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Mike Prager

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News >  Spokane

Library fate awaits council

Nearly two weeks after voters approved a property tax increase to improve Spokane city services it was unclear whether the city will have enough money to put its five neighborhood branches back on five-day-a-week schedules as suggested in the campaign to raise property taxes. Restoration of library service still hinges on City Council approval of an increase on the tax on city utilities from 17 to 20 percent.
News >  Spokane

Comcast, city forge agreement

The Spokane City Council is poised to adopt a new 12-year franchise for Comcast Cable on Monday that calls for changes in the operation and funding of noncommercial community programming and will add 19 cents a month to customer bills to help pay for the changes. The franchise agreement would maintain the area's eight public, educational and government-access channels, and would provide as much as $4 million over the life of the agreement to finance capital needs of those so-called "PEG" channels. A ninth channel could be added.
News >  Spokane

Council votes to fund appeal of ruling on court withdrawal

Spokane City Council members have reversed themselves on a legal dispute over control of the city's municipal court. The council voted 5-2 on Monday in favor of spending $25,000 to finance an appeal of an adverse ruling in the legal process required for withdrawal.
News >  Voices

Land-use funds OK’d for neighborhood groups

Spokane neighborhood groups that want to write detailed land-use plans for their areas can now use federal community development funds to pay for their own planners. The Spokane City Council on Monday unanimously approved an ordinance allowing neighborhood groups to make use of alternative funding sources to hire experts outside of the city's planning department.
News >  Spokane

City may buy, sell Rookery to save it

Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession on Monday unveiled a plan to save the Rookery and Mohawk buildings downtown by having the city purchase the properties for $4.75 million and resell them for private renovation. Hession's plan quickly gathered support from a crowd of nearly 100 preservation advocates who turned out at the City Council meeting to push for city intervention to stop demolition of the two historic structures at Riverside and Howard. The sales price was negotiated by Hession in a pair of private meetings with property owner Wendell Reugh.
News >  Spokane

Rookery demolition stops as city talks deal

Demolition of the Rookery and Mohawk buildings in downtown Spokane was stopped Thursday by owner Wendell Reugh to give city leaders time to consider ways to save the historic structures. City Council President Dennis Hession said Thursday evening that he met earlier in the day with Reugh to talk about the possibility of city intervention. Council members on Monday are expected to consider the city's next step.
News >  Spokane

Council faces familiar and fresh

Political newcomer Nancy McLaughlin trounced former City Councilman Steve Corker in Tuesday's election to take a seat on the Spokane City Council, replacing outgoing Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers. McLaughlin's lead appeared sufficient to hold through the final count of late-arriving ballots. The election will be certified as final Nov. 29.
News >  Spokane

Property tax increase passes, avoids cuts

Voters in Spokane agreed to raise their property taxes for the next two years to ease an ongoing financial crisis at City Hall and to avoid new cuts in police, fire and library services. Proposition 1 was leading in Tuesday night poll results with "yes" votes adding up to several percentage points more than the simple majority needed for passage.
News >  Spokane

City, union reach deal

Leaders of the city of Spokane's largest labor union have reached a tentative agreement with city officials to delay wage increases and to pay more for health coverage as a way to ease ongoing budget problems. Mayor Jim West described the tentative deal – pending approval by the City Council and membership of Local 270 – as a possible way out of the city's perennial budget crisis.
News >  Spokane

Rodgers criticizes West donation

Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers on Monday criticized a lobbyist, who is under contract to the city, for making a campaign contribution to Mayor Jim West in his effort to fight off voter recall. Thomas Parker of Parker Northwest Associations of Seattle last month contributed $500 to West's campaign to defeat a recall election set for Dec. 6.
News >  Voices

Cliff Aerie

A landmark mansion overlooking Spokane from the west end of Cliff Drive is one of three residential structures approved for the Spokane Register of Historic Places on Monday by the City Council. Built for former U.S. Sen. Clarence Cleveland Dill, the unusual home at 708 W. Cliff Drive hugs the rocky bluff of the lower South Hill to take advantage of a 250-degree view of Spokane. It incorporates six different levels and was named by Dill and his wife as Cliff Aerie.
News >  Spokane

City intervention gains support

Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession has thrown his support behind possible city intervention to save the threatened Rookery and Mohawk buildings on Riverside Avenue downtown. "If there is a way for the city to be involved, I am in favor of it," Hession said Tuesday.
News >  Spokane

