City Studies Proposal To Create Neighborhood Councils
More than a year after Mayor Jack Geraghty promised to give neighborhoods a place at City Hall, a plan is being put together that would allow it to happen.
A City Council committee studying neighborhood issues is set to look at a draft ordinance next week on neighborhood councils. The proposal calls for initial division of the city into 19 neighborhoods where residents could convene neighborhood councils to review land-use plans, city budgets and spending priorities.
Each council would select one person to the city’s Community Assembly, which would be the formal body to advise the Spokane City Council.
The assembly would have a City Hall staff person to act as a liaison. That person also would be primarily responsible for answering neighborhood inquiries and furthering City Hall’s communication and involvement with neighborhoods.
The assembly and the councils would not have direct authority over any issues, unless state laws can be changed to permit that. But Molly Myers, City Hall administrator who is working on the proposal, said that’s not really the intent.
“Their power would lie in the fact that they have a direct ear to the council,” said Myers. “That’s what we hear people want the most. This should open up some very clear channels of communication.”
Though initial boundaries for neighborhood councils follow arterials and community development designations, the ordinance as proposed would allow councils to ultimately define themselves. Several councils can even exist in one neighborhood.
Each council would have to establish its own bylaws and meeting schedules, then decide how it wants to tackle issues.
Myers has put weeks of work into the proposal and gone to meetings in several neighborhoods to get feedback.
Still, she said the plan is more general than specific and allows a lot of leeway for councils, the assembly, and those in neighborhoods to define themselves.
“This has to be a very customer-driven program,” Myers said. “The impetus has to be with the neighborhoods.”
xxxx MEETING TIME The City Council neighborhood committee will meet at 3:30 p.m. March 6 in the fifth-floor conference room at City Hall.