Mike Prager

Spokane City Council members today are expected to consider a $299,000 settlement with Tim Connor, Camas Magazine and its publishers for failure to disclose public documents related to a failed River Park Square parking garage deal in the 1990s. The council rejected a $350,000 settlement offer in August but is now poised to approve the smaller settlement, in part because attorney costs have increased the potential loss to the city.

Spokane City Council members on Monday agreed to forgive $256,000 in interest and penalties on publicly financed improvements for a stalled housing project in the Qualchan Hills area. The council accepted a plan in which the developer would refinance the improvements through a conventional bank loan, in exchange for the reduced interest and penalties, while the city would avoid a protracted foreclosure in which the property likely would fall idle for several years.

The city of Spokane is seeking to sell parcels of property declared surplus Monday by the Spokane City Council. The properties are located throughout the city and were acquired mostly to allow for street projects and other public improvements, the majority of which have been completed.

Five Spokane residences were approved for listing on the Spokane Register of Historic Places on Monday. Four homes at 1125, 1201, 1204 and 1210 South Adams Street were approved as the Booge's Addition Spokane Register Historic District.

A newly appointed mayoral committee on Thursday began sorting through the tough issues involved in turning Joe Albi Stadium and its grounds into a regional athletic center. Mayor Dennis Hession on Wednesday announced the formation of the six-member committee to oversee the planning. The mayor also named a larger advisory group of at least 10 representatives of sports, real estate, youth group and neighborhood interests.

Neighborhood leaders in northeast Spokane asked the City Council to support them in their efforts to rid residential areas of drug houses, slow speeding traffic and make improvements to the area's parks. Council members listened to a series of reports during their annual town hall meeting Monday at the Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St.

A year ago, Spokane city benefits managers discovered an oversight that was potentially costing their employees and taxpayers thousands of dollars annually in higher fees for retirement accounts. With approval of the City Council, they hired a $45,000-a-year Portland consultant who successfully negotiated fee reductions from two private firms worth at least $300,000 a year and possibly more.

The state Department of Ecology on Tuesday announced an $8,000 fine against the city of Spokane for an unauthorized discharge of sewage into the Spokane River in early July. The spill was first noticed July 9 by a fisherman, who reported it July 11.

Spokane City Council members voted unanimously Monday in favor of a ballot measure that could streamline the process for recalling city officials. If approved by voters this November, the city charter amendment would allow future councils to subject an elected leader to a recall vote for a violation that constitutes moral turpitude.

Spokane City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin has withdrawn her endorsement of sheriff candidate Cal Walker, saying she never intended to have her name used on campaign materials even though she was one of 48 GOP precinct committee members who voted in favor of Walker over Ozzie Knezovich and one other candidate. McLaughlin's name appeared on Walker's campaign Web site and on other printed materials.

Spokane City Council members were divided 5-2 in a Monday vote on what normally would have been a routine approval for setting a public hearing on an alley improvement project. Council members Bob Apple and Nancy McLaughlin voted against the formation hearing for an alley project between Nebraska and Rowan avenues from Morton to Perry streets.

Spokane City Council members voted 6-1 on Monday to affirm a hearing examiner decision approving a 371-lot development in southwest Spokane. But the council did not give Meadow Point Landing a full go-ahead.

A year after Spokane City Councilman Brad Stark held a fundraiser to retire a 2003 campaign debt, he has yet to submit campaign donation reports required by the state. He admits he made a mistake, but says he received confusing information from staff at the state Public Disclosure Commission about how to report the receipts.

Elected Spokane city officials who violate a new city ethics code could find themselves facing voters in a recall election if five out of seven City Council members agree. A proposal to create a Spokane city recall process is among reforms resulting from last year's protracted but successful effort by voters to oust Mayor Jim West.

Residents living near Comstock Pool on the South Side are organizing opposition to a citizen committee recommendation that Comstock be closed and replaced by a new water park-style pool at Thornton Murphy Park. Last week, members of the Comstock Pool Preservation Group, gathered about 700 signatures on a petition opposing the committee recommendation.

The city of Spokane faces the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for its refusal years ago to release public records associated with its failed involvement in River Park Square's expansion in the late 1990s. An independent journalist and online magazine are seeking damages, plus attorney fees, against the city in a long-running fight that has gone from Spokane County Superior Court to the state Supreme Court and back.

A small industrial property at 2428 E. Riverside Ave. is being purchased by the city of Spokane to create additional office and training area for the Spokane Service Team, which operates a job-training program through Educational Service District 101. Spokane City Council members approved a purchase agreement for the property Monday. The plan is to add it to an adjacent building at 2424 E. Riverside, already owned by the city and leased to the Service Team.

Spokane City Council members Monday voted unanimously to end a five-year legal battle with three neighborhood sex shops through an agreement that gets the shops to comply with limits on the sale of explicit material in neighborhood and office zones. The council said that constitutional free speech protections prevent them from getting tougher on neighborhood sex shops.

Storm damage to one of Spokane's sewer overflow pipes in the West Central Neighborhood is going to be repaired under a $65,160 contract with Eller Corp. The Spokane City Council approved the contract Monday night. It involves repairing approximately 300 feet of 90-year-old pipe in the vicinity of Summit Boulevard and Sherwood Street.

Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession and his top staff are asking City Council members to spend $260,000 this year to hire a California management consultant to help turn around the city's ongoing budget troubles. Voters last year approved a two-year property tax increase to avoid a repeat of cuts to police, fire, libraries and other city tax services in 2004 and 2005. When the tax expires at the end of 2007, the city is facing a predicted shortfall of $12 million, or about 10 percent of its general tax fund in 2008.

Spokane City Council members, in a 6-1 vote Monday, said "no" to a request that the city reimburse more than 80 retired police officers for medical insurance premiums they are paying under Part B Medicare insurance starting at age 65. Through the city's Police Pension Board, the retirees asked the council to reimburse their $88.50 monthly premiums, which would have cost the city an estimated $90,000 a year.