Casino owner seeks cut in card room tax

While Spokane city voters are being asked to raise their property taxes to balance the city's 2006 budget, one taxpayer wants a big tax reduction. H.T. Higgins, owner of Big Daddy's Casino, Bar and Grill on the South Side, told council members during Monday's regular council meeting that he plans to move his casino out of the city of Spokane if the council doesn't lower its 20 percent tax on card rooms.
News >  Spokane

Pay raises driving city budget woes

Much of Spokane's current budget crisis can be traced to a series of employee salary increases approved after Mayor Jim West took office in 2004. Higher salary and benefit costs – increasing at a rate of 7 percent a year under West – are outstripping tax revenue, and forcing West to seek two separate tax increases to avoid fire station and library closures and reduced police patrols.
News >  Spokane

Sullivan asks West help in appointment

Spokane Mayor Jim West has battled for nearly six months against Shannon Sullivan, sponsor of a recall election against him. Now, Sullivan is asking West for an appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission, and the mayor is considering it.
News >  Spokane

Council says new budget lacking details

Spokane Mayor Jim West came under fire Monday night over a proposed 2006 budget that the City Council says is short on critical details. Council President Dennis Hession told West that taxpayers deserve more specifics on what would be cut from the budget next year if voters do not approve an increase in the regular property tax levy on Nov. 8.
News >  Spokane

Police guild backs tax increase proposals

The Spokane Police Guild threw its support this week behind two proposed tax increases, but did not commit to any reductions in health care benefits under Mayor Jim West's plan to forestall potential layoffs in the police and fire departments. On Monday, the City Council will get its first look at West's proposed 2006 budget, which is built on the premise that two tax increases and employee benefits concessions will win approval, erasing a projected $6.5 million cash shortfall.
News >  Spokane

Public utilities want rate hikes

Spokane's three publicly owned utilities are proposing a combined rate increase of 7 percent for 2006 even before the City Council decides whether to place an additional tax on city utility bills. Public works officials unveiled their proposed fee increases to council members at a briefing Thursday, and council members said they are concerned about the cumulative impact of higher rates and taxes on low-income residents.
News >  Voices

Council raises speed limit on 29th in Lincoln Heights

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved on a 5-2 vote an increase in the speed limit on 29th Avenue along the shopping strip at Lincoln Heights. The limit will go from 20 to 30 mph in the area. The change affects the section that runs from 280 feet east of Fiske Street to 340 feet east of Southeast Boulevard.
News >  Spokane

Council rebuffs mayor on District Court withdrawal

Spokane Mayor Jim West's move to withdraw the city from District Court has been dealt a setback by a City Council that's becoming increasingly independent of the mayor. Council members said they are concerned about the cost of creating a separate municipal court to handle misdemeanors, infractions and traffic violations at a time of budget crisis.
News >  Spokane

District 3 candidates distinctly different

Two City Council candidates running in District 3 of northwest Spokane are giving voters a distinct choice in the Nov. 8 election. The race features a practiced political veteran against an energetic neighborhood activist; the tall, silver-maned Steve Corker vs. the perky and engaging Nancy McLaughlin.
News >  Spokane

District 2 challenger facing an uphill fight

Appointed Spokane City Councilwoman Mary Verner wants to turn her sizeable lead on primary election night into a full four-year term on the South Side's District 2 council seat. She took 59 percent of the vote in the September balloting over two challengers – Dallas Hawkins, who got 26 percent, and Jeffrey D. Bierman, at 15 percent.
News >  Spokane

West’s Dec. 6 recall election shaping up as low-budget affair

Some three weeks after Mayor Jim West asked supporters for financial help to fight an upcoming recall, he has raised $4,000 for the campaign to save his job. That's significantly less than the $150,000 West estimated he would need in his Sept. 25 campaign letter. But it's $4,000 more than a group trying to organize a campaign to support the recall.
News >  Spokane

French, Howard vie for council

A pair of proposals to raise city taxes next year have caught the attention of voters in northeast Spokane, who are choosing this fall between a veteran council member and relative newcomer for the northeast area's District 1 seat on the City Council. Incumbent Councilman Al French, 54, is running for re-election to his second four-year term. He lost an election bid for council president two years ago, but remained on the council as one of two District 1 council members. The other is Bob Apple.
News >  Spokane

Protection from above

Here's the scoop: No more pigeon poop will fall on people's heads in the Pavilion at Spokane's Riverfront Park. A contractor was hired recently to install a mesh net to keep pigeons from roosting along the pavilion's internal roof trusses.