t be left standing after all. Spokane Mayor Mary Verner relented this week in her demand for all bus benches with ads to be removed by next Tuesday.

More than two years after former Mayor Dennis Hession announced support for a new job to oversee police actions, city leaders on Monday announced the top candidates to become Spokane’s first police ombudsman. They are: Tony Betz, a retired FBI official now serving as an instructor at Texas A&M University; Tim Burns, neighborhood preservation officer for the city of Visalia, Calif., and a retired police officer; and Greg Weber, a Spokane attorney and former deputy director of the Washington attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The cost of local business licenses would almost double under a proposal being circulated around Spokane City Hall as a way to help balance the city’s 2010 budget. The concept, part of a long list of ideas presented to the City Council earlier this spring, would increase base fees from $60 to $100, double the amount businesses pay for each of their employees and require at least some nonprofit organizations to pay the license fees.

The cost of local business licenses would almost double under a proposal being circulated around Spokane City Hall as a way of helping balance the city’s 2010 budget.

Spokane’s long history of free swimming for kids is over. The Spokane Park Board on Thursday voted to impose a fee of $1 a visit on swimmers younger than 18, just in time for its six new pools to open this summer. Adult prices will remain at $2.

Spokane's long history of free swimming for kids is over. The Spokane Park Board on Thursday voted to impose a $1 per visit fee on swimmers younger than 18, just in time for its six new pools to open this summer. Adult prices will remain unchanged at $2.

The Spokane City Council on Monday gave a lukewarm endorsement to ideas designed to help combat climate change. The council’s approval was so reluctant that it added an amendment to the document that stressed the action was only to “accept” the report, which was drafted by the 13-member Sustainability Task Force formed last year by Mayor Mary Verner.

Many Spokane streets would have more room for bikes under a plan that soon will be considered by the Spokane City Council. “We talk about being more bike- and pedestrian-friendly as a community,” said Councilman Mike Allen. “This is really the first step if we’re going to be committed to it.”

To Willie H. Richey, charging swim fees in public pools wasn’t the way to solve park budget shortfalls. “Let us not get too shortsighted and slap the poor in the face,” he told the Spokane Park Board. “The poor need the pools’ use the most – and can afford it the least.”

After a two-month break, the Spokane Park Board tonight will resume consideration of a proposal to charge children to swim in public pools.

Citing fears of meddling by the United Nations and concern over increased government spending, some Spokane City Council members are opposing suggestions from a local task force that wants to help reduce this region’s dependence on foreign oil. Among the recommendations are ideas for making city vehicles more fuel-efficient, increasing recycling among residents and city workers, and supporting the use of electric vehicles. It also sets a goal for the city to acquire 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.